INLAND NAVIGATION.

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" The coasting trade seems to claim mention of the great advantagesthat will accrue to it by these navigable canals, as all or most of thegoods that have usually gone by land carriage from London to thesecountries, will now be sent by shipping to the ports, and from thencebe dispersed far and wide by means of these navigable canals: for themore you open a channel, the more water is drawn from the head, andconsequently works its way farther on.

“ They will certainly cause more stripping to be employed on thecoasts, and more sailors to navigate them. I must here make one ob-servation, that old men and worn-out sailors may be employed on thesenavigable canals; and those whose constitution will not suffer them toundergo the hardships and severities of a sea voyage, yet m ry dr verywell to navigate these vessels on the canal: Every boy in each villagethrough which the canals pass will have a desire to become a sailor,and will be trained up in his early youth to hand a rope, and soon befit to be of service on board a ship ; by which means these canals willbecome one of the most natural nurseries for seamen for his majesty'sfleets, and the protection of this island ; as also of shipwrights uponany emergency; both which are certainly great advantages to anystate.

" These canals will be of great advantage to the landed estates, asmore persons will now come and settle themselves on many commonsadjacent to the navigation, for the benefit and conveniency of trade, andthereby impreve and enclose those barren lands; and the present enclosedlands will reap great benefit, either by draining some that want it, orflooding others, which is reckoned a great improvement to meadowlands.

" I think the result of every plan and scheme for the public serviceshould ultimately terminate in giving assistance to the distresses of the

poor,.