INLAND NAVIGATION.

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of capital in Ireland was such that she could never rival the manufacturesof Great Britain, it was replied, that English capitals would go over todo it for them; but what I have just recited proves that this remark isperfectly unfounded. If capitals were lo readily moved from one coun-try to another, the Drumglass collieries would have attracted them, espe-cially as an interest for ever is to be purchased in them ; but the fact is,that removable capitals are in the hands of men who have been educated,and perhaps have made them locally, in some trade or undertaking whichthey will not venture to move. Prejudice and habit govern mankind asmuch even as their interest; so that no apprehension can be so littlefounded as that of a country losing the capital she has made, by transfer-ring it to another for greater seeming advantages in trade.

The grand canal, as it is ridiculously termed, was another inland na-vigation which has cost the public still greater sums. The design, asthe maps of Ireland shew, was to form a communication, by water, be-tween Dublin and the river Shannon, by this cut, most of the waythrough the immense bog of Allen. The former plan, of bringingcoals to Dublin, was a very wife one; but this of the grand canal hadscarcely any object that seemed to call for such an exertion. If thecountry is examined through which the intended canal was to pass, andalso that through which the Shannon runs, it will be found, consideringits extent, to be the least productive for the Dublin market of the wholekingdom. Examine Leitrim, Roscommon, Longford, Gal way, Clare,Limerick, and those parts of West Meath and King’s County which theline of the canal and the Shannon lead through: there are scarcely anycommodities in them for Dublin: nay the present bounty on the inlandcarriage of com proves to a demonstration that the quantity raised in allthese counties for that market is contemptible. What other productsare there ? Raw wool takes another direction; it goes at present fromRoscommon to Cork. Manufactures in that line are very insignificant:there are some at Galway, but the ports of Limerick and Galway areperfectly sufficient for the small exportation of them. There remains

8 nothing