CHAP. X. 



ITS COMMERCIAL FAILURE. 



417 



the consequences of what in this commercial country is 

 regarded as so much worse than a crime, namely, a 

 financial mistake." l 



Mr. Telford's great sensitiveness made him feel the 

 ill success of this enterprise far more than most other 

 men would have done. He was accustomed to throw 

 himself into the projects on which he was employed with 

 an enthusiasm almost poetic. He regarded them not 

 merely as so much engineering, but as works which were 

 to be instrumental in opening up the communications of 

 the country and extending its civilization. Viewed in 

 this light, his canals, roads, bridges, and harbours were 

 unquestionably of great national importance, though 

 their commercial results might not in all cases justify 

 the estimates of their projectors. To refer- to like in- 

 stances no one can doubt the immense value and 

 public uses of Mr. Rennie's Waterloo Bridge or Mr. 

 Robert Stephenson's Britannia 'and Victoria Bridges, 

 though every one knows that, commercially, they have 

 been failures. But it is probable that neither of these 

 eminent^ engineers gave himself anything like the 

 anxious concern that Telford did about the financial 

 issue of his undertaking. Were railway engineers to 

 fret and vex themselves about the commercial value 

 of the schemes in which they have been engaged, there 



1 The misfortunes of the Caledonian 

 Canal did not end with the life of 

 Telford. The first vessel passed 

 through it from sea to sea in October, 

 1822, by which time it had cost about 

 a million sterling, or double the ori- 

 ginal estimate. Notwithstanding this 

 large outlay, it appears that the 

 canal was opened before the works 

 had been properly completed ; and 

 the consequence was that they very 

 shortly fell into decay. It even 

 began to be considered whether the 

 canal ought not to be abandoned. In 

 1838, Mr. James Walker, C.E., an 

 engineer of the highest eminence, 

 examined it, and reported fully on 



VOL. II. 



its then state, strongly recommend- 

 ing its completion as well as its im- 

 provement. His advice was eventually 

 adopted, and the canal was finished 

 accordingly, at an additional cost of 

 about 200,000?., and the whole line 

 was re-opened in 1847, since which 

 time it has continued in useful opera- 

 tion. The passage from sea to sea at 

 all times can now be depended on, 

 and it can usually be made in forty- 

 eight hours. As the trade of the 

 North increases, the uses of the canal 

 will probably become much more de- 

 cided than they have heretofore 

 proved. 



2 E 



