There is, also, that very important consideration, from a transport standpoint, of the "length of haul." Assuming, for the sake of argument (1) that the commercial conditions were the same in Great Britain as they are on the Continent; (2) that our country, also, consisted of a "great lowland plain"; and (3) that we, as well, had great natural waterways, like the Rhine, yielding an abundant water supply;--assuming all this, it would still be impossible, in the circumscribed dimensions of our isles, to get a "length of haul" in any way approaching the barge-journeys that are regularly made between, say, North Sea ports and various centres in Germany. The geographical differences in general between Great Britain and Continental countries were thus summed up by Mr W. H. Wheeler in the discussion on Mr Saner's paper at the Institution of Civil Engineers:-- "There really did not seem to be any justification for Government interference with the canals. England was in an entirely different situation from Continental countries. She was a sea-girt nation, with no less than eight first-class ports on a coast-line of 1,820 miles. Communication between these by coasting steamers was, therefore, easy, and could be accomplished in much less time and at less cost than by canal. There was no large manufacturing town in England that was more than about 80 miles in a direct line from a first-class seaport; and taking the country south of the Firth of Forth, there were only 42-1/2 square miles to each mile of coast. France, on the other hand, had only two first-class ports, one in the north and the other in the extreme south, over a coast-line of 1,360 miles. Its capital was 100 miles from the nearest seaport, and the towns in the centre of the country were 250 to 300 miles from either Havre or Marseilles. For every mile of coast-line there were 162 square miles of country. Belgium had one large seaport and only 50 miles of coast-line, with 227 square miles of country to every square mile. Germany had only two first-class ports, both situated on its northern coast; Frankfort and Berlin were distant from those ports about 250 miles, and for every mile of coast-line there were 231 square miles of country. The necessity of an extended system of inland waterways for the distribution of produce and materials was, therefore, far more important in those countries than it was in England."