1811.] 
too! It is not enough to tell the public 
that these schemes are “ visionary,” and 
to describe the adventurers as “ men 
with their hands full of money, and 
ready to embark in any scheme that 
offers, however visionary ;” that, in this 
instance, the existing line is shorter to 
London than the proposed one will be; 
that there will be four miles and a half 
of tunneling throngh “ limestone rocks,” 
{although they brow well, that not an 
inch of the tunneling will have to pass 
through limestone.) This is not sufh- 
cient; after having done all they could 
in the way of misrepresentation, they 
find it necessary to resort to the last act 
of despair! They must threaten too! 
They must hold out the threat that ex- 
isting canals will lower their tonnage! 
What? Have they really begun to con- 
template the possibility of being reduced 
tosuch an alternative? This, no doubt, 
will make some impression upon the 
public. After this, these insidious warners 
_ of the public cannot fail of being per- 
_ fectly understood. 
To those who are able to appreciate 
its resources, and the advantages of its 
situation, few counties in the kingdom 
will appear so promising for the supply- 
ing of a thoroughfare line of canal with 
ample trade as the county of Derby. A 
eee, and even favourable, line has 
een discovered; and, by inspection of 
the map, and the various navigable and 
other communications which it may ulti- 
mately lead to, the advantages likely to 
result from it, will be evident to every 
one, -It would benefit this part of the 
country infinitely, but its benefits would 
also be felt in remote parts. Intersect. 
ing an extensive mining district, and 
Opening a direct and immediate commu- 
nication forty miles nearer than by the 
existing line between the maritime, the 
extensive agricultural and commercial 
eounties on the east and west, few canals 
have held out equal prospects of ultimate 
remuneration. 
Are they the friends of their country 
who oppose these plans for improving its 
¥esources? They seem not to have con- 
sidered that mercantile capital is, in fact, 
‘TNO national wealth, until it bas been 
tealised in improving the resources of the 
country; nor da they seem to have con- 
sidered the irreparable mischief which- 
may follow, if their endeavours to thréw 
impediments in the way of these schemes 
succeed. If capitalists be prevented 
from laying out their money in this coun. 
Canal Navigation. 
Til 
try in such speculations ‘as promise the 
fairest advantages, can it be expected 
that any surplus capital will remain in it. 
A celebrated writer on this subject pro= 
ceeds thus: ‘¢ The capital that is acquired 
to any country by commerce, or manus 
factures, is all a very precarious and un- 
certain possession, till it has been see 
cured and realised in the cultivation and 
improvement of its lands. A merchant 
is not necessarily the citizen of any par- 
ticular country. It isin a great measure 
indifferent to him in what place he cars 
ries on his trade, and a very trifling dis- 
gust will make him remove his capital; 
and, together with it, all the industry 
which it supports, from one country to 
another, No vestige now remains of the 
grat wealth said to have been possessed 
by the greater part of the Hanse Towns, 
except in the obscure histories of the 
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.” * 
Surely no intelligence could be more 
gratifying to the well-wisher of his coun- 
try than to hear that capitalists are now 
embarking in schemes for improving its 
resources. We see annual grants of the 
public money, (the produce of the taxes) 
to make canals, roads, &c. in the High- 
lands of Scotland, for the avowed purpose 
of creating labour there, as a means of 
keeping the people from emigrating, 
The present is the prover time and sea- 
son for opening works of this kind, in 
every part of the kingdom. At the pre- 
sent extraordinary crisis, while commerce 
“is interrupted, and trade is reduced and 
embarrassed, thousands of labouring and 
industrious people thrown out of employ, 
and thus bereft of the means of support- 
ing themselves, are sinking in almost 
every part of the kingdom under the 
heart-rending necessity of parochial re- 
lief. It will cheer, it will gladden, the 
heart of every good man to hear, that, to 
save the labouring class from the evils 
which are collecting. over them, indivie 
duals, with ample means, actuated by the. 
most honourable sentiments, the love of 
their country, are now engaging in plans 
for affording .the industrious poor the 
means of honourable subsistence, . by 
opening canals, &c. in various parts of 
thekingdom: thus, realising to the coun- 
try, in the only possible way, and to the 
labouring class in a peculiar manner, the 
reward of their former industry. 
Slockport, Amicus PaTRI&. 
Jan. 28, 1811. 
* Wealth of Nations. 
Te 
