It might further be noted, in this connection, that while in the case of Belgium all the waterways in, or leading into, the country converge to the one great port of Antwerp, in England we have great ports, competing more or less the one with the other, all round our coasts, and the conferring of special advantages on one by the State would probably be followed by like demands on the part of all the others. As for communication between our different ports, this is maintained so effectively by coasting vessels (the competition of which already powerfully influences railway rates) that heavy expenditure on canal improvement could hardly be justified on this account. However effectively the Thames might be joined to the Mersey, or the Humber to the Severn, by canal, the vast bulk of port-to-port traffic would probably still go by sea. Then there are great differences between the physical conditions of Great Britain and those parts of the Continent of Europe where the improvement of waterways has undergone the greatest expansion. Portions of Holland--as everybody knows--are below the level of the sea, and the remainder are not much above it. A large part of Belgium is flat; so is most of Northern Germany. In fact there is practically a level plain right away from the shores of the North Sea to the steppes of Russia. Canal construction in these conditions is a comparatively simple and a comparatively inexpensive matter; though where such conditions do not exist to the same extent--as in the south of Germany, for example--the building of canals becomes a very different problem. This fact is well recognised by Herr Franz Ulrich in his book on "Staffeltarife und Wasserstrassen," where he argues that the building of canals is practicable only in districts favoured by Nature, and that hilly and backward country is thus unavoidably handicapped. Much, again, of the work done on the Continent has been a matter either of linking up great rivers or of canalising these for navigation purposes. We have in England no such rivers as the Rhine, the Weser, the Elbe, and the Oder, but the very essence of the German scheme of waterways is to connect these and other rivers by canals, a through route by water being thus provided from the North Sea to the borders of Russia. Further south there is already a small canal, the Ludwigs Canal, connecting the Rhine and the Danube, and this canal--as distinct from those in the northern plains--certainly does rise to an elevation of 600 feet from the River Main to its summit level. A scheme has now been projected for establishing a better connection between the Rhine and the Danube by a ship canal following the route either of the Main or of the Neckar. In describing these two powerful streams Professor Meiklejohn says, in his "New Geography":--