PREFACE.

xi

encourage the cultivation of the remote parts, which must always

9

be the most extensive circle of the country; and thereby rents aremuch improved. They are advantageous to towns, by breakingup the monopoly of the country'in their neighbourhood: andthey are advantageous to all parts of the country; for, thoughthey introduce some rival commodities, they open many newmarkets for their produce.

It is not more than sixty years ago that some of the counties inthe neighbourhood of London petitioned parliament against theextension of the turnpike roads into the remoter counties; be-cause those remoter counties, it was pretended, from the cheap-ness of labour, would be able to fell their hay and corn cheaperin the London markets than themselves, and would thereby re-duce their rents, or ruin their cultivation. Their rents, however,have risen, and their cultivation has been improved since thattime.

All canals may be considered as so many roads of a certainkind, on which one horse will draw as much as thirty horses doon the ordinary turnpike roads, or on which one man alone willtransport as many goods as three men and eighteen horses usuallydo on common roads. The public would be great gainers, werethey to lay out upon the making of every mile of a canal twentytimes as much as they expend upon making a mile of turnpikeroad; but a mile of canal may often be made at a less expencethan the mile of turnpike, consequently there is a great induce-ment to multiply the number of canals*

Bad!