While several new canal projects are in process of incubation the existing canal property of the United Kingdom, which has cost not less than sixty millions sterling, has been allowed to go to rack and ruin by reason of defects and neglect that are quite inexcusable, and which seriously prejudice not only the canals themselves, but the trade and commerce of the country as a whole. The unsatisfactory condition of the waterways of the United Kingdom is sufficiently proved by a few returns that were presented to the Select Committee on canals[50] (1883). At that date there were fifty-seven canals in England and Wales belonging to independent companies, twenty-seven canals and navigations under public trusts, forty-five owned or controlled by railway companies, and fourteen that were either derelict, or had been converted into railways. Of the canals under the control of independent companies, a considerable number were in anything but a flourishing condition, and most of them, apparently, because they entirely failed to meet the requirements of commerce. So far as mere mileage is concerned, the waterways of England, including canals and canalised rivers, are really of very considerable, if not sufficient extent, as the following figures show:— Miles. Owned by public trusts 927¼ Independent canals 1445¼ Guaranteed and owned by railways 1333 Derelict 118½ Ownership not known 36¾ Besides these, there have been about 120 miles of canals converted into railways. But these canals are of very limited use, because of the haphazard and unsystematic way in which they have been laid out. Scarcely any two canals have a common gauge, and upon the same canal several gauges of locks may often be found. The four great industrial rivers of England, and the four most important maritime outlets, are connected with each other by 650 miles of inland waterway. The Thames and the Humber, the Severn and the Mersey, and the Severn, Mersey and the Humber, ought to be placed in communication with each other by as perfect a system of waterways as it is possible to provide. But this desirable end has been frustrated by railway action. In the first group, 175 miles of canal have been acquired by railway companies; in the second group, 490 miles; and in the third group, 360 miles. It has been computed that the average cost of the canals in the first group was 5000_l._, and in the second group 9000_l._ per mile. The railways that connect the same four maritime points have a total mileage of about 9500 miles, and an aggregate capital of about 360 millions.