416 CALEDONIAN CANAL. TART VIII. 



in the prices of labour and materials also tended greatly 

 to increase the expenses, and, after all, the canal, when 

 completed and opened, was comparatively little used. 

 This was doubtless owing, in a great measure, to the 

 rapid changes which occurred in the system of naviga- 

 tion shortly after the projection of the undertaking. 

 For these Telford was not responsible. He was called 

 upon to make the canal, and he did so in the best 

 manner. Engineers are not required to speculate as 

 to the commercial value of the works they are required 

 to construct ; and there were circumstances connected 

 with the scheme of the Caledonian Canal which removed 

 it from the category of mere commercial adventures. 

 It was a Government project, and it proved a failure. 

 Hence it formed a prominent topic for discussion in 

 the journals of the day ; but the attacks made upon the 

 Government because of their expenditure on the hapless 

 undertaking were perhaps more felt by Telford, who 

 was its engineer, than by all the ministers of state con- 

 joined. 



" The unfortunate issue of this great work," writes 

 the present engineer of the canal, to whom we are in- 

 debted for many of the preceding facts, " was a grievous 

 disappointment to Mr. Telford, and was in fact the one 

 great bitter in his otherwise unalloyed cup of happiness 

 and prosperity. The undertaking was maligned by 

 thousands who knew nothing of its character. It be- 

 came ' a dog with a bad name,' and all the proverbial 

 consequences followed. The most absurd errors and 

 misconceptions were propagated respecting it from year 

 to year, and it was impossible during Telford' s lifetime 

 to stem the torrent of popular prejudice and objurga- 

 tion. It must, however, be admitted, after a long 

 experience, that Telford was greatly over-sanguine in 

 his expectations as to the national uses of the canal, and 

 he was doomed to suffer acutely in his personal feelings, 

 little though he may have been personally to blame, 



