108 
- government to throw open all close poli- 
tical corporations as useless to the state, 
generally disgraceful to those who belong 
to them, and pernicious to those whom 
they govern. Common SEnsE. © 
“January 1, 1811. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
HE utility of good roads and navi- 
gable canals has long been demon- 
strated by experience. Their encou- 
ragement will always appear the proper 
Object of legislative sanction and of 
public support. The advantages result- 
ing from an extended and connected 
System of inland navigation are incal- 
culable. By affording an easier and 
cheaper conveyance to produce of every 
kind, to merchandize of every descrip- 
tion, than can possibly be afforded by 
any other means, canals promote the in- 
terests of agriculture and Commerce with 
the greatest advantage: by facilitating 
the intercourse between the various and 
remote parts of a country, they advance 
the arts of civilization, they promote 
nativnal unanimity, multiply the means 
of human existence, and, whilst thus dis- 
pensing benefit on every hand to every 
class of the community in every. district 
with which they are connected, they 
contribute by these means, in the most 
essenual manner, to national security. 
The importance of inland navigation 
scems to have been understood by the 
most flourishing nations of antiquity ; 
and, in modern times, canals were formed 
-in various parts of the continent of Eu- 
rope before their appearance in this 
country. Though England has, during 
many centuries past, maintained an ele- 
vated rank in the scale of nations, and 
has long been celebrated as a great ma- 
Titime and commercial state, yet the 
practice of inland navigation im_ this 
country was not reduced to a system 
until about the middle of the last cen- 
tury; a circumstance which naturally 
excites some degree of reflection or sur- 
prise. 
Rude and uncultivated nations always 
fear innovation; and, in nations go- 
verned by despotism and oppression, or 
Jaws by which foreign intercourse is pro- 
hibited, and commercial enterprise dis- 
couraged, mercantile speculation will 
want its proper object. In such a state, 
the public mind, instead of being an ac~ 
tive productive principle, -fertile’ in ex- 
_pedients and resources, must, as far as 
yespects the amelioration of human life, 
Canal Navigation. 
[March 1, 
be without energy or motive; and, as a 
necessary consequence of such a state 
of things, will contract, in that respect, 
the inertness of indifference, obstructing 
every change which may happen to dis- 
turb existing habits or confirmed: pres 
judices, For, 
«¢ There Misery sits and eats her lazy root, 
There man is proud to dog his brother brute; 
In sloth the genius of the land decays, 
Lost in his own, reverts to former days.” 
The progress of civilization is slow even 
under the best governments; for, unfor- 
tunately for the interests of humanity, 
there have appeared ini all ages certain 
individuals who are ready to oppose 
with the most ridiculous and unjustifiable 
pretexts, every scheme for promoting the 
general good. These are persons whose 
narrow and illiberal views of selt-interest 
will allow them to encourage no project 
which does not hold out to them some 
obvious and exclusive advantaye. His- 
tory exhibitsa perpetual contest between 
arbitrary, ignorant, and ambitious, men, 
and the advocates of the public. To 
the preponderance of the one of these 
over the other may often be justly as. 
cribed the progress and decline of nas 
tions. 
Property being a relative term dee 
noting the quantum of individual “ine 
fluence or power, selfish and arbitrary 
men regard with inveterate jealousy 
every attempt to improve the property 
of others. Confounding possession with 
right, a man of this description who hap- 
pens to possess some advantage (no mate 
ter by what means he obtained possess 
sion), and who delights in domineering 
over others, will oppose with all his 
means every thing which tends to lessen 
his influence, by promoting the advan- 
tage or improving the circumstances of 
others. The trath of this remark is 
confirmed by daily observation and daily 
experience, even inthis country. In so- 
liciting the patronage of such an indi- 
vidual to some plan for benefiting the 
public, it would be quite useless to ape 
proach him witlf any arguments to prove 
its merit. or to demonstrate its, expe- 
diency, unless he were at the same time 
convinced that it would not benefit his 
neighbour more than himself. To ar- 
gue that such plan, if adopted, would 
be highly beneficial to his ‘neighbour, 
and that it could not fail of bemg ad+ 
vantageous to himself in a certain, but 
in a less, degree; to argue in this way to 
such aman, would be high treason tovhis 
( feelings: 
4 
