viii

PREFACE.

the whole interior part of the kingdom ; and by which merchan-dise may be imported and exported with perfect safety from bois-terous weather or obtruding enemies. The greatest advantagesalso may be expected to result from fase and speedy communica-tions between the east and west parts of this island, by means ofthat grand undertaking the Forth and Clyde navigation. And ifthe proposed canals through the county of Hampshire should takeplace (which I hope I shall live to see), goods and stores of allkinds, from the magazines of London, Woolwich, &c. may thenwith certainty be conveyed to Portsmouth ; thereby avoiding along, circuitous, and hazardous navigation. Similar advantageswill attach to many other places, which I stall not now enume-rate, as they must strike the eye, and convince the judgment ofevery one who inspects the map.

The bargemen and boatmen, though they have little expe-rience in boisterous seas, are by no means unacquainted withthe art of managing and loading vessels, and frequently sindtheir way into our fea-ports, and thence on board our ships.But however little inland navigation may be supposed to formnavigators for the sea, no lives are lost in the calm elementon which they are employed ; the diseases of hot countries,so destructive to our seamen, are also unknown to them ; andthere is no danger of their desertion, either in peace or war, to theservice of foreign states, our rivals and enemies. In short, if theabundance of frefh-water rivers and lakes in a country has neverbeen thought a detriment to its navigation, but the contrary,

there