THE GENERAL HISTORY OF INLAND NAVIGATION; CONTAINING A COMPLETE ACCOUNT OF ALL THE CANALS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM, WITH THEIR VARIATIONS AND EXTENSIONS, ACCORDING TO THE AMENDMENTS OF ACTS OF PARLIAMENT TO JUNE 1803. AND A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CANALS OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES. BY JOHN PHILLIPS, SENR. SOMETIME SURVEYOR TO THE CANALS IN RUSSIA UNDER FOURTH EDITION. LONDON: PRINTED BY AND FOR C. AND R. BALDWIN, OF NEW - тс 744 P56 1303 This work having passed through three editions in quarto, the Author has been advised, for the purpose of a still more general circulation, to abridge it of such matter as was least useful; which has enabled him not only to reduce it to a moderate price, but also to add a large quantity of new and important information. He has also given the plan of a lock to save water, which will be found worthy of particular attention in such places as are liable to a deficiency. PREFACE. NOTWITHSTANDING the great success and approbation which my History of Inland Navigation, in one large volume quarto, has met with, yet the expense of such a work in such a form being necessarily great, I have thought that, as every person, whether engaged in agriculture or commerce, is more or less interested in the inland navigation of the country, an abridged edition, at a price within the reach of almost every reader, could not fail to be highly useful and acceptable. In this edition, however, though much of the more unimportant part of my larger work has been omitted, yet many considerable additions and improvements have been made, and some errors have been corrected, and upon the whole I think it will be found as useful, and in some respects even superior to the original publication. Notwithstanding the great and obvious advantages which have been reaped from inland navigation in every country where it has been practicable by nature, or rendered so by art, prejudices still exist against it in the minds of many well meaning, though not well informed, persons. To bring to the more |