VI

PREFACE.

through which they pass more rich and fertile ; since every mea-dow or pasture which they flow through displays a verdure neverseen in the withered and adust spots that are at a distance fromthe banks of rivers and running waters. The merchants who re-side at the ports where they terminate must also derive very con-siderable advantages from them, as they are enabled by them toexport greater quantities of goods from places at a distance fromthe sea, and to supply with ease a greater extent of inland countrywith the commodities they import from foreign nations.

There are, perhaps, few objects of internal policy, that have somuch called forth the powers and resources of the country, ascanals. They have not only been the means of enlarging our' foreign commerce, but of giving birth to an internal trade, which,with all the advantages attendant on foreign commerce, has per-haps far exceeded it in extent, value, and importance. So greathas been the effect which these canals, and the trade to whichthey have given birth, have had on our industry, population, andresources, that in many instances they have entirely changed theappearance of the counties through which they pass.

The-reasons of this change are sufficiently obvious. As con-sumers, by means of canals we are enabled to import morecheaply ; as producers, we export with greater facility. Do thematerials of a manufacture lie dispersed ? Canals unite them, andat the fame time supply the persons employed in it with everynecessary at the cheapest rate ; and the land-owner, whether we

consider