3. The dead weight to be moved in proportion to the load is much less.
4. The capacity for traffic is practically unlimited, provided the locks are properly designed.
5. There is no obligation to maintain enormous or expensive plant or establishments, as all those can, and would be, provided by separate agencies and distinct capital. Thus a large outlay in first cost and subsequent maintenance of rolling stock is avoided.
6. There is an almost total absence of risk, and the reduction of damage to cargo in transit, and consequently of insurance, to a minimum.
On the other hand, the defects, besides those of original construction, in existing British canals, are:—
1. A total absence of unity of management. For example, on one of the routes from London to Liverpool there are seven different canals and navigations; on another also there are nine, and on a third ten different companies.
2. A want of uniformity of gauge in the locks, as well as in the canals themselves.
3. With few exceptions they are not capable of being worked by steam.
4. An unequal system of tolls.
5. The many links in the communications in the hands of the railways paralyses any unity of action, and renders any scheme of amalgamation between the several lines impossible.