neral use of waterways, throughout the
kingdom for the cheaper transport of our heavier and more bulky produce,
would be a national boon; and a Royal Commission was engaged in
considering the subject of the acquisition of all canals as Government
property. {129a}

It is now being more and more recognised that, on the establishment of
railways, everyone jumped too hastily to the conclusion that the days of
canals were over; whereas, in truth, there is still a large field,
probably an increasing field, for the cheaper traffic in heavy goods,
which canals can provide for. The Belgian town of Bruges, though
situated several miles inland, is now to be converted into a port by the
government of that country, through the creation of a canal, which is
expected to increase the prosperity of that city. Similarly it is
suggested that our own town of Nottingham could be made a great inland
port, if water carriage were provided; and Sir John Turney, before the
Royal Commission, has recently (July, 1907) stated that the trade of that
town might thus be greatly increased. These, be it remembered, are not
isolated cases.

[Picture: On the Canal]

As to our own local interests, we may reasonably regret that, after so
much money being invested in the Horncastle Canal, and the serious losses
incurred by so many investors, no further effort should be made to
utilize it. The trade of Horncastle is not so satisfactory but that we
might welcome every adjunct, which could in any way contribute to its
furtherance; while, even from an aesthetic point of view, it were
desirable that, with the present dilapidated locks, and the banks in some
places broken, the channel, which is in parts little more than a shallow
bed of mud, befouled by garbage and carrion, or choked by a matted growth
of weeds, should be superceded by a flow of water, pure and emitting no
pestiferous exhalations.

THE RAILWAY.

In few things has there been more remarkable evolution, or we might even
say, revolution, than in our methods of locomotion. In these days of
historic pageants we might well conceive of a series of scenes passing
before us, shewing the means adopted at different periods, or under
different conditions, in this respect. The war-chariot of Queen
Boadicea, charging the legions of Caesar, or (in our own neighbourhood)
that of the British warrior Raengeires, routing his Saxon foes, at
Tetford, with their wheels of solid