and commerce, by facilitating the communication 1etween widely diftant parts of the kingdom, reducing the price of carriage, and thus enabling the manufacturer to obtain his materials, fuel, and receffaries of life, at a lower rate, to convey his goods to market at a lefs expence, and confequemt ly to fell cheaper than his competitors. In coun tries which have the advantage of canals, the old manufactures are rendered more flourishing, and new ones established, from day to day, in fituations where the land before was of little value, and but thinly inhabited. They render the counties through which they pafs more rich and fertile; fince every meadow or pafture which they flow through difplays a verdure never feen in the withered and aduft spots that are at a distance from the banks of rivers and running waters. The merchants who refide at the ports where they terminate must also derive very confiderable advantages from them, as they are enabled by them to export greater quantities of goods from places at a distance from the fea, and to fupply with ease a greater extent of inland country with the commodities they import from foreign nations.

There are, perhaps, few objects of internal policy, that have so much called forth the powers and refources of the country, as canals. They have not only been the means of enlarging our foreign commerce, but of giving birth to an internal trade, which, with all the advantages at tendant on foreign commerce, has perhaps far exceeded it in extent, value, and importance. So great has been the effect which thefe canals, and the trade to which they have given birth, have had on our industry, population, and refources, that in many inftances they have entirely changed the ap pearance of the counties through which they pafs."

In the first chapter he difcourfes further on the utility of canals, and proceeds to give an account of the ancient canals, as thofe of Egypt, and the great canal defigned to pafs through the ifthmus of Suez. He then defcribes the canals of China, Hindoftan, Ruffa, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, and France.

A defcription of thefe takes up the first fix chapters, which are as preliminaries to his account of thofe in England. Among these he claffes the canal of Caerdyke and the New River. Then follows a very full account of the duke of Bridgewater's canal, the Grand Trunk, the Coventry and Oxford, the Staffordshire and Worcestershire, the Birmingham and Fazeley, &c. &e. and having noticed thofe which are now cutting, or in agitation, he proceeds to those of Scotland and Ireland.

Of thefe ftupendous works, the canals of China, we fhall give the following extract.

F. Magaillane affures us that there is a paffage by inland navigation from one end of the empire of China to the other, being a space of 600 French leagues, and that a traveller may go this whole diftance entirely by canals or r vers, except a fingle day's journey by land, to cross a mountain; an advantage which this Jefuit, who made the voyage himself, obferves, is not to be found in other kingdom or ftate in the univerfe.

The abbé Grofier obferves, that it is recorded in the annals of China, that their emperors gave every encouragement to agriculture, and thought it far fuperior to gold, filver, or precious ftones. One particular deferves notice. About the year 1500 a merchant had opened a mine of precious ftones. As foon as it was known, the emperor daufed it to be fhut, with this obfervation: Useless labour caufes fterility a mine of precious ftones does not produce corn.”

For feveral of the preceding obfervations on the canals of China I am indebted to De Halde: the following are extracted from the journey of Louis le Comte, the Jefuit, who was above ten years a miffionary, and travelled through the whole empire of China.

Although China were not of itself," fays ht, "fo fruitful a country as I have reprefented it, the canals which are cut through it would be alone fufficient to render it fo: but befides their great fefulness in watering the country, and promoting trade, they alfo add greatly to its beau ty. They generally contain a clear, deep, and running water, that glides fo foftly that it c fcarcely be perceived. There is commonly ofe in every province, which is to it instead of a road, and runs between two banks, built up with it courfe marble ftones bound together by others which are jointed into them.

One large canal generally runs through every province, and a vast number of fmailer ones are cut from that large one, which again are fubdivided into still smaller, or rather rivulets, that end at fome village of great town: fometimes they difcharge themfelves into a lake or lage pond, from which all the adjacent country is watered; so that these clear and plentiful streams, embellished by a great number of fine bridger, bounded by neat and convenient banks, equally distributed through vast plains, covered with a numberless multitude of boats and barges, and crowned (if I may use the expreffion) with a predigious number of towne and cities, whofe ditch. es they fill, and whofe streets they form, at once render that country the most fruitful and moft beautiful in the world.

Surprised, and as it were aftonished, at fo noble a fight, I have fometimes "borne a" fecret envy to China in Europe's behalf, which maft own that it can boast nothing in that kind to be compared to the works of the Chinefe. What would it be then, if that art which in the wildest and most unlikely places has raised magnifi cent palaces, gardens and groves, had been "eme ployed in that rich land to which nature has beeri lavish of her moft precious gifts!

44 The Chinefe say their country formerly wat totally overflowed, and that by dint of labour they drained the water by cutting it a paffage through thefe ufeful canals. If this be true, I cannot enough admire at once the boldness and industry of their workmen, who have thus made great artificial rivers, and from a kind of fea created the most fertile plains in the world.

"It will fearcely be believed that men fo igno rant in the principles of phyfics, and the art of levelling, could bring fuch works as these to per fection; yet it is certain that thefe canals were dag

men, for they are ufually ftraight, and their diftribution is equal and orderly. There are floodgates made for the rivers to let in the water, and others to let it out when they are too full; fo that it cannot be doubted but that the Chinese are only indebted to their own industry for that great conveniency.

"Among all thefe canals in the fouthern provinces, one above the rest is called the Great Canal, because it traverses the whole country from Canton, which lies on the fouthern fide, to Pekin, fituated in the moft northerly part of the empire. We need only travel a fhort day's journey by land to croís the mountain, called Moilie, which on one fide bounds the province of Kiami. Two fivers rife in this mountain, one of which runs fouthwards to the fea, and the other northwards as far as the river of Nankin,, whence by the yallow river and feveral canals we may proceed by water to the very mountains of Tartary.

But fince, in this vaft extent of ground of above four hundred leagues in length, the earth is not level, or hath not a defcent proportionable to the emanation of the waters, it was neceflary to conftruct a great number of fluices. They are called by the name of fluices in the relations of travellers, notwithstanding they are very different from ours; they are rather water-falls, and as it were torrents that are precipitated from one canal to another, and more or less rapid, according to the difference of their level. To caufe barks on barges to afcend, they make ufe of a great com pany of men, who are maintained for that purpose near the fhuice; after they have drawn cables and ropes to the right and left, to lay hold of the bark in fuch a manner that it cannot escape them, and every cable and rope is made tight, they have feveral capitans, by the help of which they raife it by little and little by exerting the utmost trength of their arms, and employing levers, till they have raised it into the upper canal, in which it may continue its voyage. This 1 bour is tedious, toilfome, and exceedingly dangerous. They would be wonderfully furprifed, could they behold with what exfe and facility one man alone, who opens and shuts the gates of our locks and fluices in Europe, makes the longest and heaviest laden barks and barges fecurely to afcend and defcend.

"I have obferved in fome places in China, where the waters of two canals have no communication together; yet for all that they make the boats to pass from one to the other, notwithstanding the level may be different above fifteen feet: to effect which they proceed in this manner: at the end of the canal they have built a double glacis, or floping bank of freestone, which uniting at the point extends itself on both files up to the furface of the water. When the bark is in the lower canal, they hoift it up, by the help of capftans, to the plane of the first glacis, fo far, till being raised to the point, it falls back again by its own weight along the fecond glacis (I fuppofe, instead of falling back again, that it falls forwards) into the water of the upper canal, where it fkuds away to a confiderable diftance, like an arrow out of a bow, and they make it defcend after the fame manner proportionably. I cannot imagine

how these barks, being commonly very long and heavy laden, efcape being split in the middle, or having their backs broken, when they are poifed in the air upon this acute angle; for, confidering the length the lever muft certainly have a ftrange effect upon it: yet do I not hear that any accidents happen in confequence of it. I have paffed that way feveral times; and all the precaution they take when they do not choose to go on fhore during the operation, is to tie themfelves faft to fome cable, or rope, for fear of being toffed from prow to poop fit fhould be from ftern to stem, or from poop to prow)."

As the duke of Bridgewater's canal was not only the first, but on a larger scale, and constructed for larger veffels than any other in England, we shall-extract a pretty full account of it.

The first canal, therefore, which claims attention as being the first public work of the kind executed in England, although compleated at the expence of a private individual, is that cut by his grace the duke of Bridgewater, in whofe praise it would be unpardonable to be filent, who, at a age too often spent in diffipation by our young nobility, applied his attention to useful objects, and had the fpirit to hazard for great a part of his fortune in an undertaking worthy the pursuit of a prince, which, however, has ultimately proved highly profitable to himself, and beneficial to his country. When the influence of exalted rank and large poffeffions is thus nobly and ufefully exerted, they confer additional luftge on the pof feffors, who then justly merit being ranked among the first citizens of the community.

His grace has the honour, as well as pleasure, of having first introduced inland navigation into this kingdom; the utility of which is so fenfibly known and felt, that it is at length, to the profit and happiness of this country, encouraged by the nobility and land owners in many of the interior parts of the country. It would also be unpardo nable to withhold the praise fo justly due to the penetration of this illuftrious nobleman, for ha ving called forth the hidden talents of a Brindley; talents, which, but for his grace, would have been utterly loft to his country.

In 1758 and 1759, his grace the duke of Bridgewater, after obtaining two acts of parliament for that purpose, projected, began, and executed, under the direction of his engineer, Mr. Brindley, his firft canal, which was defigned for conveying coals from a mine (or more properly a mountain) on his grace's eftate to Manchester, but has fince been applied to many other useful purpofes of inland navigation. This canal begins at a place called Worsley Mill, about seven computed miles from Manchefter, where the duke has cut a bafin capable of holding, not only all his boats, but a great body of water which ferves as a refervoir, or head of his navigation. The canal runs through a hill, by a fubterraneous paffage big enough for the admiffion of long flat-bottomed boats, which are towed by hand rails on each fide, near three quarters of mile under ground to the coal works. There the pffage divides into two channels; one of which goes five hundred yards the right, and the other as many yards to the left, and both may be continued at pleasure.

"The

The paffage is in fome places cut through the folid rock, and in others arched over with brick. Air funnels, fome of which are thirty-feven yards perpendicular, are cut at certain distances, through the rock to the top of the hill. The arch at the entrance is about fix feet wide, and about five feet high above the furface of the water. It widens within, fo that in fome places the boats may pass each other; and at the pit is ten feet wide. The coals are brought to this paffage or canal in little low waggons, that hold nearly a ton each; and as the work is on the defcent, are easily pushed or pulled along, by a man on a railed way, to a ftage over the canal, and then fhot into one of the boats, each of which holds feven or eight tons. They then, by means of the rails, are drawn out by one man to the bafin at the mouth (a boy of feventeen years has worked twenty-one of thefe boats at a time, which at feven tons each, the loweft quantity is one hundred forty-feven tons brought out of the pit to the bafin at the entrance) then five or fix of them are linked together, and drawn along the canal by a fingle horie, or two mules, on the banks or towing-paths it is there broad enough for the barges to pafs or go abreaft; and in the courfe of nine miles (a circuit of two miles being made in feeking a level) the canal reaches Manchefter. The canal is raifed over public roads by means of arches; and where it is too low for a carriage to go under, the road is lowered with a gentle defcent, and afcends on the other fide: it is thus carried over the navigable river Irwell, and nearly forty feet above it; fo that large veffels in full fail pafs under the canal as under a large lofty bridge, whilft the duke's barges are at the fame time paffing over them

It may be proper bere particularly to defcribe the noble aqueduct which carries this canal over the river Irwell. This ftupendous work was be gun at a place called Worley Mill, about feven miles from Manchester, where, at the foot of a large mountain, which proves to be composed of coal, the duke has cut a bafin capable of containing all his boats, and a great body of water, which ferves as a refervoir or head to his navigati01. At Barton-bridge, three miles from the ba fin, begins this aqueduct, which, for up wards of two hundred yards, conveys the canal across a valley; and also above forty feet above the navigable river Irwell: there are alfo ftops at each end, that may occafionally be drawn up, and Jet off the whole body of water, which is eatly done by drawing a plug, and difcharging the water into the Irwell, through a wooden tube. There are many of these tops or food gates fo contract ted, that should any of the banks give way, and thereby occasion a current, they will ride by that motion, and prevent the damage that would other wife happen by the waters overflowing the country.

W

A

This bridge unites the Lancashire, and Chefhire rts of the Duke's navigation; it is carried over the meadows on each fide the river Merfey, and quite acrofs Sale moor, at incredible labour and expence. Mr. Brindley caufed trenches firit to be rade, and then placed deal balks in an pright pofition, from thirty to thirty-fix feet 5) backing and fupporting them on the outfde

with other balks laid lengthways, and in rows, and fcrewed faft together, driving in fome thoufands of oak piles of different lengths between them: and on the front fide he threw the clay and earth, and rammed them well together form his navigable canal. After thus finihing forty yards, he removed the balks and proceeded again as before, where it was defigned to continue the canal.

The bridge for the aqueduct over the river Irwell, is built all of tone of great ftrength and thickness. Every one in the faces has fre squar. beds and fides, well jointed and cramped with iron cramps. There are three arches over the river Irwell, which, with their piers, are all of hewn ftone, of the largest dimenfions, and cramped in the fame manner as the others. The centre arch is fixty-three feet wide, and thirty-eight feet high above the water, and will admit the larget barges, which navigate the Irwell, to go through with maft and falls standing.

At Stretford, three miles from hence, was the caiffon, forty yards long by thirty-two broad. Open bottomed boats were employed to carry and difcharge loads of earth, and there by n the ground where the level required: these wer enployed in the calffons, as the ground they pled over lay fixteen or eighteen feet below the furtice of the canal: they carried about eighteen tons, which, with great ease, was shot out in an inftant where wanted..

At Combroke, three miles further, is a circular wear to raife the water of the canal to its proper height: the furplus flows over the nave of a circle in the middle of the wear, built of stone into a well, and by a fubterraneous tunnel is conveyed to its ufual channel: there is also a machine to wafn the flack, which is worked by water.

In order to feed that end of the navigation which is near Manchefter, Mr. Brindley railed, and as it were fwallowed up, the river Medlock, by a large beautiful wear, compofed of fix feg, ments of a circle, built of fquare ftone, bedded in terras, and every stone cramped with iron: the whole circumference is three hundred and fixtyfix yards, with a circular nave of stone in the middle. The water, when at a proper height to fupply the navigation, flows over the nave, and down the well as at Combróke; butin order to keep the bed dry during the time the workmen were bullding this wear, he turned off the greater part of the water by a car through the rock, and inven. ted an engine which he called a fpoon, and which he worked at the end of a lever, by a horie, When this fpoon dips into the water, a kind of flap door, made of leather, is preffed open, and admits the water till falt, and on being weighed up the preffure of the water within clofes the door, and, as the lever rifes, it runs off into a channel cut at the end of the fppon handle.

From the wharf of this place, the poor of Manchester fetch great quantities of coals in wheel-barrows, at three-pence half-penny a husdred weight of feven fcore, which is not one half the price which was before paid for that ne ceffary article. But Mr. Brindley, to remove the inconvenience of carrying them up Cale-hill has driven up a large tunnel through the centre of

And tho' their houfhold's elegance itself
Their horfes noble, chariots tow'r aloft,
Their robes as rich as Perfia could afford,
Their fplendor is eclips'd, they are outshone,
And envy pale, corrodes their fleeting joy.
And can it be, is not the rich man bleft?
No, no, not all the treasures of the East,
Can make man happy without God' himself.
Are monarchs happy, who on thrones refide,
"Midft all the fplendor of a fhining court,
And all the honours that to them are paid?
"Midft all their entertainments, levees, balls?
The mind capacious, fuch delights can't pleafe,
Nor all the pow'rs of vocal harmony,
Nor all the finest music in the world,
Can fate the foul of majesty itself.
Where in the court can happiness be found?
For all its pomp and filly pageantry
No peace affords, no folid, lafting joy.
Kingdoms and empires foreign foes invade,
The country ravage, and the King dethrone;
Inteftine broils, and civil wars moleft,

The peace of monarchs, and the peace of flaves. Wealth oft takes wing to fome more gen'rous mind,

And leaves the rich man worse than poor itself.
If riches cannot Happiness afford,
Nor, all the fplendor of a fhining court,
Wherein then doth this human with confist?
Is it in being poor, in being low,

In being what the world fo much despise?
The poor as well as rich may not be bleft,
The poor have bitters mingled in their cup,
And difcontented with their humble cot,
Breathe forth their wishes for a little more
Of this world's wealth, (fo frail the human heart)
Poffeff'd of which, the wish would ftill aspire,
And "more" would be the language of the prayer.
Hunger, and thirst, and nakednefs and cold
The poor inceffant feel,and horror fills,
O'erwhelms the mind at the approach of years,
When age and fickness prefs with iron hand,
And wreft the foul from the expiring clay.
Such is the human heart, fuch diftant fears
Oppress the poor-intolerable weight!
Sad caufe of murm'ring at the will divine.
When thus the poor, O! tell me, where's the
bleft?

Where therefore then does Happiness residé ?-
In him, who with his portion is content,
Unanxious of his temp'ral wants alone,
Whofe only care is heav'n, his hope, his joy:
He that in all things fees the hand of God,
In pain and labour knows it is his will.
"If it were good for me, I fhould be rich,

God is all-wife, omnifcient, and all-good, "He knows my wants, and therefore I fubmit." That man is happy who is thus refign'd.

Contentment with its pleafing train of sweets
And Happiness are one. These two combine
Tofweeten life thro' all its num'rous ills.
Religion brings content, with ev'ry joy,
With ev'ry peace that mortals can defire:
Religion fmooths our path, and opens wide
The profpect of felicity, a field,
A country of delight, of endless blifs!