INLAND NAVIGATION. 121

of profit to each trade should be the biaffing and leading policy of thisnation.

“ It has been often objected, that an inland navigation destroys thatnoble breed of draught horses, since there will be little or no occasionfor them ; and, upon that account, that the farmers would not be able tofell their oats: and it has as often been pleaded in excuse, that the farmermight then turn his oat ground into wheat ground, and instead of somuch land being employed to furnish food for a thousand horses, thefame land, when turned into tillage fit to sow wheat upon, might pro-duce sufficient bread corn to feed two thousand poor families. Ihave not leisure here to discuss each point so fully as I could wish ;therefore, as I have before explained the commercial and landed interestin a medium way, I will rest this debate upon the merits of the formerclause.

" There certainly is nothing which requires the attention of thepeople of this nation more than the progress of husbandry; and in at-tending to that we cannot have too great a regard to the interest of thefarmer, and to ease him as much as we can in the burthens and hard-ships he undergoes, which are such as even to reduce him to supporthimself and family upon skimmed milk, whilst he saves the cream forthe rest of his fellow creatures, and disperses it abroad in the nation tothe nourishment of thousands. What great advantages will he notreceive from these canals, by being able to fell his corn, and carry it toany market, at any time of the year ; and as the plenty of corn in thiskingdom, and the easy conveyance of it from one place to another, iswhat will make a greater equality through the whole kingdom ? andwhen it is cheap at home, he will be able to get a better price by con-veying it to another market; and if it should happen to be dear, anyquantity might soon be brought from another country to supply theirwants, by which means it would always keep at a medium price, the

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