From the concurring influence of all the considerations above stated, enterprising men have learned, within the eighteenth century, to traverse the most distant seas, with a degree of ease, confidence, and expedition, wholly unknown in any former age. A voyage from Europe or America to India, is now performed in half the time that it cost a hundred years ago; and even a voyage round the world is considered at present as an undertaking scarcely more formidable than a voyage from America to Europe at the beginning of the century in question.

But few things distinguish the eighteenth century more than the extension and the improvements of the system of Inland Navigation. Canals, for the conveyance of small vessels through districts of country not favoured with rivers adequate to the purpose, have been more or less in use for many ages. But, during the last age, the number of these canals has been astonishingly multiplied; various improvements in the construction of them have been adopted; and they have been an incalculable source of convenience, comfort, and wealth.

.

Very early in the eighteenth century the cutting canals in the empire of Russia was undertaken by command of Peter the Great, and prosecuted on a scale of wonderful extent. That celebrated monarch was led to this undertaking by observing the great utility of canals in Holland, by means of which a low and marshy tract of country was converted into a rich, populous, and fruitful territory. Though the emperor did not live to see the completion of his plans, yet, under his auspices,

they were carried on to a considerable length, and continued with great zeal by his successors, especially by the late empress; insomuch that there is, probably, no part of the world where inland navigation is carried through such an extent of country as in Russia; it being possible, in that empire, to convey goods by water four thousand four hundred and seventy-two miles, from the frontiers of China to Petersburg, with an interruption of only sixty-six miles; and from Astracan to the same capital, through a space of one thousand four hundred and thirty-four miles, a tract of inland navigation almost equal to one fourth of the circumference of the earth* !" The number of vessels employed on the different canals of Russia, and the amount of merchandise, of various kinds, for which they furnish means of transportation, almost exceed the bounds of credibility.

Since the undertaking of the Russian emperor, similar improvements have been projected and executed in Sweden, Denmark, France, and Spain; from which very important advantages have resulted to those several countries, and from which many more, by due attention, might be produced. The first navigable canal cut in Great Britain was that undertaken by the duke of Bridgwater, and completed, at his expense, in 1759, for the purpose of forming a communication between his coal works, at Worsley, and the city of Manchester, This work was planned and executed by Mr. James Brindley, an engineer of singular talents, and the author of the present most approved sys

See Phillips's History of Inland Navigation, 4to, chap. iii.

tem of canal navigation *. His great and original genius, the force of mind which he displayed in surmounting the difficulties which were presented in his course,, and the various improvements which he suggested in the formation and management of canals, have been, very deservedly, the subjects of much eulogy by every succeeding artist. After -Mr. Brindley's first successful attempt, canals became popular in Great Britain and Ireland, and a considerable number, some of them on a very large scale, were undertaken in different parts of those countries. Brindley, who died in 1772, was succeeded by Mr. Smeaton, Mr. Whitworth, Mr. Watt, and others, who eminently distinguished themselves as engineers in the same line.

Attempts of a similar kind have been made in the United States, but neither on so large a scale, nor hitherto with so much success as in Europe. The trials, however, which have been made in the States of Connecticut, New York, Virginia, and South Carolina, bid fair to be highly useful, and to afford an honourable specimen of American enterprise. In several of the other States plans of the same kind have been formed, and partly executed; and there is every probability that a few years more will present us with a large amount of this species of improvement in many parts of that country.

* James Brindley, the celebrated engineer, was born in Derbyshire, in the year 1716. He early devoted himself to mechanical pursuits, and was bred a mill-wright. His astonishing enterprise, and useful improvements in the formation of aqueducts, canals, &c., are generally known, and will long do honour to his memory, He died in 1772, in the fifty-sixth year of his age.

CHAPTER VIII.

AGRICULTURE.

No art is of more ancient date than this. It employed our first parents in Paradise; and has been more or less an object of pursuit in all ages. Like almost every other object of human attention, however, it has undergone numberless revolutions of decline and revival, in different periods, and among different nations. In Egypt, in Palestine, in Greece, in Persia, and in the Roman empire, this art successively rose into importance, flourished under various wise encouragements, and gradually declined with the learning, taste, and industry of the respective countries. From the time of Constantine the Great, to the beginning of the seventeenth century, the annals of agriculture furnish little worthy of attention. About the latter period, in consequence of many laudable efforts made by men of influence, and the publication of several valuable works on the subject, this art began to revive in France, and in Flanders. The inhabitants of those countries endeavoured for a considerable time to conceal the means which they used for improving and increasing the productiveness of their lands. Whoever, therefore, became desirous of receiving instruction in their method of husbandry, was under the necessity of visiting their country, and observing for himself. We are told

that the French, at this period, were in the habit of using nine different sorts of manure; but of the nature of each we are not informed. It is also said that they were the first people among the moderns, who ploughed in green crops, for the sake of fertilizing the soil; and who confined sheep in sheds at night, for the purpose of increasing the amount of their compost manure*.

Agriculture next revived in Great Britain. To this, there is reason to believe, the writings of sir Hugh Platt very much contributed. He discovered, or brought into use, many new kinds of manure, and, perhaps, contributed more to the improvement of the art of cultivating the earth, than any other individual of the age in which he lived. He was succeeded by Hartlib, a writer much esteemed in his day, but by no means equal to his predecessor. The exertions of these men, and others of less note, together with the peculiar circumstances of the nation, prompted persons of the greatest influence to encourage agriculture, to regard it as the most certain and productive source of wealth to their country, impoverished by preceding wars, and to promote its improvements with zeal. But this flourishing era of husbandry was of short continuance. At the Restoration, the country gentlemen relapsed into negligence and dissipation; surrendered the rural honours which they had before sought with so much eagerness, and left them to be pursued by the least enlightened part of the community.

Happily, however, this decline, like the preced

*See Encyclopædia, art. Agriculture.