Brindley’s last great work was the projection of a canal from Leeds to Liverpool; but owing partly to the difficulties of the country passed through, and partly to the scarcity of labourers through the continental wars, the canal was not completed throughout until 1816, long after Brindley’s death. The summit of this canal is in the wild and stony district of Pendle Forest, where are situated the great reservoirs—one being over a hundred acres in extent—which feed the higher levels of the canal with water. These reservoirs are maintained in repair and efficiency at the present day by the owners of the numerous stone quarries of the district, to whom the canal offers great facilities for transit. Under Rennie and Telford, canal construction was continued, and old methods were improved upon. The Barton aqueduct of Brindley sank into insignificance before the works of these later engineers, whose canals, instead of winding round the hillsides to avoid cuttings, were led through hills and over valleys regardless of obstacles. Besides the completion of English canals, we owe to these two men the construction of the canal from the Forth to the Clyde and the Caledonian Canal, in Scotland; and the two parallel canals in Ireland which connect Dublin with the Atlantic. Thus, in half a century was the country covered with a network of waterways, giving an impulse to manufactures which had hitherto been shut out from foreign markets. About the end of last century, a great impulse was given to the traffic on the canals by a Mr Baxendale, the agent of Pickford, the well-known carrier. By his efforts, a thorough system of canal communication was established and maintained, and greater punctuality was observed in the arrival and departure of the boats. Express or fly boats also came into use for the more important merchandise and for passenger traffic. On the Bridgewater Canal, they plied with passengers between Manchester and Liverpool; and in the neighbourhood of the larger towns they conveyed the market-women home to the surrounding villages. In 1798, many of the troops for the Irish campaign were conveyed by canal from London to Liverpool. When the railway systems were projected, some of their greatest opponents were the canal Companies, who fancied they saw in the new mode of transit, utter ruin to their own traffic. It was said that the canals would soon become useless and overgrown with weeds, and it was even proposed to buy up the canal Companies, fill in the water-channels, and lay down the line of rails in their stead. But in spite of all these dark forebodings, and notwithstanding the utility of the new method as compared with the old, the canals still maintain their ground. Their traffic since the advent of the railways has steadily increased; canal shares are usually considered safe stock, and therefore seldom change hands. Both systems of communication have their advantages; and whilst the locomotive is the great economiser of