speedily reach Montrose will scarcely be doubted; and though the eastern coast to the north of this port presents some embarrassing acclivities, yet we scruple not to predict that a quarter of a century will scarcely elapse before the great eastern line shall reach Inverness, the capital of the Highlands. When this grand object is gained, the value of the Caledonian Canal will then be recognised by the blindest and dullest of its detractors. It will stand forth the connecting link between the great lines of traffic which embroider the skirts of our otherwise deserted shores-the grand aortal trunk into which the arteries of the south will pour their exuberant wealth. The remotest Highlands will then become a suburb of the imperial metropolis. The fruits of the south will be gathered in climates where they could not grów; and, while the luxuries of the East are sweetening the coarse fare of the mountaineers, the more intellectual imports of civilisation and knowledge will gradually dispel the ignorance and feudal barbarism which still linger among their fastnesses.

Trusting that this subject will, in the next session, occupy. the attention of Parliament, we have felt it to be our duty to submit to our readers the foregoing observations; the more that we have heard it rumoured that rather than advance so large a sum as L. 150,000, Government will allow this great national work to fall into decay. But we will never believe that such a decision could proceed from any other cause than popular clamour too loud for any Government to resist; and we will not think so meanly of our countrymen as to believe them capable of furnishing such an excuse.

The Commission for the Improvement of the Highlands by Roads and Bridges, to which we have already referred, has proved one of the most useful that ever was appointed by Parliament. Previous to the year 1732, the roads in the north of Scotland were merely the tracks of black cattle and horses, intersected by nnmerous and rapid streams, and often so much swollen with heavy rains as to be dangerous, or altogether impassable. Between 1732 and 1750, several military roads were constructed; but as their object was not to extend the commerce or develope the industry of the country, they were, both from their steepness and the directions in which they were made, almost unfit for the purposes of civil life; and although bridges had been erected over the smaller streams, yet the principal rivers, the Tay, the Spey, the Beauly, and the Conan, were crossed by inconvenient and dangerous ferries. These military roads, which were of course maintained at the public expense, amounted at one time to 800 miles, and included no fewer than 1000 bridges. Till

1770 they were dependent on the War-Office, or more immediately on the commander-in-chief for Scotland. The sum granted for this purpose, from 1770 to 1783,was L.7000 annually; from 1783 to 1803 it was L.4700, and for the next ten years it was L.5500.

After procuring information from the Highland Society of Scotland on various points connected with this great undertaking, Mr Telford made a survey of the Highlands in 1802; and, when a committee of the House of Commons had duly investigated the subject, and taken the evidence of many witnesses, they_appointed, in 1803, the Board of Commissioners, of which Mr Telford, Mr Hope, and Mr Rickman, were the active officers. The report of this Board in 1821, which Mr Telford has published, is a document of great interest and value, teeming with the most important and useful information; and Mr Telford cannot be charged with using exaggerated language when he says, that the works performed during eighteen years, constitute an amount of improvement scarcely equalled in any other part of the world within the same number of years.

The principle upon which the Board proceeded, was to require from one or more landowners, in any district, a formal applition, stating that a road through this district would be of great public and private benefit, and that the proprietors were willing to contribute one-half the expense of making it. The engineer then laid before the Board a survey, report, and estimate; and when this had been approved of by the Commissioners, the memorialists were called upon to lodge one-half of the estimated expense in the Bank of Scotland, the other half to be supplied by Government. In this manner 920 miles of new roads were executed, and 117 bridges. Of the latter, there were 1075 of one arch, the span varying from ten to sixty-five feet, and the total breadth of waterway 10,198 feet; thirteen of two arches, sixteen of three arches, and two of five arches. Besides these bridges, eleven were built under separate contracts, one of which, at Dunkeld, has seven arches; three, viz. Conan, Lovat, and Ballater bridge, have five arches; one at Craigellachie has four arches; five, viz. Bonar, Potarch, Wick, Alford, and Fairness, have three arches; and one at Helmsdale has two arches. Of these, Bonar and Craigellachie are of iron. The total number of arches was 1202, and the total breadth of waterway 14,686 feet. The expense of these important works exceeded L.450,000, of which L.200,000 was contributed by the Highland proprietors, and L.250,000 by the country. The average expense of these roads has been under L.600 a mile;

but in some cases very great difficulties had to be surmounted, and in these an additional expense was incurred. When the roads passed through districts devoid even of a horse track or any accommodation for travellers, it became necessary to employ inferior materials until the new line became passable for carts to some spot where flat-bedded stones could be procured. On the Sutherland or Tongue road, the lime for mortar was carried upwards of twenty miles in sacks on the backs of horses; while in the Isle of Skye the arch stones of the bridges were imported by sea.

While the Highland roads and bridges were in progress, the liberality of Government to Scotland was still further displayed. To the same Board of Commissioners they instrusted the sum of L.500,000, obtained from the Forfeited Estates Fund, for the purpose of paying one-half of the cost of improving several harbours in the north of Scotland; and this sum was judiciously expended under Mr Telford's direction on the Harbours of Peterhead, Banff, Fraserburgh, Burgh Head, Cullen, Tobermory, and many others. Nor did the liberality of the Government stop here. In 1823, a parliamentary grant of L.50,000 was given for building Highland churches and manses, all of which were executed from Mr Telford's designs, under the direction of the same Board of Commissioners. The last of these churches was built in 1830. No fewer than forty-three of these buildings were erected; and, in the present mania for church-extension and additional endowments, we cannot do better than quote the observations of the Commissioners relative to the history and result of this grant.

་

The liberality of the legislature has been exercised in such a manner as rather to conceal than display its amount. The original grant of L.50,000, and about L.10,000 expended in general management, in legal conveyances of land, and in the superintendence of works locally remote and scattered, represent (on cursory inspection) the entire benefit conferred; but the religious services of forty-two additional ministers in perpetuity, have not been obtained for less than L.5040 per annum; that is, for a perpetual annuity worth about L. 120,000, which, with the abovementioned grant and expenditure, amounts to no less than L.180,000 appropriated to the advancement of religion in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.*

As the engineer of the Caledonian Canal, Mr Telford's reputation had now extended itself far beyond his native country; and foreign sovereigns were eager to obtain his counsel and his assist

The number of persons accommodated in these new churches estimated at 22,000.

ance in carrying on works of a similar kind. It had long been an object of the Swedish Government to obtain a navigable communication between the Baltic and the German Ocean without passing the Sound. The country between Soderkoping and Gottenburg was eminently adapted to such an undertaking-possessing two fresh-water lakes 133 miles long; and a very considerable step had been made by the formation of the Trolhata Canal from Wenernsborg to Gottenburg, which had been completed in 1800 by M. Nordwall, and had succeeded to such a degree as to yield nine per cent on the capital invested.

Count Platen, a director of this canal, perceiving the advantages of extending it from the Wenern to the Baltic, obtained the King's permission to have the line surveyed by an experienced British engineer. The Count therefore applied in 1808 to Mr Telford, who, having assented to his proposal, proceeded with two assistants to Sweden, and commenced his operations early in August. By the aid, as well as the judicious arrangements of the Count, he was enabled to execute a regular survey, and lay down correct plans and sections of the country between Lake Wenern and the Baltic; and, having made a detailed report on the subject, he embarked for Scotland early in October.

The revolution which took place in Sweden in 1809, did not thwart this great national undertaking. In 1810, the King granted a charter to a joint-stock company for carrying Mr Telford's report into effect. The length of the whole navigation, including locks, was about one hundred and twenty miles, and the artificial canal fifty-five miles. The breadth of the canal's bottom was to be forty-eight feet, the depth of water eighteen feet, and the slope of the sides thirty. The locks, which were fifty-six in number, were to be twenty-four feet broad. In August 1813, Mr Telford visited Sweden, and inspected all the works, which consisted chiefly of excavations. He determined the sites. of the locks, bridges, and aqueducts; and, by the aid of experienced lock-builders and earth-workers from England, who instructed the Swedish labourers, the canal was completed, and opened for public use, we believe, in 1822. On this auspicious occasion, two large gold medals were struck, and one of each presented to Mr Telford. The King likewise conferred upon our distinguished countryman a Swedish order of knighthood, and presented him with his portrait set in diamonds.

But it was not merely from the King of Sweden that Mr Telford received these marks of regard. The Russian Government, anxious to promote the study of civil engineering within their dominions, sent over two young men to receive instructions on this subject in England. They were recommended to Mr Tel

ford's notice, and received from him all that kindness and attention which he invariably bestowed on every species of merit. When the Emperor of Russia learned from Count Romanzoff the obligations which these young men owed to Mr Telford, he sent him a splendid diamond ring as a mark of his gratitude.

After Mr Telford had made his arrangement for the Caledonian Canal, he was requested by the Earl of Eglinton and others to examine a project for forming a canal from the city of Glasgow to Saltcoats; on the northern shore of the bay of Ayrshire, passing near Paisley, and eventually extending to Ardrossan. The length of this canal was to be thirty-one miles, and its summit level 110 feet above the sea; and as it was to pass through the manufacturing districts of Paisley, Johnstone, Lochwinnoch, Kilwinning, and Saltcoats, having a dense population along its whole line, a canal more useful and more likely to yield a great revenue could scarcely have been suggested. From Glasgow to Greenock the Clyde was so shallow that large vessels were obliged to tranship their cargoes with lighters twenty miles below the city; and, owing to the rectangular form of the river below Greenock, ships were often detained there by contrary winds. For these reasons the canal met with universal approbation; an Act of Parliament was obtained, the work was placed under Mr Telford's direction, and the first ten miles from Glasgow to Paisley were executed. The derangement, however, which about this time took place in the mercantile world was so great, that the manufacturers, who were the principal supporters of the canal, found it inconvenient to proceed with the work, and at this moment the canal extends only to Paisley.

We have mentioned these particulars in order to show, as Mr. Telford has done, how the most reasonable undertakings may be rendered unnecessary from the rapid progress of invention and discovery; and how singularly this undertaking has been affected by a succession of most unexpected inventions, the effect of which has been, even in Mr Telford's opinion, to render a canal navigation to Saltcoats scarcely necessary.

The first of these changes in the navigation of the Clyde consisted in constructing alternate jetties half-way across from the banks of the river, and of deepening the shore several feet by means of the dredging-machine. In this manner large vessels were enabled to discharge their cargoes at the Glasgow wharfs at the Broomielaw.

The next change was the introduction of steam-boats, which disregarded every obstacle in the river; and, by dragging vessels against adverse winds, removed all reasonable complaints respecting their detention below Greenock.