Monday, _December_ 22, 1806. "Saturday the 8th Regiment embarked at the Paddington Canal for Liverpool, in a number of barges, each containing 60 men. This regiment consists of 950 men. The 7th Regiment embarked at the same time in eighteen barges: they are all to proceed to Liverpool. The Dukes of York and Sussex witnessed the embarkation. The remainder of the brigade was to follow yesterday, and Friday next another and very considerable embarkation will follow." [2] Illustrations of the Origin and Progress of Rail and Tram Roads, and Steam Carriages, or Locomotive Engines. By T. G. Cumming, Surveyor, Denbigh, 1824. [3] A Letter on the subject of the projected Rail-road between Liverpool and Manchester, pointing out the necessity for its adoption, and the manifest advantages it offers to the public; with an exposure of the exorbitant and unjust charges of the Water-Carriers. By Joseph Sandars, Esq., Liverpool, 1825. [4] Mersey and Irwell Navigation. [5] Another of the speakers, Mr Gordon C. Thomas, engineer to the Grand Junction Canal Company, said that "notwithstanding the generous expenditure on maintenance, and the large sums recently spent upon improvements, the through traffic on the Grand Junction was only one-half of what it was fifty years ago, and now the through traffic was in many cases unable to pay as high a rate as the local traffic." [6] In the evidence he gave before the Royal Commission on Canals and Waterways on 21st March 1906, Sir Herbert Jekyll, Assistant Secretary to the Board of Trade, said (as reported in _The Times_ of 22nd March):--"One remarkable feature was noticeable--that, although the tonnage carried rather increased than diminished between 1838 and 1848, the receipts fell off enormously, pointing to the conclusion that the railway competition had brought about a large reduction in canal companies charges. It was also noteworthy that on many canals the decrease in receipts had continued out of all proportion to the decrease, if any, in the tonnage carried." [7] In Mr Saner's paper the Birmingham Canal navigations are classed among the "Independently-Owned Canals," and Mr Saner says:--"There are 1,138 miles owned by railway companies, which convey only 6,009,820 tons per annum, and produce a net profit of only £40 per mile of navigation. This," he adds, "appears to afford clear proof that the railways do not attempt to make the most of the canals under their control." But when the Birmingham Canal, with its 8,000,000 tons of traffic a year, is transferred (as it ought to be) from the independently-owned to the railway-controlled canals, entirely different figures are shown. [8] The fact that coal tipped into a canal boat would have a longer drop than coal falling from the colliery screen into railway waggons is important because of the greater damage done to the coal, and the consequent decrease in value.