Decline of Canals 311 



of route of the canals proposed to be taken in hand. They 

 are hardly likely, however, to commend themselves to the 

 traders and taxpayers of the country in general. 



My own view is that if the State is prepared to find money 

 for the purpose of cheapening the cost of transport, it could 

 do so to better advantage if, instead of spending millions on 

 an impracticable and partial scheme of canal resuscitation, 

 it lightened the burden of taxation now falling on the railway 

 companies, and thus improved their position in regard, not 

 merely to traders in particular districts, but to the trade and 

 industries of the United Kingdom as a whole. 



