We have now arrived at the commencement of the last century, so very important in the history of the Inland Navigation of England.; and it appears from the preceding rapid sketch, that so fur flont our nation be ing neglectful of this part of domestic improvement, as alleged by Lalande, the progress which had been ITIJde, considering the then confined state of our trade and ca pital, and thc turbulent period of our political history, was not inferior to that of most of the other nations of Europe.
Under the succeeding monarchs, the extension of our inland navigation was pursued with accelerated rapidity. From 1701 to 1714 the following canal acts were passed —for rendering navigable the Avon, from Bath to Han ham Mills; the Cam, or Grant, from Clayhithe; the Derwent, in Yorkshire; Nene to Northampton and Pe terborough; Stour in Essex from Mannington to Sud bury., Suffolk ; and for the river Tone.
Flom 1714 to 1727, in the reign of George I. acts were obtained for improving and extending the navi gation of At the commencement of the reign of George III. the system of inland navigation in England underwent a very remarkable change. Hitherto acts of Parlia ment had been granted with reference to some particu lar river, the natural navigation of which it was tneant to improve. Powers were therefore granted to deepen and straighten the channel, to embank where it was too wide, to employ such banks as towing paths, to build jetties and weirs, to pen up water by sluices or turnpikes, or to make flashes to overcome the shallows or rapids; to erect winches or capstans for hauling boats up the rapids, Re. ; and latterly, to build pound locks for over coming the ascents, especially at mill weirs: but it was usually stipulated not to leave the bed, or direct the river from the natural course, or draw water from it to the injury of the mills. Experience had, however, shown that havigations of this sort were liable to perpetual de gradation. The rivers which had their regimen altered, were found speedily to change the form of their beds. Gravel and sand were swept away by the rapids at the weirs, and deposited in banks and shoals in the ponds below. During floods the works were overtopped by the water, and frequently injured; and the crooked naviga tion, with its trackage against the streatn, was at all times laborious and dilatory. These difficulties suggested the propriety of leaving the natural bed, and led to the for rnation of a separate cut with pound locks. With this view the proprietors of the Sankey navigation, in Lan cashire, who had obtained in 1755 an act for making Sankey brook navigable from the Mersey river to near St. Helen's, having the usual powers given them for pur
chasing the necessary land for side-cuts, Etc. determined, instead of working in the river, to make a separate cut along the sante, which they accordingly effected in 1760, supplying the head or upper level only by a feeder from the stream.
About thc same time the Duke of Bridgewater, who had obtained an act for making Worseley brook navi gable, from Worseley mill to the river Irwell, by which navigable river lie proposed to transport the coals from his property to the manufacturing town of Nlanchester, duly appreciating the superior benefits of a still-water navigation, conceived the idea of conveying an artificial canal through the dry land, across the river Irwell, by an aqueduct, and thereby proceeding front the mines, upon one level, to the town. In the 33d George D. the Duke obtained the first act, with adequate powers for the con struction of a canal of this sort, that is, not in the direc tion of any stream, hut crossing the course of rivers, brooks, and roads, and intersecting the property of va rious individuals, tvho were to be fully cotnpensated, though prevented from obstructing the design. The scheme at first met with touch discredit, from the pre judice which then existed in favour of river navigation, and on account of the unprecedented expense and diffi culty of constructing these necessary aqueducts, etnbank ments, and other works at that time new in England. But the Duke, who was well acquainted with what had been performed in Holland, France, and Italy, and hav ing found an able and ingenious practical assistant in Nit.. James Brindley, and likewise a singularly sagacious and persevering agent in NIr. Gilbert, was not deterred from effecting his hold cltsigns. The signal success of the Duke's projects opened the eyes of the whole nation to the vast advantages to he derived from artificial canals, or rather stillwater navigation. Its extensions from the Mersey to the Trent, Severn, and Thames, were suc cessively projected. These, and the rapid formation of joint-stock companies, of which above 100 have been in corporated for works of this sort, during the last reign, are evidence of the zeal with which these improvements were prosecuted. An incredible extent of these artifi cial canals has now been completed, that is to say, up wards of 2400 miles have been made in England, C011 stituting a congeries of inland navigation not to be equalled in the world, and in the construction of which all sorts of difliculties have been experienced, and overcome by the talents and perseverance of an ingenious and industrious nation.