462 BRINDLEY'S LAST CANALS. PART V. 



for horses to carry coals, lime, manure, and goods to 

 and from the canal depots, rapidly increased. The canals 

 meandering through their green fields were no such un- 

 sightly objects after all, and they very soon found that 

 inasmuch as the new water-ways readily enabled agricul- 

 tural produce to reach good markets in the large towns, 

 they were likely even to derive considerable pecuniary 

 advantages from their formation. 



Another objection alleged against canals, on public 

 grounds, was alike speedily disproved. It was said that 

 inland navigation, by reason of its greater cheapness, 

 ease, and certainty, must necessarily diminish the coasting 

 trade, and consequently discourage the training of sea- 

 men, the constitutional bulwark of the kingdom. But 

 the extraordinarily rapid growth of the shipping-trade of 

 Liverpool, and the vastly increased number of seagoing 

 vessels required to accommodate the traffic now con- 

 verging on that seaport, very soon showed that canals, 

 instead of diminishing, were calculated immensely to 

 promote the naval power and resources of England. 

 Thus it was found that in the thirty years which elapsed 

 subsequent to the opening of the Duke's Canal between 

 Worsley and Manchester, during which time the navi- 

 gation had also been opened to the Mersey, and the 

 Grand Trunk and other main canals had been con- 

 structed, connecting the principal inland towns with the 

 sea-ports, the tonnage of English ships had increased 

 threefold, and the number of sailors been more than 

 doubled. 



So great an impulse had thus been given to the 

 industry of the country, and it had become so clear that 

 facility of communication must be an almost unmixed 

 good, that a desire for the extension of canals sprang up 

 in all districts ; and instead of being resisted and de- 

 nounced, they everywhere became the rage. They were 

 advocated in pamphlets, in newspapers, and at public 

 meetings. One enthusiastic pamphleteer, advocating 



