Remarks on the Proposed Railway Between Birmingham and London

Transcribed from the 1831 Effingham Wilson edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
LONDON:
PUBLISHED BY EFFINGHAM WILSON, ROYAL EXCHANGE: SOLD ALSO BY R. WRIGHTSON, BIRMINGHAM; EBENEZER THOMPSON & SONS, MANCHESTER; AND G. & J. ROBINSON, LIVERPOOL.
1831.

PRINTED BY RICHARD TAYLOR, RED LION COURT, FLEET-STREET.
Without minutely inquiring into the origin of the different modes of conveyance at present existing in this country and others for passengers and goods, I shall content myself with asking, Why were canals first established? and What was the great benefit arising from them, which caused so much as fifteen hundred miles in extent to be executed in less than a quarter of a century, at a cost of nearly twenty millions of money, and for the most part during a time of war, when the highest rate of taxation prevailed?
Previously to the establishment of canals,—roads, waggons and horses were the means employed for the conveyance of goods; and the speed which they accomplished was greater than the average speed afterwards obtained by canals. But notwithstanding this advantage, it was found, that to carry a ton weight of grain, coal, or merchandize one hundred miles cost upwards of 6 l. Hence materials and goods, whose weight bore a great proportion to their value, could only be conveyed a few miles from the spot where they were raised or manufactured; and thus, sources of wealth that have since been highly productive and profitable were shut up and useless. Baron Dupin in his excellent work on the Commercial Power of Great Britain, published 1825, states, “Up to 1756 England had not a single line of artificial navigation; she possessed for communication by land, only a small number of roads injudiciously cut and ill kept up. Of a sudden an individual conceives the idea to profit by the general impulsion which industry had received, by cutting a canal to carry to Manchester the product of his mines. Shortly afterwards, a town which thrives, and of which the exuberant wealth seeks everywhere productive outlets,—Liverpool,—aspires to still higher designs. She is the first to form and realize the project of opening a navigable channel between the Irish Sea and the German Ocean. Other channels even more extended are opened by degrees: thus, within the short space of half a century, a double row of canals is formed, both for great and small navigation, for the purpose of uniting together opposite seas; basins separated by numberless chains of hills and mountains; opulent ports; industrious towns; fertile plains; and inexhaustible mines;—and this presents a development of more than a thousand leagues in length, upon a portion of territory not equal to one-fourth of France! The roads which already existed are enlarged, are reconstructed with more art, and kept up with more care. New channels are thrown open to commerce, and a system of roads is now being formed, of which the total length is at present (1825) more than 46,000 leagues in England alone. Thanks to these works, at this moment, in the three kingdoms, 22,300 merchant-vessels, manned by 160,000 men, and capable of carrying two millions of tons of merchandize, are scarcely sufficient for the exportation of the superfluity of interior circulation, for the trade along the coast, and for the importation of those foreign products necessary to keep up a circulation so immense.”