e of
this, England was transformed from a grain exporting to a grain importing
country.

The same activity was developed in the establishment of communication.
From 1818 to 1829, there were built in England and Wales, 1,000 English
miles of roadway of the width prescribed by law, 60 feet, and nearly all
the old roads were reconstructed on the new system of M'Adam. In
Scotland, the Department of Public Works built since 1803 nearly 900
miles of roadway and more than 1,000 bridges, by which the population of
the Highlands was suddenly placed within reach of civilisation. The
Highlanders had hitherto been chiefly poachers and smugglers; they now
became farmers and hand-workers. And, though Gaelic schools were
organised for the purpose of maintaining the Gaelic language, yet Gaelic-
Celtic customs and speech are rapidly vanishing before the approach of
English civilisation. So, too, in Ireland; between the counties of Cork,
Limerick, and Kerry, lay hitherto a wilderness wholly without passable
roads, and serving, by reason of its inaccessibility, as the refuge of
all criminals and the chief protection of the Celtic Irish nationality in
the South of Ireland. It has now been cut through by public roads, and
civilisation has thus gained admission even to this savage region. The
whole British Empire, and especially England, which, sixty years ago, had
as bad roads as Germany or France then had, is now covered by a network
of the finest roadways; and these, too, like almost everything else in
England, are the work of private enterprise, the State having done very
little in this direction.

Before 1755 England possessed almost no canals. In that year a canal was
built in Lancashire from Sankey Brook to St Helen's; and in 1759, James
Brindley built the first important one, the Duke of Bridgewater's canal
from Manchester, and the coal mines of the district to the mouth of the
Mersey passing, near Barton, by aqueduct, over the river Irwell. From
this achievement dates the canal building of England, to which Brindley
first gave importance. Canals were now built, and rivers made navigable
in all directions. In England alone, there are 2,200 miles of canals and
1,800 miles of navigable river. In Scotland, the Caledonian Canal was
cut directly across the country, and in Ireland several canals were
built. These improvements, too, like the railroads and roadways, are
nearly all the work of private individuals and companies.