INLAND NAVIGATION.
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discover that our enjoyments above ground serve only to multiply ourwants ; and we are convinced of the truth of that maxim, whichallures us, that happiness is every where, or no where.
NAVIGATION from LIVERPOOL to HULL.
WHILE the duke of Bridgewater’s curious inland navigation wascarrying on, there were several views and surveys taken, to discoverif possible a route for an inland navigation from Liverpool to Hull. Icannot set this undertaking in a clearer point of view, than by extractsfrom the resolutions passed at the several meetings held on the subject,and from the different acts of parliament obtained, as also from a cele-brated performance in which inland navigation is judiciously treatedof. I shall likewise add some remarks and observations of my own,made on the different spots, as I have been employed in some of theseworks, and have attended others from curiosity ; for it is certain thatthere is a rational as well as ridiculous curiosity, and that this principleis either useful or injurious according to the disposition of the person inwhom it prevails. In weak minds it is the source of levity, and itsconcomitant ill consequences ; but in noble and scientific minds it isthe parent of industry, and the guide to every useful species of know-ledge.
In beginning this subject it will be necessary to revert back asfar as the year 1755, when the corporation of Liverpool, ever attentiveto its trade and commerce, employed two gentlemen (Mr. Taylor ofManchester, and Mr. Eyes of Liverpool) to survey the country andtake levels, &c. with a view to join the river Trent to the Weaver orMersey, and to open a communication between those great sea-ports,Liverpool and Hull ; by which the traffic of the east and west seasmight be carried on by an inland navigation, not exceeding one hun-dred and fifty miles, which now makes a circuit of above eight hundredmiles, and is exposed to adverse and stormy winds. This inland navi-gation, it was proposed, should pass through Nottinghamshire, Derby-
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