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C H A P. II.

OF THE IMPORTANCE OF CANAL NAVIGATION, AND THE BENEFITS
 ARISING TO SOCIETY BY EASY COMMUNICATIONS.


 	Although the numerous canals which have been executed within the last thirty years, have exhibited their utility to such persons as have reflected on the subject, yet I may venture to say, that many see their advantages in a limited view, while more than half the inhabitants if England are totally ignorant of their importance, to every district through which they pass.
	
	Like the government of China, the legislature of every country should be particularly attentive to the reduction of the expense and delays of carriage, and to the formation of easy communication between different and distant provinces; as agriculture and commerce will improve, and happiness spread, in proportion as the facility of conveyance increases.

	In the early and limited associations of society, while men were kept under by forests, morasses, and in accessible  hills, their knowledge must have been circumscribed and their convenience few. The rude implements employed in mechanics and tillage, would occasion much labor in proportion to the produce, and though artisans, either by design or by accident, might greatly facilitate their work by a superior contrivance of instruments, yet the difficulty intercourse would confine the knowledge of such advantages, and prevent the improvement extending to others who might equally require it, hence, in different districts, particular expedients might be used in performing the various operations; yet, being practiced in a limited circle, each community might remain ignorant of the other's advantage;  and this state of things in great measure continues in every country, but particularly between distant  nations. 

	The Chinese, for instance, possess many advantages of which we are ignorant, and they certainly are unacquainted with many of ours yet, was a free communication between the two countries established, the particular improvements of each, in all probability, would combined to the benefit of both. But, even under the same government , or in the same province, it is some time before a combination of knowledge can take place, but in proportion as the of communication is removed, the spirit of enterprise increases and neighboring associations begin to mingle, their habits customs assimilate, each transmits its improvements to the other, and each feels the beneficial effects resulting from the union. 

	This system of intercourse, and benefit, would continue to extend, as the difficulties which withheld, or obstructed, it were removed, and eventually small societies would become a large and social compact; bringing their various improvements into one common flock: a knowledge of mechanics would spread, and greater comforts would result from less labor.

	An active man thus situated, and feeling himself by this means in possession of more than was absolutely necessary for his substance, would indulge his natural propensity to barter: each would with to dispose of the surplus of his particular labor, in order to purchase a portion of labor of others, which his necessities, or luxury, might require; thus the farmer barters his surplus with the tradesmen; the tradesman his with the farmer; the towns exchange the work of their artisans for that of the country; the country its produce for that of the town; the carpenter, the smith, the weaver, the tailor, the tanner, the shoemaker, the butcher, the brewer, &c. artisans, and professions of all kinds, have reciprocal demands on each other; for not only the elegancies, but not even necessities, of life.

	It is indeed curious to reflect how, by the refinement of art, and division of labor, the united exertions of thousands as trifling, yet absolutely necessary to the comforts of existence.

	"Observe"," says Adam Smith, "the accommodation of the most common artificer or day-laborer. in a civilized and thriving country; and you will perceive that the number of people whose industry a part,. though but a  small part, has been employed in procuring him this accommodation, exceeds all computation: the woolen coat, for example, which covers the day laborer, as coarse and rough as it may appear, is the produce of joint labor of a great multitude of workmen, the shepherd, the sorter of the wool, the wool-comber or carder, the dyer, the scribbler, the spinner, the weaver, the dresser, with many others, must join their different arts in order to complete even homely production. How many merchants and carriers, besides, must have been employed in transporting the materials from some of those workmen to others; who often live in a very different part of the country? How much navigation and commerce in particular; how many ship-builders, sailors, rope-makers, must have been employed in order to bring together the different drugs made use of by the dyer, which often come from the remote corners of 
the world ? What a variety of labor is necessary  in order to produce the tools of the meanest  of those workmen ? To say nothing of such complicated machines, as the ship of the sailor, the mill of the fuller, or even the loom of the weaver, let us only consider what a variety of labor is requisite in order to form that very simple machine, the shears with which the shepherd clips the wool; the miner, the builder of the furnace for smelting the ore, the feller of the timber, the burner of the charcoal to be made use of in the smelting house, the forger, the smith, must be joined in their different arts in order to produce them: were we to examine, in the same manner, all the different parts of his dress, arid household furniture, the coarse linen shirt which he wears next his skin, the shoes which covers his feet, the bed he lies on, and all the different parts which compose it, the kitchen grate in which he prepares his victuals, the coals which he makes use of for that purpose, dug from the bowels of the earth, and brought to him perhaps by a long sea and a long land carriage, all the other utensils of his kitchen, all the furniture of his table, the knives, the forks, the earthen or pewter plates, upon which he serves up and divides his victuals, the different hands employed in preparing his bread, and his beer, the glass window which lets in the light, and keeps out the wind and rain, with all the knowledge and art requisite for preparing that beautiful and happy invention, without which the northern parts of the world could scarce have afforded a comfortable habitation, together with the tools of all the different workmen employed in producing the different conveniences, if we examine, I say, all these things, and consider what a variety of labor is employed about each of them, we shall be sensible that, without the assistance and-operation of many thousands, the very meanest person in a civilized country could not be provided, even according to what we may falsely imagine, the eafy and simple manner in which he is commonly accommodated: compared, indeed, with the more extravagant 
luxury of the great, his accommodation must no doubt appear extremely simple and easy and yet it may be true, perhaps, that the accommodation of an European Prince does not always so much exceed that of an industrious and frugal and frugal peasant, as the accommodation of the latter exceeds that of an African kin, the abfolute master of the lives and liberties of ten thousand naked savages."

	Hence we see conveniences, esteemed the most trivial, are the produce of reciprocity ; each has a variety of wants which must be supplies by the labors of others; and for which he gives his labor, or the produce of his labor, which is the same thing, in exchange. An easy communication with foreign nations, or the distant parts of the same country, extends to the market, and facilitates the transfer, while the was of the transfer stimulates the active powers to exertion

	Thus an easy communication brings remote parts into nearer alliance, combines the exertions of men, distributes their labors through a variety of channels, and spreads with greater regularity the blessings of life.

	Men in commercial intercourse mingling with men, imperceptibly lose their local prejudices, and their customs gradually assimilate, while remote from each other, and destitute of easy communication, retain those prejudices, injurious to the mass of society.

	Easy communications to the different districts of a nation, also renders it more independent of its neighbors, by collecting and bringing forth its internal resources; which circumstance must have greatly
greatly contributed, perhaps have constituted, the entire independence of Egypt, China, and India:  it is worthy of observation, that, in these countries, where canals were most  in use, they never encouraged foreign commerce; but seem to have arrived at their great opulence by a home trade, circulated through their extensive and numerous Navigations;  indeed,  if agriculture and its dependencies may be considered as the stamina of society, a well directed, and judicious, labor, would easily produce the comforts (if not the elegancies) of life Egypt, though not so extensive as England, in former ages contained many millions of inhabitants, and, as it is before observed, they did not draw their resource from other countries, the produce of agriculture must have been immense, and the principal support of the great body of the people. We are taught to believe, they were so attentive to this, that not an inch of ground was left , the whole country being like a continued garden. This seems the more probable, when the peculiar advantages of the country are considered.
 
	Egypt is a stripe of land 550 miles in length; and in the greatest width, from Alexandria to Damittia, not more than 125 miles , from thence it decreases in width till it approaches Nubia , where it is confined between two chains of mountains, and contracted to little more than two or fifteen miles in breadth; through the whole length, the Nile descends to the Mediterranean Sea; it may therefore be considered a rich valley well watered. As the country is flat, and of an easy descent from one extremity to the other, it enabled the EgyptiAns to cut canals from any level they thought proper, and to commence so high as to continue the same level to any determined point; those cuts, which answered the double purpose of reservoirs to retain the waters of the Nile and of canals to convey the various produce, were so numerous as not only to touch at every town and village, but even at many of the farm houses; added to these extraordinary advantages of water carriage, nature performed a most material work for the farmer, by mingling with the stream the soil of the Abyssnia and Nubia, which being deposited as a sediment, and spread over every field and corner of Egypt, by the overflowing of the Nile, formed a rich and revitalization manure.


	We cannot conceive a more regular distribution of the nutritious particles of earth, than was produced by these inundation’s; which not only enriched, but meliorated, the soil ; hence little more was left for the diligence of the farmer than to sow his grain, and cover it with a harrow;  thus the Egyptian obtained an abundant harvest with a moderate degree of labor. 

	Here it is interesting to take a comparative view of such a level country as Egypt, and one diversified by mountains. The nearer  a hilly country can approach, by art, such an equal distribution of manure as the Nile effected, so much nearer will be to the perfecting of agriculture, and the enjoyments of life; it is, indeed, curious to consider the infinity of labor which the inundation’s saved, and which consequently might have been directed to other works ; ! the whole process of collecting, preparing, and depositing the compost on the grounds, was saved to the Egyptian laborer, with numerous other preparations requisite to the agriculture of an irregular country.

	But observe the immense number of lands employed in such a country as England, in digging marle, and fossil sand, in quarrying lime-stone, in mining for coal to burn the lime; and, in bringing it, remark the engines, kilns, implements, and apparatus requisite to facilitate these operations; from theses the labor necessary in their conveyance to the grounds, the wear of roads, wagons, carts, harness, &c. &. the wheel-wrights, smiths and other artisans employed in constant repairs; also, the wagoners, the carters, and, above all, the number of horses employed, each of which consumes the portion of manual labor which would support a human being; of the whole train of which the Egyptians were relieved,a nd, being dispensed with, saved so much nourishment to the people.

	Deliberate on these circumstances, and disparity is certainly great, which loudly calls for the exertion of mental faculties, and the improvement of mechanics. Here art should assemble all her engines to supply the defect of situation; man must open the repositories of nature; mix, with chymic skill, the various ingredients, and strew them on his fields. Nature having distributed her fructifying particles in wild confusion; it is with them as with the cultivation of man, to render them productive, , they must be brought into union; and this can only be accomplished by improved conveyance. In this operation, canals must be considered like the looms of the draper of hosier; or those improved machines, which reducing the labor, yet multiply the produce; and consequently render the necessaries, and conveniences, of life more abundant; by being more abundant they are by every member of society, within their circulation, with greater ease; the easy means of procuring the accommodations increases the population of a country, and population, creating a greater demand, proceeds to further improvement. Such have been the progressive steps of civilization; and to which there appears to be no boundary!


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