IAP. IX. milXDLKVS I, AST CANALS. 



CHAPTER IX. 



BRINDLEY'S LAST CANALS. 



IT is related of Brindley that, on one occasion, when 

 giving evidence before a committee of the House of 

 Commons, in which he urged the superiority of canals 

 to rivers for purposes of inland navigation, the question 

 was asked by a member, " Pray, Mr. Brindley, what 

 then do you think is the use of navigable rivers?" 

 " To make canal navigations, to be sure," was his instant 

 reply. It is easy to understand the gist of the engineer's 

 meaning. For purposes of trade he regarded regularity 

 and certainty of communication as essential conditions 

 of any inland navigation ; and he held that neither of 

 these could be relied upon in the case of rivers, which are 

 i 1 1 winter liable to interruption by floods, and in summer 

 by droughts. In his opinion, a canal, with enough of 

 water always kept banked up, or locked up where the 

 country would not admit of the level being maintained 

 throughout, was absolutely necessary to satisfy the 

 requirements of commerce. Hence he held that one of 

 tlir great uses of rivers was to furnish a supply of water 

 for canals. It was only another illustration of the 

 " nothing like leather " principle ; Brindley 's head being 

 so full of canals, and his labours so much confined to the 

 making of canals, that he could think of little else. 



In connection with the Grand Trunk which proved, 

 as Brindley had anticipated, to be the great aorta of the 

 canal system of the midland districts of England- 

 numerous lines were projected and afterwards carried 

 out under our engineer's superintendence. One of the 

 most important of these was the Wolverhampton Canal, 



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