t when in 1750 it could be completed in
half the time originally required. In 1763 a mail-coach made only
monthly trips between London and Edinburgh, eight long days being
required for the journey, which to-day is made in less than twelve
hours. The number of stage passengers between these two capitals
averaged about twenty-five a month, and rose to fifty on extraordinary
occasions. In those days coaches were very heavy and without springs,
and travelers not unfrequently cut short their journeys for want of
conveniences.

Turnpikes in Great Britain do not even date as far back as
stage-coaches. It is true the first turnpike act was passed as early as
1653, but the system was not extensively adopted until a century later.
Previous to that time the roads of England, such as they were, were
maintained by parish and statute labor. In the latter half of the last
century, under improved methods of construction, turnpike roads
multiplied rapidly. Both roads and vehicles attained, previous to the
advent of the railroads, such a degree of perfection that the
stage-coach made the journey between London and Manchester, 178 miles,
in 19 hours; between London and Liverpool, 203 miles, in less than 21
hours; and between London and Holyhead, 261 miles, in less than 27
hours.

In spite of these improved facilities, the transportation of merchandise
continued to be very expensive. Goods had to be conveyed from town to
town by heavy wagons, and the cost of land-carriage between Manchester
and Liverpool, a distance of thirty miles, was at times as high as forty
shillings per ton.

The various disadvantages of land transportation directed, toward the
middle of the last century, the attention of the British people to the
importance of a system of canals. They realized that these water
highways would open an easier and cheaper communication between distant
parts of the country, thus enabling manufacturers to collect their
materials and fuel from remote districts with less labor and expense,
and to convey their goods to a more distant and more profitable market.
It would also facilitate the conveyance of farm produce to a greater
distance and would thereby benefit both the producer and consumer. The
canal era was formally inaugurated in 1761, when the Duke of Bridgewater
presented to Parliament a petition for a bill to construct the canal
which has since borne his name. The canal was commenced in 1767 and was
completed in 1772. The next f