PREFACE.

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charge on the conveyance ; and a nation in a fertile soil, and withnumerous inhabitants, is far from being that happy and accommo-dated people which might be expected.

Were we to make the supposition of two states, the one havingall its cities, towns, and villages upon navigable rivers and canalsthat have an easy communication with each other, the other pos-sessing only the common conveyance of land-carriage ; supposing,at the same time, both states to be equal as to foil, climate, andindustry; commodities and manufactures in the former state mightbe expected thirty per cent. cheaper than in the latter, or, inother words, the first state would be a third richer and more afflu-ent than the second. This, perhaps, is one of the chief causes ofthe great wealth of China, which, historians tell us, is wholly in-tersected with navigable rivers and canals: but Great Britain andIreland might soon rival China in this last particular, and conse-quently their people in general might be more rich and affluent.

There is yet one objection to navigable canals (a poor one in-deed), viz. that they waste or take up too great a portion of landin the counties through which they pass : but I hope it will be afull and cogent answer to this objection, that One Mile of acanal fourteen yards broad, takes up little more than five acresof land.

To conclude: the object of the following sheets is to presentthe reader with a complete, yet concise, History of Canals, bothancient and modern ; but more especially of those completed orprojected in England. Of the latter, a large and correct map is

b 2 given;