The Canal Era 185 



How the situation brought about by the creation of the 

 network of navigable waterways thus spread, or being spread, 

 throughout the country was regarded by an impartial ob- 

 server in the " Canal Mania " period is shown by the following 

 comments thereon by Dr Aikin : 



" The prodigious additions made within a few years to 

 the system of inland navigation, now extended to almost 

 every corner of the Kingdom, cannot but impress the mind 

 with magnificent ideas of the opulence, the spirit and the 

 enlarged views which characterise the commercial interest 

 of this country. Nothing seems too bold for it to undertake, 

 too difficult for it to achieve ; and should no external changes 

 produce a durable check to the national prosperity, its 

 future progress is beyond the reach of calculation. Yet ex- 

 perience may teach us, that the spirit of project and specula- 

 tion is not always the source of solid advantage, and possibly 

 the unbounded extension of canal navigation may in part 

 have its source in the passion for bold and precarious adven- 

 ture, which scorns to be limited by reasonable calculations 

 of profit. Nothing but highly flourishing manufactures can 

 repay the vast expense of these designs. The town of Man- 

 chester, when the plans now under execution are finished, 

 will probably enjoy more various water-communication than 

 the most commercial town of the Low Countries has ever 

 done. At the beginning of this century it was thought a 

 most arduous task to make a high road practicable for 

 carriages over the hills and moors which separate Yorkshire 

 from Lancashire ; and now they are pierced through by 

 three navigable canals ! Long may it remain the centre of a 

 trade capable of maintaining these mighty works ! " 



The day was to come, however, when it would be a question, 

 not of the additions made to inland navigation justifying the 

 expense incurred, but of the inherent defects of the said 

 " mighty works," the increasing manufactures, and the 

 introduction of still better methods of transport and com- 

 munication giving to canals a set-back akin to that which 

 they themselves had already given to navigable rivers. 



