The next part of my subject is the “water-carriage,” carried on by
means of canals and rivers. The means of inland navigation in England
and Wales are computed to comprise more than 4000 miles, of which
2200 miles are in navigable canals and 1800 in navigable rivers.
In Ireland, such modes of communication extend about 500 miles,
and in Scotland about 350. As railways have been the growth of the
present half-century, so did canals owe their increase, if not their
establishment, in England, to the half-century preceding--from 1750 to
1800; three-fourths of those now in existence having been established
during that period. Previously to the works perfected by the Duke of
Bridgewater and his famous and self-taught engineer, James Brindley,
the efforts made to improve our means of water-transit were mainly
confined to attempts to improve the navigation of rivers. These
attempts were not attended with any great success. The current of
the river was often too impetuous to be restrained in the artificial
channels prepared for the desired improvements, and the forms and
depths of the channels were gradually changed by the current, so
that labour and expense were very heavily and continuously entailed.
“Difficulties in the way of river navigation,” says Mr. M‘Culloch,
“seem to have suggested the expediency of abandoning the channels of
most rivers, and of digging parallel to them artificial channels, in
which the water may be kept at the proper level by means of locks. The
Act passed by the legislature in 1755 for improving the navigation
of Sankey Brook on the Mersey, gave rise to a lateral canal of this
description about 11-1/4 miles in length, which deserves to be
mentioned as the earliest effort of the sort in England. But before
this canal had been completed, the Duke of Bridgewater and James
Brindley had conceived a plan of canalisation independent altogether
of natural channels, and intended to afford the greatest facilities
to commerce by carrying canals across rivers and through mountains,
wherever it was practicable to construct them.”
The difficulties which Brindley overcame were considered insurmountable
until he did overcome them. In the construction of a canal from Worsley
to Manchester it was necessary to cross the river Irwell, where it
is navigable at Barton. Brindley proposed to accomplish this by
carrying an aqueduct 39 feet above the surface of the Irwell. This was
considered so extravagant a proposition that there was a pause, and a
gentleman eminent for engineering knowledge was consulted. He treated
Brindley’s scheme as the scheme of a visionary, declaring that he had
often heard of castles in the air, but never before heard where one
was to be erected. The duke, however, had confidence in his engineer;
and a successful, serviceable, and profitable aqueduct, instead
of a castle in the air, was the speedy and successful result. The
success of Brindley’s plans and the spirited munificence of the Duke
of Bridgewater, who, that he might have ample means to complete his
projects, at one time confined his mere personal expenses to 400_l._
a-year--laid the foundations of the large fortunes enjoyed by the Duke
of Sutherland and his brother the late Earl of Ellesmere.
The canals which have been commenced and completed in the United
Kingdom since the year 1800 are 30 in number, and extend 582-3/4 miles
in length.
Mr. M‘Culloch gives a list of British canals, with the number of
shareholders in the proprietary of each, the amount and cost of shares,
and the price on the 27th June, 1843. The Erewash, with 231 shares,
each 100_l._ returned a dividend of 40_l._, each share being then worth
675_l._ The Loughborough, with only 70 100_l._ shares, the average cost
of each share having been 142_l._ 17_s._, had a dividend of 80_l._ and
a selling price per share of 1400_l._ The Stroudwater, with 200 shares
of 150_l._, returned a dividend of 24_l._, with a price in the market
of 490_l._ On the other hand, the 50_l._ shares of the Crinau were then
selling at 2_l._ The 50_l._ shares of the North Walsham and Dillon were
of the same almost nominal value in the market; and the shares of the
Thames and Medway, with an average cost of 30_l._ 4_s._ 3_d._, were
worth but 1_l._ Of the cost expended in construction of the canals of
England, I have no means of giving a precise account; but the following
calculation seems sufficiently accurate for my present purpose. I
find that, if in round numbers the 250,000 shares of the 40 principal
canals averaged an expenditure of 100_l._ per share--the result would
be 25,000,000_l._, and perhaps we may estimate the canals of the United
Kingdom to have cost 35,000,000_l._, or one-tenth as much as the
railways.
The foregoing inquiries present the following gigantic results:--There
are employed in the yearly transit of Great Britain, abroad and
along her own shores, 33,672 sailing-vessels and 1110 steam-vessels,
employing 236,000 seamen. Calculating the value of each ship and cargo
as the value has been estimated before Parliament, at 5000_l._, we
have an aggregate value--sailing-vessels, steamers, and their cargoes
included--of 173,910,000_l._ Further, supposing the yearly wages of the
seamen, including officers, to be 20_l._ per head, the amount paid in
wages would be 4,720,000_l._
The railways now in operation in the United Kingdom extend 6000 miles,
the cost of their construction (paid and to be paid) having been
estimated at upwards of 350,000,000_l._ Last year they supplied the
means of rapid travel to above 63,000,000 of passengers, who traversed
above a billion of miles. Their receipts for the year approached
11,250,000_l._ of money, and nearly three-quarters of a million of
persons are dependent upon them for subsistence.
The turnpike and other roads of Great Britain alone (independently of
Ireland) present a surface 120,000 miles in length, for the various
purposes of interchange, commerce, and recreation. They are maintained
by the yearly expenditure of a million and a half.
For similar purposes the navigable canals and rivers of Great Britain
and Ireland furnish an extent of 4850 miles, formed at a cost of
probably 35,000,000_l._ Adding all these together, we have of
turnpike-roads, railways, and canals, no less than 130,000 and odd
miles, formed at an aggregate cost of upwards of 386,000,000_l._ If
we add to this the 54,250,000_l._ capital expended in the mercantile
marine, we have the gross total of more than 440,000,000 of money sunk
in the transit of the country. If the number of miles traversed by the
natives of this country in the course of the year by sea, road, rail,
river, and canal, were summed up, it would reach to a distance greater
than to the remotest planet yet discovered.