ommunicates with Hull,
Bristol and Liverpool. The expence was about 70,000_l_. divided into
shares 140_l_. each, of which no man can purchase more than ten, and
which now sell for about 370_l_.

The proprietors took a perpetual lease of six acres of land, of Sir
Thomas Gooch, at 47_l_. per annum, which is converted into a wharf, upon
the front of which is erected an handsome office for the dispatch
of business.

[ILLUSTRATION: A Plan of the Navigable Canal from Birmingham to
Autherley]

[ILLUSTRATION: Navigation Office]

This watery passage, exclusive of loading the proprietors with wealth,
tends greatly to the improvement of some branches of trade, by
introducing heavy materials at a small expence, such as pig iron for the
founderies, lime-stone, articles for the manufacture of brass and steel,
also stone, brick, slate, timber, &c.

It is happy for the world, that public interest is grafted upon private,
and that both flourish together.

This grand work, like other productions of Birmingham birth, was rather
hasty; the managers, not being able to find patience to worm round the
hill at Smethwick, or cut through, have wisely travelled over it by the
help of twelve locks, with six they mount the summit, and with six more
descend to the former level; forgetting the great waste of water, and
the small supply from the rivulets, and also, the amazing loss of of
time in climbing this curious ladder, consisting of twelve liquid steps.
It is worthy of remark, that the level of the earth, is nearly the same
at Birmingham as at the pits: what benefit then would accrue to
commerce, could the boats travel a dead flat of fourteen miles without
interruption? The use of the canal would increase, great variety of
goods be brought which are now excluded, and these delivered with more
expedition, with less expence, and the waste of water never felt; but,
by the introduction of twelve unnecessary locks, the company may
experience five plagues more than fell on Egypt.

The boats are nearly alike, constructed to fit the locks, carry about
twenty-five tons, and are each drawn by something like the skeleton of a
horse, covered with skin: whether he subsists upon the scent of the
water, is a doubt; but whether his life is a scene of affliction, is
not; for the unfeeling driver has no employment but to whip him from one
end of the canal to the other. While the teams practised the turnpike
road, the lash was divided among five unfortuna