Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). Page numbers enclosed by curly braces (example: {25}) have been incorporated to facilitate the use of the Index. * * * * * A HISTORY OF INLAND TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATION IN ENGLAND BY EDWIN A. PRATT AUTHOR OF "RAILWAYS AND THEIR RATES"; "GERMAN VERSUS BRITISH RAILWAYS"; "RAILWAYS AND NATIONALISATION"; "CANALS AND TRADERS" ETC. LONDON KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & CO., LTD. BROADWAY HOUSE, CARTER LANE, E.C. 1912 National Industries Edited by HENRY HIGGS, C.B. _Large 8vo._ _Cloth gilt._ _Each 6s. net_ The first volumes in this series will be:-- A HISTORY OF INLAND TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATION IN ENGLAND. By Edwin A. Pratt. BANKING AND THE MONEY MARKET. By H. O. Meredith. THE BUILDING TRADES. By A. D. Webb. SHIPPING. By C. J. Hamilton. THE COAL TRADE. By H. Stanley Jevons. {v}PREFATORY NOTE Designed as the introductory volume of a series of books--by various writers--dealing with our "National Industries," the present work aims at telling the story of inland transport and communication from the earliest times to the present date, showing, more especially, the effect which the gradual development thereof, in successive stages, and under ever-varying circumstances, has had alike on the growth and expansion of trade and industry and on the general economic and social conditions of the country. The various phases of inland transport described in the course of the work include roads, rivers, canals, turnpikes, railways, tramways, and rail-less electric traction; and the facilities for communication of which accounts are given comprise packhorses, waggons, stage-coaches, "flying" and mail-coaches, private carriages, posting, hackney coaches, cabs, omnibuses, cycles, motors, motor-buses, commercial motors, and aeroplanes. Reference is (_inter alia_) made to most of the English rivers and to many inland towns; the origin, achievements, and shortcomings of canals are traced; a complete outline of the turnpike system is given; a short history of tramways comprises the leading points therein; the story of the rise, development and prospects of the motor industry is related; while the evolution and development of the railways and their position to-day both as a means of transport and communication and as constituting in themselves a "National Industry" are treated in such a way as to afford, it is hoped, a comprehensive idea of the railway system from its very earliest origin down to the strikes and the {vi}controversy following the close of the Royal Commission of Inquiry in the autumn of 1911.