and more than seventy yards below the surface of the earth. Many of the first engineers had been invited to give plans for this Canal before Mr. Brindley was called to the undertaking; but Harecastle-Hill had always proved to them an insurmountable difficulty, arising from the variety of soil and quicksands, which he alone found means to overcome. Another Canal of his construction was completed in 1772, connecting the port of Bristol, by inland navigation, with those of Liverpool and Hull; being forty-six miles in length. Another, which was three years in executing, united Birmingham, by a cut of twenty-six miles in extent, with the above; thus affording, by a junction with the river Severn, the means of distributing the manufactures of all those large towns with great facility over many parts of England in which they were scarcely known before. It would be tedious to detail the many vast works which he designed and directed in various distant counties. His activity was unceasing; his zeal yielded to no obstacles; he endured the jealousy and opposition of ignorance and prejudice, steadily persevering in his plans, and never failing to triumph over all his rivals. And having thus rendered the most important services to his country, he died at the age of fifty-six, at Turnhurst, in Staffordshire, on the 30th of September, 1772. Brindley, owing to the poverty of his parents, never received the advantages of regular instruction, he explored his way to knowledge by the unassisted energies of his own mind. This led him to singular habits of study and of calculation, incompatible with a more regular education. When he had any great scheme in prospect, it was his practice to retire to bed, where he would sometimes meditate for several days together, until his plans were matured. would then rise and proceed to execute them at once, seldom making drawings, which he considered as so much lost time in the execution of his well-digested arrangements. Another method peculiar to himself was the working his calculations by memory to an amazing extent, and having conducted them thus to a He certain point, he would put down only the results in figures. Then resuming his calculation, he proceeded as before, until the whole was completed, in a progression which he could scarcely by description render intelligible to another person. The Caledonian Canal exhibits a splendid example of the scientific improvements which have been made in this most important branch of engineering. The project was recommended so early as the year 1773, by the celebrated Mr. Watt, with a view of uniting the eastern and western seas of Scotland, and thereby saving a circuitous and dangerous navigation round the northern coast in the winter season. On a slight inspection of the map of Scotland, it will be seen that the lochs (or lakes) which extend in a direct line from Fort William towards Inverness, present great facilities for such a communication; and it is highly probable that previous to the great convulsion of nature, which altered the whole face of our globe, this was a channel or strait, severing the northern extremity of Scotland into a distinct island. It was proposed to connect these lochs, by means of a Canal; a plan which, though commanding great natural advantages, left many formidable difficulties to be overcome, owing to the mountainous nature of the country which was to be intersected. The scheme, however, was not abandoned. In 1803, Mr. Telford presented to government a very able report and plan for its accomplishment, which having been approved by Parliament, an act was obtained for the purpose, and that gentleman, assisted by Mr. Jessop, was appointed to superintend the execution. The whole. distance from sea to sea is 59 miles, of which 22 comprizes the line of Canal, and 37 miles the navigation of the lochs, two of which were deepened at great expense, and with much skill and labour. The Canal is of sufficient dimensions for the passage of a small frigate, being 20 feet in depth and 110 feet wide. This magnificent work employed one thousand men for nearly twenty years, and the entire cost amounted to nearly one million sterling. The mas terly manner in which the whole has been executed, is highly creditable to the able engineers to whom the direction was confided. In estimating the importance of the great public improvements which have been produced within our own times, we cannot but contemplate with wonder the mighty operation of that extended system of internal commerce, which has effected so striking a change in the character of those districts remote from the metropolis. When the opening of Canals became general throughout the kingdom, manufactories were few, machinery imperfect, and the number of hands employed extremely limited. The great towns of Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham bore no resemblance nor comparison with their present condition. A large portion of that wealth, and intelligence, and enterprise, which we now behold, has been created by this facility of communication, without which speculation must necessarily have failed. The impulse thus given to trade invited similar exertions in agricultural produce, the price of which naturally increased with the demand, and enabled the cultivator to purchase those articles for which the manufacturer had now a ready conveyance. The intercourse thus established between the principal manufacturing towns, supplied a still greater energy to every species of production, facilitating the transport of the raw material, and the exchange of those commodities which were mutually advantageous and profitable. A taste was thus created for various articles of consumption, which gradually became necessary to the domestic comfort of those, whose fathers had lived unconscious of their existence;-knowledge spread with this rapidly increasing communication, and industry and ingenuity were quickened by mutual excitement. The construction of Canals necessarily introduced an immediate improvement in the roads branching from them, and these in their turn led to the increase and improvement of wheel carriages. Thousands who lived in retirement, were induced by these accommodations, to quit the obscurity of their native abodes, and caught the spirit of enterprise from their more distant countrymen, with whom an intercourse was then first opened. It is thus that we must view each great public improvement in connexion with others to which it is allied; for it never operates singly, but involves consequences uncalculated by the first projector. When Brindley applied the great powers of his understanding to overcome the various natural impediments in the formation of Canals, he could not possibly anticipate these consequences, which arose from the enlarged facilities thus given to trade and manufactures; nor amidst the practical objects which engrossed his daily attention, did he foresee that events of the greatest political importance would spring from the enlarged means thus given to the increase of national wealth, or that in promoting an intercourse through every part of this kingdom, the moral character and condition of his countrymen would be deeply affected. Under all these stimulating causes, the population of the British islands increased with extraordinary rapidity. If we admit that the wide extension of our commerce and manufactures has led to much individual profligacy and misery, we should also reflect upon the eminent blessings they have brought us as a nation. We should acknowledge how much the individual comforts of the people at large have been increased by those improvements, although in their production it must be confessed that the manufacturer himself has been sometimes led, by evil association and unequal wages, to dissolute habits and all their fatal consequences. If the decline of some sources of employment has left a portion of the labouring classes to the necessity of seeking other means of existence, it is unjust to charge their peculiar misfortunes upon a system which has on the whole so greatly benefited the community. Far be it from us to join in the mistaken opinion of some ignorant men, who maintain that few suffer ex cept those who are idle or improvident. Many, doubtless, during the period of high wages, neglect the opportunity of laying up provision for a time of need; but many industrious and deserving families are thrown upon the charity of their wealthier neighbours, by the mere cessation of those occupations which depend on fluctuating or transient circumstances, and who have an undoubted claim upon our benevolence when thrown out of employ. While we endeavour to defend our national improvements from the unmerited reproach of causing distress, we are free to acknowledge that this distress is the consequence of a too rapid increase of population, which must decline when the excitement is withdrawn; and that it is our duty to alleviate by our utmost exertions, that poverty which we cannot wholly relieve, and which seems to be the inevitable lot of the great bulk of mankind, under whatever form of government or circumstances of association they may be found. L. THE LIGHT-HOUSE. "High o'er the summit, through the gloom of night. WHOEVER has approached a dangerous coast in dark and tempestuous weather, and has explored with anxious eye the dubious entrance to his destined port; whoever has listened, as we have, to the surf roaring on the beach, while the labouring ship carried a press of sail to keep an offing, and has marked the sudden joy of the helmsman when he descried the distant beacon twinkling through the gloom; whoever has experienced these sensations, can fully comprehend the value of a Light-house. This invention is of great antiquity, perhaps coeval with commerce; for long before the mariner's compass was known in Europe, the ancients had constructed such edifices to mark the opening to their harbours, and to guard vessels from striking upon |