772 KEPOET— 1886. 



lessen tlie carriaa'e of goods. The evidence brought before the Select Committee 

 on Canals ia 1883 proved conc-lusively that goods might be conveyed as cheaply in 

 Eno^land by water as on the Continent ; for instance, on the Weaver, in Cheshire,, 

 salt was conveyed a distance of thirty miles for Gd. a ton, equivalent to a rate of one- 

 fifth of a penny per mile, which was even lower than that between Liege and 

 Antwerp. This was not a solitary instance. It was also known that goods 

 could be transported from Birmingham to London by an improved canal system at 

 a wharf-to-wharf rate of 4s. 6d. a ton. The improved canal would deprive the 

 railways of some heavy traffic, but their general traffic would increase with the 

 prosperity of the district. "When canal routes were handed over to railways, in 

 1846, much of the foreign trade of the country did not exist. In 1840 the export 

 of British produce only amounted to 1^. 18s. 9d. per head, while in 188.3, after 

 making due allowance for population, it was 61. 14s. Sd. per head, an increase of 

 370 per cent. If Mid-England was to enjoy the advantages of cheap water com- 

 munication to the ports, and thus be enabled to send its manufactures abroad at a 

 cost that would leave a margin of profit beyond the cost of production and delivery, 

 it was essential that a trust under Parliamentary powers should be obtained for 

 the purpose. A joint-stock company would not avail, as its aim would be to exact 

 the highest tolls possible, and it would soon act in compact with existing railways. 

 The estimated cost of improving the Severn route was 600,000^., and merited 

 attention, especially on account of the rising importance of Cardiff and Newport 

 as great shipping centres. The improvement of the route to London should be first 

 carried out : there were no engineering difficulties that could not easily be over- 

 come. A trust should be formed by the towns of the district, and the State 

 should be asked to advance the money at a moderate rate of interest to the local 

 authorities ; if at 3 per cent, this would leave the Government a margin of i per 

 cent, beyond the interest paid to savings-bank depositors. The canal rates should 

 be fixed so as to yield a clear i per cent, after payment of the interest on the 

 Government loan and the expenses of working and maintenance ; this ^ per cent., 

 if invested by the trust at 3 per cent, per annum compound interest, would in a 

 period of sixty-six years extingaish the loan, and the whole undertaking belong to 

 the towns and district represented by the trust. Interest was felt at the present 

 time in the creation of village industries. The improved canal, with dwarf walls 

 on both sides, would form along its entire distance an almost continuous wharf, and 

 thus provide numerous favourable sites. It was strange that England, so far 

 surpassing every other nation on the seas, should have so totally disregarded the 

 national importance of inland navigation. Surely it was time to give the subject 

 the attention it deserved. 



6. The Birminghavi Canal. Bij E. B. Marten. 



The district around Birmingham abounds in canals ; and as some of the engi- 

 neering works are important and interesting, mention of them may be useful to 

 \'isitors. 



The Act was obtained in 1766 and the canal was made by Brindley, the 

 celebrated engineer, and completed from Birmingham to Autherley in 1772, and 

 connected with canals to London in 1783. In 1824 the canals had become so out of 

 order as to be little better than ' crooked ditches,' when Thomas Telford, also a 

 well-known canal engineer, made a vast improvement by straightening and deepen- 

 ing, so as to reduce the length from twenty-two to fourteen miles, and, after expend- 

 ing much capital, produced what was considered a perfect specimen of a canal. 

 The supply of water to the canal was also much improved by the large reservoir at 

 Edgbaston, with a good system of feeders for economising water. In 1835 the 

 Acts were consolidated, and subsequently arrangements completed with the London 

 and North Western Railway. The group of large works at Smethwick still forms 

 a striking feature, with canals on two levels, railways also one over the other, and 

 railway and road bridges over both canals and railways. In 1850 the splendid 

 Netherton Tunnel was made under the Rowley Hills by James Walker, another 



