But, notwithstanding this, when he had begun to build the mill, and prepare the wheels, the people of the neighbourhood were informed by a mill-wright, who happened to travel that road, that Mr. Bennet was throwing his employers money away, and would never be able to complete, to any effectual purpofe, the work he had under taken. Mr. Brindley, hearing of the report, and being fenfible that he could not depend upon his master for proper inftructions, determined to fee, with his own eyes, the mill intended to be copied, Accordingly, without mentioning his defign to a ingle perfon, he fet out, on a Saturday evening, after he had finished the bufinefs of the day; travelled fifty miles on foot; took a view of the mill; returned back, in time for his work, on Monday morning; informed Mr. Bennet wherein he had been deficient; and completed the engine, to the entire fatisfaction of the proprietors. Befides this, he made a confiderable improvement in the pref-paper. Mr. Brindley afterwards engaged in the mill wright bufinefs on his own account, and, by many ufeful inventions and contrivances, advanced it to a higher degree of perfection than it had formerly attained; fo that he rendered himself greatly valued in his neighbourhood, as a moft ingenious mechanic. By degrees, his fame began to spread itself wider in the country, and his genius was no longer confined to the particular branch in which he had hitherto been employed. In the year 1752, he erected a very extraordinary waterengine at Clifton, in Lancashire, for the purpofe of draining fomé coal-mines, which before were worked at an enormous expence. The water for the ufe of this engine was brought out of the river Irwell, by a fubterraneous tunnel, nearly fix hundred yards in length, carried through a rock; and the wheel was fixed thirty feet below the turface of the ground. Mr. Brindley's fuperiority to the mechanics in that part of the kingdom where he refided, being now well afcertained, and his reputation having reached the metropolis, he was employed by N. Pattifon, Efq; of London, and fome other gentlemen, in the year 1755, to execute the larger wheels for a new filk-mill, at Congleton, in Cheshire. The execution of the fmaller wheels, and of the more complex part of the machinery, was committed to another petfon, and that perfon had the fuperintendency of the whole. He was not, however, equal to the undertaking; for he was obliged, after various efforts, to confefs his inability to complete it. The proprietors, upon this, being greatly alarmed, thought fit to call in the affiftance of Mr. Brindley; but ftill left the general management of the conftruction of the filk-mill to the former en gineer, who refufed to let him fee the whole model, and, by giving him his work to perform in detached pieces, without acquainting him with the refult which was wanted, affected to treat him as a common mechanic. Mr. Brindley, who, in the consciousness of ge nius, felt his own fuperiority to the man who thus affumed an afcendency over him, would not fubmit to fuch unworthy treatment. He told the propriétors, that if they would let him know what was the effect they wished to have produced," and would permit him to perform the bufinefs in his own way, he would finish the mill to their fatisfaction. This affurance, joined with the knowledge they had of his ability and integrity, induced them to trust the completion of the mill folely to his care; and he accomplished that very curious and complex piece of machinery in a manner far fuperior to the expectations of his employers. They had not folely the pleasure of feeing it eftablished, with a moft masterly fkill, according to the plan origi nally propofed, but of having it conftructed with the addition of many new and useful improvements. There was one contrivance, in particular, for winding the filk upon the bobbins equally, and not in wreaths; and another for ftopping, in an inftant, not only the whole of this extenfive fyftem throughout its various and numerous apartments, but any part of it individually. He invented, likewife, machines for making all the tooth and pinion wheels of the different engines. Thefe wheels had hitherto been cut by hand, with great labour. But, by means of Mr. Brindley's machines, as much work could be performed in one day as had heretofore required fourteen. The potteries of Staffordshire were alfo, about this time, indebted to him for feveral valuable additions in the mills used by them for grinding flint ftones, by which that procefs was greatly facilitated. In the year 1756, Mr. Brindley undertook to erect a fleam engine, near Newcastle-under-Line, upon a new plan. The boiler of it was made with brick and flone, inflead of iron plates; and the water was heated by fire-flews of a peculiar conftruction; by which contrivances the confumption of fuel, neceffary for working a fteam engine, was reduced one half. He introduced, likewife, in this engine, cylinders of wood, made in the manner of coopers ware, inftead of iron ones; the former being not only cheaper, but more easily managed in the fhafts; and he fubftituted wood too for iron in the chains which worked at the end of the beam. His inventive genius difplayed itself in various other ufeful contrivances, which would probably have brought the fteam engine to a great degree of perfection, if a number of obstacles had not been thrown in his way by fome interested engineers, who ftrenuously oppofed any improvements which they could not call their own. The difappointment of Mr. Brindley's good defigns in this refpect must have made the lefs impreffion upon him, as his attention was foon after called off to another object, which, in its confequences, hath proved to be of the highest national importance; namely, the projecting and executing of INLAND NAVIGATIONS, from whence the greatest benefits arife to trade and commerce. By thefe navigations the expence of carriage is leffened; a communication is opened from one part of the kingdom to another, and from each of thofe parts to the fea; and hence the products and manufactures of the country are afforded at a moderate price. In this period of our great mechanic's life, we fhall fee the powers given him by the God of Nature, difplayed in the production of events, which, in any age lefs pregnant with admirable works of ingenuity than the prefent, would have conftituted a national æra. We shall fee him triumphing over all the fuggeftions of envy or prejudice, though aided by the weight of efablished customs; and giving full fcope to the operations of a ftrong and comprehenfive mind, which was equal to the most arduous undertakings. This he did under the protection of a noble Duke, who had the difcernment to fingle him out, and the fteadiness and generofity to fupport him, against the opinions of those who treated 1 Mr. Mr. Brindley's plans as chimeras, and laughed at his patron as an idle projector. His Grace the Duke of Bridgwater hath, at Worfley, about feven miles from Manchester, a large eftate, that is rich with mines of coal, which had hitherto lain ufelefs in the bowels of the earth, because the expence of carriage by land was too great to find a market for confumption. The Duke wishing to work thefe mines, 'perceived the neceffity of a canal from Worfley to Manchester; upon which occafion, Mr. Brindley, who was now become famous in the country, was confulted. Having furveyed the ground, he declared the scheme to be practicable. In confequence of this, an act was obtained, in the years 1758 and 1759, for enabling his Grace to cut a canal from Worley to Salford, near Manchefter, and to carry the fame to or near Hollin Ferry, in the county of Lancaster. It being, however, afterwards difcovered, that the navigation would be more beneficial, both to the Duke of Bridgwater and the Public, if carried over the river Irwell, near Barton Bridge, to Manchester, his Grace applied again to Parliament, and procured an act, which enabled him to vary the courfe of his canal agreeably to this new plan, and Jikewife to extend a fide branch to Longford Bridge in Stretford. Mr. Brindley, in the mean time, had begun these great undertakings, being the first of the kind ever attempted, in England, with navigable fubterraneous tunnels and elevated aqueducts. The principle Jaid down at the commencement of this bufinefs reflects much honour on the noble undertaker, as well as upon his engineer. It was refolved that the canal should be perfect in its kind, and that, in order to preferve the level of the water, it fhould be free from the ufual obftru&ions of locks. But, in accomplishing this end, many difficulties occurred, which were deemed unfurmountable. It was neceffary that the canal fhould be carried over rivers, and many large and deep vallies, where it was evident that fuch ftupendous mounds of earth must be raised, as could fcarcely, it was thought, be completed by the labour of ages: and, above all, it was not known from what fource fo large a fupply of water could be drawn, as, even upon this improved plan, would be requifite for the navigation. But Mr. Brindley, with a ftrength of mind peculiar to himfelf, and being poffeffed of the confidence of his great patron, who fpared no expence to accomplish his favourite defign, conquered all the embarraffments thrown in his way, not only from the nature of the undertaking itfelf, but by the paffions and prejudices of interefted individuals: and the admirable machines he contrived, and the methods he took, to facilitate the progrefs of the work, brought on fuch a rapid execution of it, that the world began to wonder how it could have been efteemed fo difficult. Thus ready are men to find out pretences for leffening the merit of others, and for hiding, if poffible, from themfelves, the unpleafant idea of their own inferiority. When the canal was completed as far as Barton, where the Irwell is navigable for large veffels, Mr. Brindley propofed to carry it over that river, by an aqueduct of thirty-nine feet above the furface of the water. This, however, being generally confidered as a wild and extravagant project, he defired, in order to justify his conduct towards his noble employer, that the opinion of another engineer might be taken; believing that he could eafily convince an intelligent perfon of the practicability of his defign. A gentleman of eminence was accordingly called in; who, being conducted to the place where it was intended that the aqueduct should be made, ridiculed the attempt; and when the height and dimenfions were communicated to him, he exclaimed, "I have often heard of caftles in the air, but "never before was fhewn where any of them were to be erected.' This unfavourable verdict did not deter the Duke of Bridgwater from following the opinion of his own engineer. The aqueduct was immediately begun; and it was carried on with fuch rapidity and fuccefs, as astonished all those who but a little before condemned it as a chimerical fcheme. This work commenced in September, 1760, and the first boat failed over it on the 17th of July, 1761. From that time, it was not uncommon to fee a boat loaded with forty tons drawn over the aqueduct, with great eafe, by one or two mules; while below, against the ftream of the Irwell, perfons had the pain of beholding ten or twelve men tugging at an equal draught: a ftriking inftance of the fuperiority of a canal-navigation over that of a river not in the tideway. The works were then extended to Manchefter, at which place the curious machine for landing coals upon the tap of the hill, gives a pleafing idea of Mr. Brindley's address in diminishing labour by mechanical contrivances. It may here be obferved, that the bafon, in particular, for conveying the fuperfluous water into the Irwell, below the canal, is an initance of what an attentive furvey of this ingenious man's works will abundantly evince, that, where occafion offered, he well knew how to unite elegance with utility. 'The Duke of Bridgwater, perceiving, more and more, the importance of thefe inland navigations, not only to himself in particular, but to the community in general, extended his ideas to Liverpool; and though he had every difficulty to encounter, that could arife from the novelty of his undertakings, or the fears and prejudices of those whose interefts were likely to be affected by them, his Grace happily overcame all oppofition, and obtained, in 1762, an act of parliament for branching his canal to the tideway in the Merfey. This part of the canal is carried over the rivers Merfey and Bollan, and over many wide and deep vallies. Over the vallies it is conducted without the affistance of a single lock; the level of the water being preferved by raifing a mound of earth, and forming therein a mould, as it may be called, for the water. Acrofs the valley at Stretford, through which the Merfey runs, this kind of work extends nearly a mile. A perfon might naturally have been led to conclude, that the conveyance of fuch a mass of earth must have employed all the horfes and carriages in the country, and that the completion of it would be the bufinefs of an age. But our excellent mechanic made his canal fubfervient to this part of his design, and brought the foil in boats of a peculiar conftruction, which were conducted into caiffoons or cifterns. On opening the bottoms of the boats, the earth was depofited where it was wanted; and thus, in the easiest and fimpleft manner, the valley was elevated to a proper level for continuing the canal. The ground acrofs the Bollan was raised by temporary locks, which were formed of the timber used in the caif foons foons juft mentioned. In the execution of every part of the navigation, Mr. Brindley difplayed fingular fkill and ingenuity; and, in order to facilitate his purpofe, he produced many valuable machines, which ought never to be forgotten in this kingdom. Neither ought the economy and forecaft which are apparent through the whole work to be omitted. His economy and forecast are peculiarly dif cernible in the flops, or floodgates, fixed in the canal, where it is above the level of the land. Thefe ftops are fo conftructed, that, fhould any of the banks give way, and thereby occafion a current, the adjoining gates will rife by that motion only, and prevent any other part of the water from efcaping than what is near the breach between the two gates. • The fuccefs with which the Duke of Bridgwater's undertakings were crowned, encouraged a number of gentlemen and manufacturers, in Staffordshire, to revive the idea of a canal navigation through that county, for the advancement of the landed intereft and the benefit of trade, in conveying to market, at a cheaper rate, the products and manufactures of the interior parts of the kingdom. This plan was patronized, and generously fupported, by Lord Gower and Mr. Anfon; and it met with the concurrence of many perfons of rank, fortune, and influence in the neighbouring counties. Mr. Brindley was, therefore, engaged to make a furvey from the Trent to the Merfey; and, upon his reporting that it was practicable to construct a canal, from one of thefe rivers to the other, and thereby to unite the ports of Liverpool and Hull, a fubfcription for carrying it into execution was fet on foot in 1765, and an act of Parliament was obtained in the fame year. In 1766, this canal, called, by the proprietors, The Canal from the Trent to the Merfey,' but more emphati caily, by the engineer, THE GRAND TRUNK NAVIGATION, on account of the numerous branches which, he juftly fuppofed, would be extended every way from it, was begun; and, under his direction, it was conducted, with great fpirit and fuccefs, as long as he lived. Mr. Brindley's life not being continued to the completion of this important and arduous undertaking, he left it to be finifhed by his brother-in-law, Mr. Henhall; who put the laft hand to it, in May 1777, being fomewhat less than eleven years after its commencement. We need not fay, that the final execution of the GRAND TRUNK NAVIGATION gave the highest fatisfaction to the proprietors, and excited a general joy in a populous country, the inhabitants of which already receive every advantage they could with from fo truly noble an enterprize. This canal is ninety-three miles in length; and, befides a large number of bridges over it, has feventy-fix locks, and five tunnels The most remarkable of the tunnels is the fubterraneous paffage of Harecafile, being two thoufand eight hundred and eighty yards in length, and more than feventy yards below the furface of the earth. The fcheme of this inland navigation had employed the thoughts of the ingenious part of the kingdom for upwards of twenty years before; and fome furveys, as we have feen, had been made. But Harecattle Hill, through which the tunnel is conftructed, could neither be avoided nor overcome by any expedient the ableft engineers could devife. It was Mr. Brindley alone who furmounted this and fuch other difficulties, arifing from the variety of meafures, ftrata, and |