Page:The Canal System of England.djvu/22

 II.—

Apparently, our canal system had never before presented so brilliant a prospect, but a blow seems to have been struck at its development and progress by the invention and perfection of the steam engine, and the corresponding introduction of railways.

The projectors of this new method of transit met with strong opposition from two very powerful classes of the community—land-owners, and canal-owners.

From September 30th, 1830, the day on which the first railway was opened between Manchester and Liverpool, this new method of transport proceeded almost without interruption. It gave to the country the equivalent of swiftly navigable rivers, and as its ramifications extended, land-owners found their property increasing instead of decreasing in value, while the years 1840-1846 saw the people of this country possessed by what has been aptly termed "the railway mania."

It is a significant fact that although in 1846 such Canals as the Trent and Mersey and the Oxford were paying dividends of 20%—30%, yet many of the Canal owners of this country, expecting that their invested capital would be rendered valueless, attempted to coerce and some succeeded in coercing the Railway Companies into purchasing their Canals. The Railway Companies, realising that in buying up the canals, they were stifling future