CH. XI. MORAL AND SOCIAL INFLUENCES OF CANALS. 273

classes, came into common use amongst the people. Employment increased, and the difficulties of subsistence diminished. Led by the enterprise of Wedgwood and others like him, new branches of industry sprang up, and the manufacture of earthenware, instead of being insignificant and comparatively unprofitable, which it was before his time, became a staple branch of English trade. Only about ten years after the Grand Trunk Canal had been opened, Wedgwood stated in evidence before the House of Commons, that from 15,000 to 20,000 persons were then employed in the earthenware-manufacture alone, besides the large number of labourers employed in digging coals for their use, and the still larger number occupied in providing materials at distant parts, and in the carrying and distributing trade by land and sea. The annual import of clay and flints into Staffordshire at that time was from fifty to sixty thousand tons; and yet, as Wedgwood truly predicted, the trade was but in its infancy. The tonnage outwards and inwards at the Potteries is now upwards of three hundred thousand tons a-year.

The moral and social influences exercised by the canals upon the Pottery districts were not less remarkable. From a half-savage, thinly-peopled district of some 7000 persons in 1760, partially employed and ill-remunerated, we find them increased, in the course of some twenty-five years, to about treble the population, abundantly employed, prosperous, and comfortable.* Civilization is doubtless a plant of very slow growth, and does not necessarily accompany the rapid increase of wealth. On the contrary, higher earnings, without improved morale, may only lead to wild waste and gross indulgence. But the testimony of Wesley to the improved character of the population of the Pottery district in 1781, within a few years after the opening of Brindley's Grand Trunk Canal,

*The population of the same district in 1861 was found to be upwards of 120,000.

J. B.

T

is so remarkable, that we cannot do better than quote it here; and the more so, as we have already given the account of his first visit in 1760, on the occasion of his being pelted. "I returned to Burslem," says Wesley; "how is the whole face of the country changed in about twenty years! Since which, inhabitants have continually flowed in from every side. Hence the wilderness is literally become a fruitful field. Houses, villages, towns, have sprung up, and the country is not more improved than the people."

CHAP. XII.

WOLVERHAMPTON CANAL.

275

CHAPTER XII.

BRINDLEY'S LAST CANALS - HIS DEATH AND CHARACTER.

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Ir is related of Brindley that, on one occasion, when giving evidence before a Committee of the House of Com mons, in which he urged the superiority of canals over rivers for purposes of inland navigation, the question was asked by a member, "Pray, Mr. Brindley, what then do you think is the use of navigable rivers?" "To make canal navigations, to be sure,' was his instant reply. It is easy to understand the gist of the engineer's meaning. For purposes of trade he regarded regularity and certainty of communication as essential conditions of any inland navigation; and he held that neither of these could be relied upon in the case of rivers, which are in winter liable to interruption by floods, and in summer by droughts. In his opinion, a canal, with enough of water always kept banked up, or locked up where the country would not admit of the level being maintained throughout, was absolutely necessary to satisfy the requirements of commerce. Hence he held that one of the great uses of rivers was to furnish a supply of water for canals. It was only another illustration of the "nothing like leather" principle; Brindley's head being so full of canals, and his labours so much confined to the making of canals, that he could think of little else.

In connection with the Grand Trunk-which proved, as Brindley had anticipated, to be the great aorta of the canal system of the midland districts of England—n”merous lines were projected and afterwards carried out under our engineer's superintendence. One of the most important of these was the Wolverhampton Canal, connecting the Trent with the Severn, and authorised in the same

year as the Grand Trunk itself. It is now known as the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, passing close to the towns of Wolverhampton and Kidderminster, and falling into the Severn at Stourport. This branch opened up several valuable coal-fields, and placed Wolverhampton and the intermediate districts, now teeming with population and full of iron manufactories, in direct connection with the ports of Liverpool, Hull, and Bristol. Two years later, in 1768, three more canals, laid out by Brindley, were authorised to be constructed: the Coventry Canal to Oxford, connecting the Grand Trunk system by Lichfield with London and the navigation of the Thames; the Birmingham Canal, which brought the advantages of inland navigation to the very doors of the central manufacturing town in England; and the Droitwich Canal, to connect that town by a short branch with the river Severn. In the following year a further Act was obtained for a canal laid out by Brindley, from Oxford to the Coventry Canal at Longford, eighty-two miles in length.

These were highly important works; and though they were not all carried out strictly after Brindley's plans, they nevertheless formed the groundwork of future Acts, and laid the foundations of the midland canal system. Thus, the Coventry Canal was never fully carried out after Brindley's designs; a difference having arisen between the engineer and the Company during the progress of the undertaking, in consequence, as is supposed, of the capital provided being altogether inadequate to execute the works considered by Brindley as indispensable. He probably foresaw that there would be nothing but difficulty, and very likely there might be discredit attached to himself by continuing connected with an undertaking the proprietors of which would not provide him with sufficient means for carrying it forward to completion; and though he finished the first fourteen miles between Coventry and Atherstone, he shortly after gave up his connection with the undertaking, and it remained in an unfinished

CHAP. XII.

BOULTON AND WEDGWOOD.

277

state for many years, in consequence of the financial difficulties in which the Company had become involved through the insufficiency of their capital. The connection of the Coventry Canal with the Grand Trunk was afterwards completed, in 1785, by the Birmingham and Fazeley and Grand Trunk Companies conjointly, and the property eventually proved of great value to all parties concerned.

The Droitwich Canal, though only a short branch five and a half miles in length, was a very important work, opening up as it did an immense trade in coal and salt between Droitwich and the Severn. The works of this navigation were wholly executed by Brindley, and are considered superior to those of any others on which he was engaged. Whilst residing at Droitwich, we find our engineer actively engaged in pushing on the subscription to the Birmingham Canal, the capital of which was taken slowly. Matthew Boulton, of Birmingham, was one of the most active promoters of the scheme, and Josiah Wedgwood also bestirred himself in its behalf. In a letter written by him about this time, we find him requesting one of his agents to send out plans to gentlemen whom he names, in the hope of completing the subscription-list.* Brindley did not live to finish the Bir

*The letter is so characteristic | of Josiah Wedgwood that we here insert it at length, as copied from the original in the possession of Mr. Mayer of Liverpool :

"Burslem, 12th July, 1769. "Dear Sir,-I should have wrote to you about young Wilson, but the multiplicity of branches you wrote me he was expected to learn, made me despair of teaching him any. Pray give my compliments to his father, and if he chooses to have his son to learn to be a warehouseman and bookkeeper, which is quite sufficient and better than more for any one person, I will learn him those in the best manner; but, even then, Mr. Wilson must not expect him to be set on the top of a ladder without set

ting his feet upon the lowermost steps; and unless he will let the Boy pursue that method, I would not be concerned with him on any account. I will not attempt to teach him any more trades; it would injure the Boy, and do me no good. If he has a mind at his leisure time to amuse himself with drawing I have no objection, and would encourage him in it, as an innocent amusement, and what may be of use to him, but would not make this a branch of his business. If the business I propose is too humble for Mr. Wilson's son, I would not by any means have him accept of it.

Mr. Brindley desires you'll send 30 plans to each of the undermentioned Gentlemen by the first Waggons, and let us know when they are sent, as we shall advertise them in several of the Country papers: Mr. Walker, of Oxford, Steward to D. of Marlbro'-you may perhaps get