(4) Through connexions between the Midland and the South-Western systems are provided (a) by the Midland and South-Western Junction line connecting Cheltenham on the north-and-west line of the Midland with Andover Junction on the South-Western line; and (b) by the Somerset & Dorset line, connecting the same lines between Bath, Templecombe and Bournemouth. (5) The line from Shrewsbury to Craven Arms and Hereford, giving connexion between the north and the south-west, and Wales, is worked by the North-Western and Great Western companies. Canals and rivers. _Inland Navigation._--The English system of inland navigation is confined principally to the following districts: South Lancashire, the West Riding of Yorkshire, the Midlands, especially about Birmingham, the Fen district and the Thames basin (especially the lower part). All these districts are interconnected. The condition of inland navigation, as a whole, is not satisfactory. The Fossdyke in Lincolnshire, connecting the river Trent at Torksey with the Witham near Lincoln, and now belonging to the Great Northern and Great Eastern joint railways, is usually indicated as the earliest extant canal in England, inasmuch as it was constructed by the Romans for the purpose of drainage or water-supply, and must have been used for navigation at an early period. But the history of canal-building in England is usually dated from about 1760, and from the construction, at the instance of Francis, Duke of Bridgewater, of the Bridgewater canal in South Lancashire, now belonging to the Manchester Ship Canal Company. The activity in canal-building which prevailed during the later years of the 18th century was, in a measure, an earlier counterpart of the first period of railway development, which, proceeding subsequently along systematized lines not applied to canal-construction, and providing obvious advantages in respect of speed, caused railways to withdraw much traffic from canals. Some canals and river navigations have consequently become derelict, or are only maintained with difficulty and in imperfect condition. The inland navigation system suffers from a want of uniformity in the size of locks, depth of water, width of channels and other arrangements, so that direct intercommunication between one canal and another is often impossible in consequence; moreover, although the canals, like railways, are owned by many separate bodies, hardly any provision has been made, as it has in the case of railways, for such facilities as the working of through traffic over various systems at an inclusive charge. Lastly, the railway companies themselves have acquired control of about 30% of the total mileage of canals in England and Wales, and in many cases this has had a prejudicial effect on the prosperity of canals. Notwithstanding these disabilities, there has been in modern