INLAND NAVIGATION.

34i

" I made some inquiries (fays the writer of that work), and travelledmany miles to view some of the navigations; and the only one whichappeared to me really completed, is the canal from the town of Newryto the sea, on which I saw a brig of eighty or a hundred tons burthen.The fame canal is extended farther than that town, but stops short of thegreat object for which it was begun and made, viz. the Drumglafs andDungannon collieries: this may therefore be classed as incomplete rela-tive to the object; but as Newry is a place of considerable trade, finish-ing it so far has a merit. The great design was to furnish Dublin withIriih coals, which was probably feasible; for the seams of coals in thosecollieries are asserted to be of such a thickness and goodness, as provethem more than equal to the consumption of half a dozen such cities asDublin. But two great difficulties were to be overcome: first, to makethe navigation such that all land-carriage might be saved, which wasproperly a public work; and secondly, to work the collieries, whichwas properly private business ; but, from the utter deficiency of capitalin the hands os the individuals concerned, could never have been donewithout public assistance. To get over these difficulties, parliamentwent very eagerly into the business. They granted so liberally to thecanal, that i think it has been finished to within two or three miles ofthe collieries. At the lame time a private company was formed forworking the mines, to whom considerable grants were made, to enablethem to proceed. The property in the works changed hands severaltimes: among others, the late archbishop of Tuam (Ryder), wasdeeply concerned in them, and entered with great spirit into the design j.but what with the impositions of the people employed, the loss of somethat were able and honest, the ignorance of others, and the jobbing spiritof some proprietors, parliament, after granting enormous sums both tothe canal and collieries, had the mortification, instead of seeing coals cometo Dublin, to fee nothing but gold sent from Dublin, to do that whichfate seemed determined should never be done, and so in despair aban-doned the design to the navigation-board, to see if their lesser exertionswould effect what the mightier ones had failed in. A Mr. Ducate, an

Italian

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