paper, as he has not been able to find domestics with such qualifications; and having suffered much inconvenience from his letters, notes, and papers, being inspected by his servants; afterwards becoming the conversation of the servants'-hall, and, in course, the whole village. None need apply that has ever been at a writingschool."

INLAND NAVIGATION-MR. BRINDLEY
-AND THE DUKE OF BRIDGWATER.

(With a Portrait of Mr. Brindley.)

most exorbitant rates for carriage by land.*

The Sankey navigation, in the neighbourhood of Warrington, was the first approach to a regular artificial canal, and was considered, at the time, an undertaking of no common impertance. The completion of the Duke of Bridgwater's, shortly afterwards, was the signal for extending them to These every part of the kingdom. bountiful streams now intersect it in every direction; no less than twentytwo cross the grand ridge of Great Britain, and connect uninterruptedly the eastern and western seas. Their beneficial effects upon agriculture, Ir would be paying but a sorry comcommerce, and the arts, may be pliment to the understanding of our readers, were we to enter upon an briefly enumerated. Communications were opened with every part of the elaborate argument in defence of INLAND NAVIGATION. The ignorance or country. The cheapness of materials prejudice which formerly obstructed led to an increased expenditure upon its adoption, no longer exists; and national works, magnificent public our only surprise is, that in England, buildings, monuments, and private always a rich, cultivated, and enter-residences. Produce, which by land prising country, this leading object of political economy should so long have been almost disregarded. In the luxuriant plains of Egypt-in the dependencies of Imperial Rome amongst that most singular people, the Chinese-and in the far-spread provinces of Hindostan-artificial canals have been the great channels of wealth, commerce, and civilization. In France, by the completion of the canal of Languedoc, so honourable to its constructor, Mons. Riquet, the interior was supplied with articles of foreign or domestic production, at a third less than they could possibly be obtained in England; whilst the number and extent of these conveniences in Holland, not only remedy the natural imperfections of the country, but compensate, by the celerity which they impart to travelling, for the unavoidable heaviness of Dutch organization.

was conveyed at a premium of 40s. per ton, was now received with certainty and dispatch at 6s. or 7s. From immediate channels of intercourse with the richest districts of the country, grinding monopolies were readily annihilated. All natural commodities, foreign luxuries, and articles of domestic manufacture, were diffused equally throughout it. Agriculture received an invigorating impulse, from the facility with which the produce of the soil could be transported to a profitable market, and every species of manure and implement received in return.

Commercial establishments rapidly multiplied. From the cheapness of fuel and raw materials, the cotton and woollen manufactures of Lancashire and Yorkshire, and the metallic trades of Birmingham, Walsal, and Wolverhampton, attained an

the product of the Cheshire dairy, were transported through the same channel, to the metropolis, at a great expense.

Salt, at this period, was carried on horseback to various parts of the inland counties.~~ In Great Britain, nevertheless, till Large consignments of Burton ale for the Gerthe middle of the last century, specu- man market, were annually taken by land to lation had been confined to the im-Hull for shipment; and quantities of cheese, provement of a few natural streams; which yet, at a never-ending expense, diminished none of the inconveniences f Mr. John Eyes has the honourable distincincidental to river navigation. These tion of originating this first speculation; but it were, the losses and delays occasioned is to be noted, throughout the whole of the enby floods in winter, droughts in sum-suing observations, that this, being merely an mer, and dishonest watermen the year through; and the merchant, in consequence, rather than encounter repeated vexations, submitted to the

improvement of a natural stream, by a branch canal with falls and locks upon it, cannot derogate a tittle from the fame which is claimed for Brindley, as the successful constructor of the first artificial canal,

3

unrivalled degree of prosperity. Bri- His active disposition and superior tish ingenuity, supported by increas- abilities were not, however, long uning capital, and aided by these advan- noticed: their fame extended beyond tages, defied competition in the foreign the small village to which they were market. The sea-ports of Liverpool, consigned, and the humble apprenHull, Bristol, &c. progressively rose tice was continually consulted in prein importance, as their several ship- | ference to his more timber-headed ping and merchant services, the great master. Little mechanical contrivannurseries from which our fleets are ces, to accelerate the handicraft occusupplied with able and intrepid sea-pations of the district, and ingenious men, experienced increasing activity. In short, the British merchant, secure in the protection of his country's influence, has been enabled to carry his commercial enterprise into the remotest corners of the globe.

alterations in several of the surrounding manufactories, led to their gradual development. It is recorded, that a machine of curious construction had been erected at some distance, containing, however, a defect, which rendered its operation useless. On the Saturday night, when the labours of the week were concluded, young Brindley set off on foot, of his own accord, and without any intimation of his design, to examine it. returned early on the Monday morning, and named the defect: it was remedied under his superintendence, and the engine shortly set to work. This was a voluntary journey of fifty miles on foot.

He

No apology will therefore be required, even at this distant period, for introducing to the notice of our readers, and for recording in the pages of this publication, some brief notices of an individual whose enterprising genius secured to the community many of the above advantages; and whose name, associated with the undertakings by which it is perpetuated, is never mentioned but with a corresponding tribute of admiration. And were there not, at every time, in At the expiration of his apprenticethe history of highly-gifted persons, ship, he met with very flattering enenough to justify an editor in reviv- couragement; and, in the few sucing the memorial of their lives, by the ceeding years, acquired increased READERS of the IMPERIAL MAGAZINE, celebrity by divers improvements in with whom are the speaking monu- enginery; especially by the erection ments of Mr. Brindley's talent, this of a curious water-engine for draining plate and memoir would scarcely be coal-works; of a new silk-mill, near deemed inappropriate.* There is, Congleton; and of an improved mamoreover, this distinguishing feature chine for manufacturing printing pain the character of Mr. Brindley; that per. But his services were now to be the success which crowned his mecha- devoted to a different undertaking; nical inventions must be attributed the execution of which was as credientirely to the native force of his ge- table to his talent, as its completion nius, and the untutored energy of his was beneficial to the community. This mind. This celebrated individual was was the planning and making a naviborn at Tunsted, in the parish of gable canal from the populous town Wormbill, and county of Derby, in the of Manchester to the late Duke of year 1716. Though his parents were in Bridgewater's valuable coal mines at easy circumstances during the few Worsley. Brindley, as the event first years of his life, the dissolute proved, was the very man for the habits of the father prevented all atten- Duke's purpose; since it is more than tion to the necessary culture of his probable, that had the plan been subchild; and in consequence, at an age mitted to an individual regularly inwhen other boys are supposed at least ducted to the profession of a civil to be acquainted with the common engineer, and guided more by rules principles of writing and arithmetic, of art than the force of genius, it young Brindley was apprenticed to would have been abandoned in the an obscure wheelwright, near Mac-onset as altogether chimerical. clesfield, totally ignorant of either. Indeed, in reviewing the transactions of Mr. Brindley's active but The Imperial Magazine originated in Lá-contracted life, and that in particular verpool: and its circulation is very extensive which introduced him to the notice of throughout Lancashire and Cheshire. his illustrious patron, the manly for

Duke and his successors being obliged, for ever, to supply the town with that valuable commodity at 4d. per cwt. The act allowed 2s. 6d. per ton freightage for other produce.

This first undertaking so fully realized the anticipations of its noble originator, that in 1762 another act was obtained for branching the canal to the tide-way of the Mersey, at Runcorn in Cheshire. It was declared to be "for improving the intercourse between Liverpool and Manchester;" it secured an uninterrupted intercourse at the lowest neap tides; and so decisive were the effects, that in a few weeks the rates of freightage by the Mersey and Irwell Navigation, were reduced from 12s. to 6s. per ton. This canal, also, is as nearly as possible rectilineal, and on an entire level; with the exception of a fall of 82 feet at the termination in Runcorn. It is obviated by ten locks, which immediately connect the navigation with the tideway. The total level is therefore seventy-two miles; including a short branch of the Trent and Mersey, which was improved by Brindley under the second act, and forms a junction with the Bridgwater at Preston Brook.

titude and patriotic perseverance of the latter, are scarcely superseded in interest by the native acuteness, the mental comprehension, and the unparalleled success, which throughout accompanied and distinguished the former. The Duke found that he must sacrifice a princely fortune for a remote contingency, in which, however splendid if secured, it was impossible for him to participate. The novelty of the undertaking increased the number of those whom interest or prejudice induced to oppose it. In and out of Parliament, the scheme was ridiculed, obstructed, and condemned; but his Grace most laudably persevered, and in the years 1758-9, the necessary powers for effecting it were definitively obtained. The plan had been previously digested by Mr. Brindley; who, relying upon his own resources, adopted the unprecedented idea of carrying the navigation as nearly as possible in a straight line, without the aid of locks; and of remedying by art the natural inequalities of surface. To do this, however, immense embankments were to be constructed-subterraneous tunnels excavated-and the then uncommon expedient of carrying a canal across a large navigable river,* was to be attempted. And here it may be well to remark upon a singular feature in Mr. Brindley's character. For this and for every other undertaking, how-level; but Brindley thought otherwise, ever extensive or complex, he never had recourse to calculation upon paper, nor to the construction of a model; but he retired to bed, where he would remain two or three days, till the minutest parts of his plan were methodized and adjusted; and then, without any text-book but his extensive and capacious memory, would proceed with exactness to its execution. The want of early education has by some been assigned as the reason for his doing so; but, in whatever cause it might originate, the fact affords a striking proof of the uncommon power of his mental faculties.

In little more than a year the canal was publicly opened, and a cargo of coals conveyed to Manchester; the

Brindley, when before a Committee of the House of Commons, was asked by a Member, What he considered rivers were intended for, as he spoke of them so lightly? After some pause, he replied "To feed navigable camals!"

By the most experienced surveyors it was deemed impracticable to carry the navigation across Sale Moor, as it lay so much beneath the antecedent

and succeeded. Across the whole valley at Stretford, it resembles rather a navigable river than an artificial canal. The embankment in these meadows is two thousand seven hundred feet long, fifty-one high, and three hundred and thirty-six wide at the base: its dimensions, however, are considerably exceeded by another upon the same line at Bollington in Cheshire. For these, vast wooden cases were constructed, and large piles sunk into the earth, for securing the mounds on each side. A portion being formed, the piles were moved onwards, answering again the same purpose, and the canal thus rapidly elongated. Where the channel was too deep, Mr. Brindley had a couple of boats fastened, within a foot of each other; above this intermediate opening, was placed a triangular trough, the bottom of which had trap-doors: this being filled with earth from some part of the embankment which required

gradually sunk on each side, and by turning a large arch, the canal conveyed over it as well as the river!

Viewed from the battlements of Barton Bridge, the interest of the scene is not unfrequently heightened by the Duke's pleasure packet being seen on the aqueduct above, at the moment when a large packet or lighter of the river-company is passing in full sail below it. These, with the enlivening twang of the boatmen's horns-the horses with their drivers on the towing-path of the conduit, fifty feet above the river and a mill and waterfall some distance beyond it-present a very noble combination of nature and art.

in lowering, was conveyed by the boats | principle was reversed, the road was exactly over the place to be raised, and the trap-doors being suddenly opened, its contents were precipitated to the bottom. The scientific adoption of puddling to prevent leakage, originated also with Mr. Brindley; and it has not hitherto been superseded by any better appliance. His economy, skill, and foresight, shoue conspicuously throughout the whole of this work; and were calculated to have lessened the expenses full £1000 per cent. The canal has furnished a model to succeeding celebrated engineers; and at this very period, when improved science and renewed opportunities might be supposed to advance considerably on the original, it is found that Brindley left little to amend. Indeed, the beautiful regu- | larity of the navigation-its extentthe excellence of the towing-pathsthe magnitude and solidity of the embankments,* with the efficient provision for feeding it with water, and diverting superabundant supplies, elicit the approbation even of an unprofessional observer.

The opinion entertained sixty years ago, of an aqueduct across the Irwell at Barton, may be gathered from the well-known remark of a celebrated surveyor, when interrogated as to the possibility of erecting it: "I have often been told (said he) of building castles in the air, but never before was shown where any of them were to be erected." The "airy castle" was however raised; and in the short space of ten months: whilst, unlike the creations to which this witty gentleman alluded, it still remains. In September, 1760, it was commenced; and, in July, 1761, boats with coals sailed across it. The river which flows beneath it is wide and deep; the southern bank rocky and precipitous, and covered towards the summit with dense overhanging foliage. To raise the northern bank to a corresponding level was a work of considerable labour; and as a bridge of immense extent would have been required to carry the public road (which it intersects) above a canal raised artificially so much beyond the natural level, the

One only gave way, by which a large barge, with sails spread, was floated into the middle of a hay-field. Query: Were the boatmen or the haymakers most astonished?

But the subterraneous tunnel, communicating with different shafts of the mine at Worsley, hewn out of the solid rock, and the first ever undertaken in this country for the purposes of navigation, is that which most powerfully excites the astonishment of a beholder. Little does he imagine, when seating himself in the small wherry at its entrance, to what diversified instances of human ingenuity and human perseverance he will shortly be introduced. Yet, had Virgil lived in our days, the opening to this invisible world might have furnished the idea of his "fauces graveolentis Averni." The boat is just large enough for the tunnel; which at this part does not exceed five feet in height, and six in width. A sootyvisaged guide, whose appearance is strangely in character with the objects around, propels it by means of rings fixed in the rock. As it slowly recedes from the entrance, the gloom increases, till the aperture gradually dwindles into a mere point of light; whilst the death-like stillness of the cavern is momentarily interrupted by the sound of the distant pick-the reechoed hail of the workmen--the tingling of the notice-bells, or the clatter of subterraneous machinery. At regular distances narrow perpendicular niches are cut through the rock from the upper surface; as well to ventilate the passage, as to lower men down, in case it be obstructed. Strong gates are placed at intervals, which close up the arch in stormy and tempestuous weather. Arrived at the termination of a level, a bell is rung, and the boat expeditiously laden with the useful