556 Mr. hank’s 'treatife 
an alien to my, native foil, and put me in a fituation 
which apparently nraft make me ever remain fo; yet, 
neither time nor diftance could ever weaken, much lefs 
obliterate, my tender attachment to it, or my ardent 
wifhes for its welfare. 
Thefe confiderations will, I hope, merit a favourable 
acceptance from the Royal Society of the following piece, 
which I have the honour of addreffing to you; and an 
indulgent condefcenfion for its im perfection in every re- 
fpedt, and particularly in point of ftyle. Five and twenty 
years abfence from my native country, and the necellity 
of converling during that time in different foreign lan- 
guages, rauft unavoidably have filled mine, without my 
being fenfible of it, with idioms and expreffions in no 
wife Englifh. 
As to the fubjedt I have undertaken to treat on this 
occafion, I was guided in the choice thereof by the mo- 
tive of faying fomething that might be ufeful to my na- 
tive country. The great number of extenfive and mag- 
nificent canals, which have been cut through almoft 
every part of England of late years, for the ufe of inter- 
nal navigation, and which do honour to the public fpirit 
of the nation, merit to be confidered in a fcientifical as 
well as in a commercial light. Their waters have their 
laws of motion different in many cafes from thofe of 
7 rivers : 
