Washington, himself, was one of the first to appreciate the importance of canals. In his early life the father of his country was a land surveyor, in which capacity he became very familiar with the requirements of the region of the Potomac. Both in this employment, and subsequently, when in 1754 he commanded a military expedition to the Monongahela river, Washington was constantly seeking to improve transportation facilities. He was especially eager to have a waterway opened between the Chesapeake and the Ohio. The War of Independence for a time diverted his ideas from this purpose, but when the war was over he obtained a charter for a waterway between the great lakes and the Hudson, and became the first President of the company formed for its construction. Washington, therefore, stands, in relation to the waterways of the United States, in the same position as the Duke of Bridgwater does in regard to the canal system of our own country, Peter the Great in reference to the canal system of Russia, and Louis XIV. in relation to the canal system of France. It must be admitted that in every case the system has had a worthy sponsor. In 1792, an Act was passed by the Legislature of the State of New York, incorporating two companies—one, the “Western Inland Lock Navigation Company,” charged with the duty of constructing a canal, with locks, between the upper waters of the Mohawk and those flowing into Lake Ontario; the other, the “Northern Inland Lock Navigation Company,” charged with the construction of a similar work from the Hudson to Lake Champlain—between which there is a remarkable depression in the general surface of the country. This Act, drawn up and mainly carried through the exertions of General Schuyler, was the first and most important step taken towards the construction of a general system of public works for the country. The objective point aimed at by the Western Company was Lake Ontario, at Oswego, by way of Wood’s Creek, Oneida Lake, and the Oswego River. At that time, however, the great enterprise which was to follow—a canal from the Hudson to Lake Erie was not dreamt of. The purposes of the promoters were as distant from the ultimate result as those of Edward Pease and George Stephenson were when they planned the Stockton and Darlington Railway. In 1796, the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company was formed in the United States for the purpose of opening up some of their projected inland waterways. This company constructed several small canals, but its operations were unsuccessful, and in 1808 it surrendered all its rights and property to the State for the sum of 140,000 dollars (28,000_l._), which was only one quarter of their original cost.