AN" ADDKESS. &C. XIX 



the importance of (hose sources of national wealth, and ten 

 years before the war of the American revolution, a practi- 

 cable rout for the canal last named, was traced by a com- 

 mittee of the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia; and 

 immediately after the country began to revive from tfee de- 

 struction and poverty occasioned by our successful struggle 

 for freedom, a grand scheme for connecting the Susquehan- 

 nah with the Delaware by means of canals was formed; and 

 but for mismanagement, and too great haste in beginning, 

 we might now enjoy the benefits arising from that impor- 

 tant scheme. The public mind, however, is now reviving 

 from the state of depression or indifference info which it 

 was thrown by the failure of former attempts; and hav- 

 ing the opportunity of acquiring the most ample knowledge 

 of the causes of that failure, the errors of our predecessors 

 may in future be avoided. Omitting a more particular enu- , 

 meration of the canals alluded to, I beg leave particularly 

 to call the attention of (he Society to the noble project of 

 rendering the river Schuylkill navigable by means of locks, 

 which I have no hesitation in pronouncing one of the gran- 

 dest and most original ideas for the improvement of a river 

 ever offered to the world: for hitherto the views of engi- 

 neers have been confined either to the clearing obstructions 

 in the beds of rivers, or to the taking advantage of rocks or 

 falls in their channels to make a single dam, for the purpose 

 of obtaining command of the water at certain spots; where- 

 as, when the plan of improvement in the Schuylkill shall have 

 been completed, an entire still-water navigation for boats 

 at all seasons, when not obstructed by ice, will be effected, 

 from the falls to the mouth of Mill-creek in the vicinify of 

 of the fine and inexhaustible coal beds, one hundred miles 

 from Philadelphia. One lock is already finished at the falls, 



