[1] That canals also played their part in the transport of passengers a hundred years ago is shown by the following items of news, which I take from The Times of 1806:—

Friday, December 19, 1806.

"The first division of the troops that are to proceed by the Paddington Canal for Liverpool, and thence by transports for Dublin, will leave Paddington to-day, and will be followed by others to-morrow and Sunday. By this mode of conveyance the men will be only seven days in reaching Liverpool, and with comparatively little fatigue, as it would take them above fourteen days to march that distance. Relays of fresh horses for the canal boats have been ordered to be in readiness at all the stages."

Monday, December 22, 1806.

"Saturday the 8th Regiment embarked at the Paddington Canal for Liverpool, in a number of barges, each containing 60 men. This regiment consists of 950 men. The 7th Regiment embarked at the same time in eighteen barges: they are all to proceed to Liverpool. The Dukes of York and Sussex witnessed the embarkation. The remainder of the brigade was to follow yesterday, and Friday next another and very considerable embarkation will follow."

[2] Illustrations of the Origin and Progress of Rail and Tram Roads, and Steam Carriages, or Locomotive Engines. By T. G. Cumming, Surveyor, Denbigh, 1824.

[3] A Letter on the subject of the projected Rail-road between Liverpool and Manchester, pointing out the necessity for its adoption, and the manifest advantages it offers to the public; with an exposure of the exorbitant and unjust charges of the Water-Carriers. By Joseph Sandars, Esq., Liverpool, 1825.

[4] Mersey and Irwell Navigation.

[5] Another of the speakers, Mr Gordon C. Thomas, engineer to the Grand Junction Canal Company, said that "notwithstanding the generous expenditure on maintenance, and the large sums recently spent upon improvements, the through traffic on the Grand Junction was only one-half of what it was fifty years ago, and now the through traffic was in many cases unable to pay as high a rate as the local traffic."

[6] In the evidence he gave before the Royal Commission on Canals and Waterways on 21st March 1906, Sir Herbert Jekyll, Assistant Secretary to the Board of Trade, said (as reported in The Times of 22nd March):—"One remarkable feature was noticeable—that, although the tonnage carried rather increased than diminished between 1838 and 1848, the receipts fell off enormously, pointing to the conclusion that the railway competition had brought about a large reduction in canal companies charges. It was also noteworthy that on many canals the decrease in receipts had continued out of all proportion to the decrease, if any, in the tonnage carried."

[7] In Mr Saner's paper the Birmingham Canal navigations are classed among the "Independently-Owned Canals," and Mr Saner says:—"There are 1,138 miles owned by railway companies, which convey only 6,009,820 tons per annum, and produce a net profit of only £40 per mile of navigation. This," he adds, "appears to afford clear proof that the railways do not attempt to make the most of the canals under their control." But when the Birmingham Canal, with its 8,000,000 tons of traffic a year, is transferred (as it ought to be) from the independently-owned to the railway-controlled canals, entirely different figures are shown.

[8] The fact that coal tipped into a canal boat would have a longer drop than coal falling from the colliery screen into railway waggons is important because of the greater damage done to the coal, and the consequent decrease in value.

[9] Fuller information respecting traffic conditions in Continental countries will be found in my book on "Railways and Their Rates."

[10] The figures for the years 1860 to 1890 are taken from the "Report of the Committee on Canals of New York State," 1900, General Francis V. Greene, chairman; and those for 1900 and 1903 from the "Annual Report of Superintendent of Public Works, New York State," 1903.

[11] "The St Lawrence River and the Great Lakes whose waters flow through it into the Atlantic form a continuous waterway extending from the Fond du Lac, at the head of Lake Superior, to the Straits of Belle Isle, a distance of 2,384 miles.... Emptying into the St Lawrence ... are the Ottawa and Richlieu Rivers, the former bringing it into communication with the immense timber forests of Ontario, and the latter connecting it with Lake Champion in the United States. These rivers were the thoroughfares in peace and the base lines in war for the Indian tribes long before the white man appeared in the Western Hemisphere.... The early colonists found them the convenient and almost the only channels of intercourse among themselves and with the home country.... The St Lawrence was navigable for sea-going vessels as far as Montreal, but between Montreal and the foot of Lake Ontario there was a succession of rapids separated by navigable reaches.... The head of navigation on the Ottawa River is the city of Ottawa.... Between this city and the mouth of the river there are several impassable rapids. The Richlieu was also so much obstructed at various points as to be unavailable for navigation.... The canal system of Canada ... has been established to overcome these obstructions by artificial channels at various points to render freely navigable the national routes of transportation."—"Highways of Commerce," issued by the Bureau of Statistics, Department of State, Washington.

[12] The use of a larger type of canal boat is generally regarded as an essential part of the resuscitation scheme. But of the narrow boats now in active service in the canals of the United Kingdom there are from 10,000 to 11,000. What is to be done with these? If they are scrap-heaped, and fresh boats substituted, we increase still further the sum total of the outlay the scheme will involve.

[13] At the Society of Arts' Conference on Canals, in 1888, Mr L. F. Vernon-Harcourt said:—"The statistics show that great caution must be exercised in the selection of canal routes for improvement, if they are to prove a commercial success, and that the scope for such schemes is strictly limited. Any attempt at a general revival and improvement of the canal system throughout England cannot prove financially successful, as local canals, through thinly populated agricultural districts, could not compete with railways. These routes alone should be selected for enlargement of waterway which lead direct from the sea to large and increasing towns like the proposed canal from the Bristol Channel to Birmingham, or which, like the Aire and Calder Navigation and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, are suitably set for the conveyance of coal and general bulky goods to populous districts. One or two through routes to London from manufacturing centres, or from coal-mining districts, might have a prospect of success, provided the existing canals along the route could be acquired at a small cost, and the necessary improvement works were not heavy."

[14] There are even those who argue that the resuscitated canals should be toll free.