[13] At the Society of Arts' Conference on Canals, in 1888, Mr L. F. Vernon-Harcourt said:--"The statistics show that great caution must be exercised in the selection of canal routes for improvement, if they are to prove a commercial success, and that the scope for such schemes is strictly limited. Any attempt at a general revival and improvement of the canal system throughout England cannot prove financially successful, as local canals, through thinly populated agricultural districts, could not compete with railways. These routes alone should be selected for enlargement of waterway which lead direct from the sea to large and increasing towns like the proposed canal from the Bristol Channel to Birmingham, or which, like the Aire and Calder Navigation and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, are suitably set for the conveyance of coal and general bulky goods to populous districts. One or two through routes to London from manufacturing centres, or from coal-mining districts, might have a prospect of success, provided the existing canals along the route could be acquired at a small cost, and the necessary improvement works were not heavy." [14] There are even those who argue that the resuscitated canals should be toll free. INDEX Agriculture and canals, 16, 147-150 Aire and Calder Navigation, 86, 132, 135 Allport, Sir James, 37, 81 Aqueducts, 124 Association of Chambers of Commerce, 4, 5 Barnsley Canal, 26 Belgium, waterways in, 93-96, 97 Birmingham Canal, 26, 37, 57-73, 120, 125 Boats, size of, 32, 69, 130 Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal, 26 Brecon Canal, 45 Bridgewater Canal, 13-15, 21, 23-24, 124 Bridgewater, Duke of, 13-15, 23 Bridgwater and Taunton Canal, 45 Brindley, James, 14-15, 16, 124 Brunner, Sir John T., 4 Buckley, Mr R. B., 141 Caledonian Railway Company, 50-54 Canada, waterways in, 128-129 Canals, earliest, in England, 13-22; canal mania, 16; passenger traffic, 18-19; shares and dividends, 21, 26, 27; tolls and charges, 23-25, 27-30; handicapped, 33; attitude towards railways, 34-38; Kennet and Avon, 38-45; Shropshire Union, 47-50; Forth and Clyde, 50-54; "strangulation" theory, 54-55; Birmingham Canal, 57-73; coal traffic, 84-89; canals and waterways on the Continent, 93-103; in the United States, 104-118; in England, 119-141; in Canada, 128-129; conclusions and recommendations, 142-150 Capitalists, attitude of, 3 Carnegie, Mr, 110 Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, 109 Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, 109 Chesterfield Canal, 46, 123 Child, Messrs, 15 Coal, 13, 21, 29-30, 40, 51-53, 81-89 Consignments, sizes of, 78 Continental conditions, 11, 93-103, 139, 140, 141 Cost of reconstruction, 132-136 Cotton, raw, 89-91 Coventry Canal, 26 Cox, M.P., Mr Harold, 140 Cromford Canal, 123 Cumming, Mr T. G., 21, 147-148 Dixon, Professor F. H., 110, 117 Dredging, 43