278 HIGHWAYS 



new channel, fed with a continuous supply of water, and provided 

 with a system of locks which overcame the difficulties of the descent 

 into the valley of the Mersey. This channel was the first true 

 canal, as distinguished from straightening the courses of rivers. 

 Before the work was completed, the Duke of Bridgwater obtained 

 the sanction of the legislature (1759) for the famous canal which 

 bears his name. Brindley's triumph was the real starting-point of 

 the movement. He was the engineer of numerous similar works. 

 The Mersey and Trent Canal, for example, joined Liverpool and 

 Hull, and thus united the ports of the East and the West. Branches 

 were thrown out, which gradually linked together Liverpool, 

 London, Bristol, Birmingham, and Hull by water. The develop- 

 ment of inland navigation which Brindley had begun was continued 

 by Telford and others. The new means of transport powerfully 

 influenced the progress of the industrial revolution. Between 1790 

 and 1794 alone, 81 Canal Acts were obtained, and a canal mania 

 was started, which was only paralleled by the railway mania of 

 the last century. By 1834 England had been covered with a net- 

 work of more than 4000 miles of canals and navigable rivers. 



To some extent the surface of the roads was saved by the sub- 

 stitution of water-carriage for the conveyance of heavy goods. 

 But the development of canal traffic did not always improve 

 internal communications. The increased carriage of heavy goods, 

 such as coal, iron, timber, lime, stone, salt, and corn, to and from 

 the wharves, destroyed the roads in the neighbourhood. To some 

 extent this extraordinary traffic was carried on railways, laid down 

 by the canal companies, as feeders to their trade. 1 But the range 

 was limited. It was plain that, if full advantage was to be taken 

 of the new means of inland navigation, roads must be scientifically 

 constructed to bear the increased traffic. In Me Adam and Telford 

 were found the exponents of this necessary science. The progress 

 of enclosures also favoured road-improvement. So long as land 

 lay unenclosed, travellers were allowed to deviate from the track 

 to avoid the ruts worn by their predecessors. Thomas Mace 

 (1675) 2 describes how land was " spoiled and trampled down in 

 all wide roads where coaches and carts take liberty to pick and 



1 See chapter xvii. pp. 350-3. 



8 Profit, Conveniency, and Pleasure, to the Whole Nation, Being a Short 

 Rational Discourse . . . concerning the Highways of England, by Thomas 

 Mace (1676). 



