As regards the proposal to provide an improved canal, between London and Birmingham, it is suggested that it should have a minimum top width of 45 feet, and a depth of 8 feet. The number of locks proposed is 90 instead of 154, but by adopting a partially new route, so as to avoid the depression in crossing the valley of the Avon, at Warwick, the number may be reduced to 75. The time of transit between Birmingham and London would thereby be shortened by 12 hours, and it is estimated that the additional facilities afforded for the passage of steam-tugged trains of boats, would enable the cost of haulage to be reduced nearly one-half. The carrying capacity of the improved canal has been put at two millions of tons annually, and the cost of the improvements at a million and a quarter. A committee of traders in the Midlands has recently had this project under consideration. FOOTNOTES: [59] Report, Q. 251. CHAPTER VII. THE WATERWAYS OF FRANCE. Within recent years, the advocates of water transport in Great Britain and other countries, have been accustomed to point to France as a notable example of the advantages of improving and extending the internal navigations of a country. It is true that no nation has done more with this end in view. From first to last, France has expended a larger sum on canal navigation than any other nation. Her system of water transport is also in some respects more complete than that of any other country, having been designed and carried out upon a systematic plan, which permits of the ways of water communication being connected with each other, and with the chief centres of population and industry. The waterways of France, are, moreover, mainly owned by, or under the control of the State, which has instituted elaborate inquiries from time to time into the subject of their development and utilisation. It cannot, nevertheless, be claimed for the canals of France, as a rule, that they present any unusual economic or engineering features, although they provide for a low cost of transport, of which we shall have more to say when we come to deal especially with that branch of our subject. A glance at a canal and river map of France, is sufficient to show that in the more important parts of the country, there is a very excellent system of communication by water. Between Dunkerque, Gravelines, and Paris, there is a large traffic carried to the latter city, through an elaborate system of main and lateral canals. The river Seine connects Paris with the ports of Havre and Rouen. From the Belgian frontier, quite a network of canals connect with Paris; and on the German frontier, near Nancy, the Canal de la Marne au de Rhin gives access to the capital, both by the Marne river to the Seine, and by the Oise, through the Aisne canal.