Part 1199

The second great stage in the development of canal transport is of comparatively recent origin. It may, in fact, be said to date only from the time when the construction of a canal across the Isthmus of Suez was proved to be not only practicable as an engineering project, but likewise highly successful as a commercial enterprise. Not that this was by any means the first canal of its kind. On the contrary, … the ancients had many schemes of a similar kind in view across the same isthmus. The canal of Languedoc, constructed in the reign of Louis XIV., was for that day as considerable an undertaking. It was designed for the purpose of affording a safe and speedy means of communication between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean; it has a total length of 148 miles, is in its highest part 600 ft. above the level of the sea, and has in all 114 locks and sluices. In Russia, canals had been constructed in the time of Peter the Great, for the purpose of affording a means of communication between the different inland seas that are characteristic of that country. The junction of the North and Caspian Seas, of the Baltic and the Caspian, and the union of the Black and the Caspian Seas, had all been assisted by the construction of a series of canals which were perhaps without parallel for their completeness a century ago. In Prussia a vast system of inland navigation had been completed during the last century, whereby Hamburg was connected with Dantzic, and the products of the country could be exported either by the Black Sea or by the Baltic. In Scotland the Forth and Clyde Canal, and the Caledonian Canal, were notable examples of artificial navigation designed to connect two seas, or two firths that had all the characteristics of independent oceans; and the Erie Canal, in the United States, completed a chain of communication between inland seas of much the same order. But, although a great deal had been done in the direction of facilitating navigation between different waters by getting rid of the 'hyphen' by which they were separated anterior to the date of the Suez Canal, this grand enterprise undoubtedly marked a notable advance in the progress of the world from this point of view. The work was at once more original and more gigantic than any that had preceded it. … The Suez Canal once completed and successful, other ship canal schemes came 'thick as autumnal leaves in Vallombrosa.' Several of these were eminently practical, as well as practicable. The Hellenic Parliament determined on cutting through the tongue of land which is situated between the Gulfs of Athens and Lepantus, known as the Isthmus of Corinth. This isthmus divides the Adriatic and the Archipelago, and compels all vessels passing from the one sea to the other to round Cape Matapan, thus materially lengthening the voyages of vessels bound from the western parts of Europe to the Levant, Asia Minor and Smyrna. The canal is now an accomplished fact. Another proposal was that of cutting a canal from Bordeaux to Marseilles, across the South of France, a distance of some 120 miles, whereby these two great ports would be brought 1,678 miles nearer to each other, and a further reduction, estimated at 800 miles, effected in the distance between England and India. The Panama Canal (projected in 1871, and actually commenced in 1880) is, however, the greatest enterprise of all, and in many respects the most gigantic and difficult undertaking of which there is any record. The proposed national canal from sea to sea, proposed by Mr. Samuel Lloyd and others for Great Britain, the proposed Sheffield Ship Canal, the proposed Irish Sea and Birkenhead Ship Canal, and the proposed ship canal to connect the Forth and the Clyde, are but a few of many notable examples of the restlessness of our times in this direction. … There are not a few people who regard the canal system almost as they might regard the Dodo and the Megatherium. It is to them an effete relic of a time when civilisation was as yet but imperfectly developed. … Canals do, indeed, belong to the past. … That canals also belong to the present, Egypt, the American isthmus, Manchester, Corinth, and other places, fully prove, and, unless we greatly err, they are no less the heritage of the future."

_J. S. Jeans, Waterways and Water Transport, section 1, chapter 1._

"'The sea girt British Isles have upwards of 2,500 miles of canals, in addition to the Manchester Ship Canal, which is thirty-five and one-half miles, and is said to be one of the most remarkable undertakings of modern times.' … In 1878, Germany had in operation 1,289 miles of canals, and had ordered the construction of 1,045 miles of new canals. Belgium has forty-five canals. Italy, Hungary, Sweden, Holland and Russia have their respective systems of canals. France has expended a larger amount of money than any other European nation, to provide for canal navigation, and in 1887 the total length of its canals was 2,998 miles. About forty-eight per cent of the tonnage of that Republic was transported on its waterways. The average capacity of boats used therefor was 300 tons. The total length of the canals in operation in the United States in 1890 was upwards of 2,926 miles."

_H. W. Hill, Speech on Canals in New York Constitutional Convention of 1894._

"In most of the leading countries of the world, a time arrived when the canal system and the railway system came into strong competition, and when it seemed doubtful on which side the victory would lie. This contest was necessarily more marked in England than in any other country. England had not, indeed, been the first in the field with canals, as she had been with railways. … But England having once started on a career of canal development, followed it up with greater energy and on a more comprehensive scale than any other country. For more than half a century canals had had it all their own way. … But the railway system, first put forward as a tentative experiment, and without the slightest knowledge on the part of its promoters of the results that were before long to be realised, was making encroachments, and proving its capabilities. This was a slow process, as the way had to be felt. The first railway Acts did not contemplate the use of locomotives, nor the transport of passenger traffic. The Stockton and Darlington Railway, constructed in 1825, was the first on which locomotives were employed.

See Steam Locomotion (page 3029).

Even at this date, there were many who doubted the expediency of having a railroad instead of a canal, and in the county of Durham … there was a fierce fight, carried on for more than twenty years. In the United States, the supremacy of waterways was maintained until a much later date. … {3726} A keen and embittered struggle was kept up between the canal and the railroad companies until 1857; and even in the latter year the Legislature of the State of New York, finding that railway competition was making serious inroads upon their canal traffic, were considering whether they should not either entirely prohibit the railways from carrying freight, or impose such tolls upon railway tonnage as would cripple the companies in their competition with canals. … The agitation, however, came to nothing. It had no solid bottom. It was an agitation similar in kind to that which had disturbed Europe when Arkwright's spinning machine and Compton's mule were taking the place of hand labour. The clamour suddenly collapsed, and was never heard of afterwards. Meanwhile the railway system proceeded apace. The records of human progress contain no more remarkable chapter than that which tells of the growth of American railroads. … In the annals of transportation, there is no more interesting chapter than that which deals with the contest that has been carried on for nearly half a century between the railways and the lakes and canals for the grain traffic between Chicago and New York. This contest is interesting, not only to Americans, as the people who are engaged in it, and whom it more directly concerns; but also to the people of Europe, and of Great Britain in particular, the cost of whose food supplies is affected thereby. … The circumstances of the Erie Canal are, however, exceptional. Seldom, indeed, do railway freights run so low as they do on the 950 miles of rail way that separate Chicago from New York. Over this distance, the great trunk lines have recently been carrying freight at the rate of 15 cents, or 7½ d. per 100 lbs. This is equivalent to about 14 s. per ton, or exactly 0.174 d. per ton per mile. There is probably no such low rates for railway transport in the world. But this low rate is due entirely to the competition of the lakes, rivers, and canals."

_J. S. Jeans, Waterways and Water Transport, chapters 26-27._

"The early railroad engineers overestimated the speed which could be readily attained. Fifty years ago it was generally expected that passenger trains would soon run at rates of from seventy-five to one hundred miles an hour—a prediction which has as yet remained unfulfilled. On the other hand, they underestimated the railroad's capacity for doing work cheaply. It was not supposed that railroads would ever be able to compete with water-routes in the carriage of freight, except where speedy delivery was of the first importance. Nor was it at that time desired that they should do so. The first English railroad charter contained provisions expressly intended to prevent such competition. A generation later, in the State of New York itself, there was a loud popular cry that the New York Central must be prohibited from carrying freight in competition with the Erie Canal. The main field of usefulness of railroads, and the means by which that field was to be developed, were not merely ignored, they were positively shunned. This period of railroad infancy ended about the year 1850. The crisis of 1847 marked its close in England. The Revolution of 1848-51 was the dividing line on the continent of Europe. The land grants of 1850, and the formation of three trunk lines from the seaboard to the interior may be taken as the beginning of the new era in the United States. It began to be seen and felt that a steam railroad was something more than an exaggerated turnpike or horse railroad, and that it had functions and laws of its own. The changes were: first, the consolidation of old roads; second, the construction of new ones in a great variety of conditions; third, and most important, the development of traffic by cheap rates and new methods. … Under all these influences the railroad mileage of the world increased from 20,000 in 1850 to 66,000 in 1860, 137,000 in 1870, 225,000 in 1880, and [406,416 in 1893.—'Archiv für Eisenbahnwesen']. … Rapid as has been the growth of the railroad mileage, traffic has kept pace with it. It is estimated that the total number of tons moved in 1875 was about 800,000,000. At present [1885] it is about 1,200,000,000 annually, while the passenger movement has increased from 1,400,000,000 to 2,400,000,000. If we could take distance as well as quantity into account, the change (for freight at any rate) would be still greater. To a certain extent this increased intensity of use of railroads is due to improvements in engineering; to a much greater extent it is the result of improved business methods. … Between 1850 and 1880 rates were reduced on an average to about one half their former figures, in spite of the advance in price of labor and of many articles of consumption. A variety of means were made to contribute to this result. The inventions of Bessemer and others, by which it became possible to substitute steel rails for iron, made it profitable for the railroads to carry larger loads at a reduction in rates. Improvements in management increased the effective use of the rolling stock, while the consumption of fuel and the cost of handling were diminished. By other changes in railroad economy it became possible to compete for business of every kind, with the best canals or with natural water-courses. The railroad rates of to-day are but a small fraction of the canal charges of two generations ago; while in volume of business, speed, and variety of use there is an inestimable advance."

_A. T. Hadley, Railroad Transportation, chapter 1._

"The railway mileage in the United States on June 30, 1893, was 176,461.07 miles. This shows an increase during the year of 4,897.55 miles, being an increase of 2.80 per cent. The previous report showed an increase during the year ending June 30, 1892, of 3,160.78, being an increase of 1.88 per cent over the mileage of the year 1891. The rate of increase from 1886 to 1887 was 9.08 per cent; from 1887 to 1888, 6.05 per cent; from 1888 to 1889, 3.22 per cent; from 18139 to 1890, 4.78 per cent; and from 1890 to 1891, 2.94 per cent. … The total number [of men] in the service of railways in the United States on June 30, 1893, was 873,602, being an increase of 52,187 over the number employed the previous year."

_Interstate Commerce Commission, Statistics of Railways, 1883 pages 11 and 31_.

COMMERCE: End--------

COMMON LAW, History of.

See LAW (page 1956).

COMMUNISM.

See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS (page 2932).

COMPURGATION, Disappearance of.

See LAW, CRIMINAL: A. D. 1166 (page 1981).

CONGO STATE, The.

See (in this Supplement) AFRICA.

{3727}

CONNECTICUT, Early provision for education in.

See EDUCATION, MODERN (page 729).

CONNECTICUT BLUE LAWS.

See (in this Supplement) BLUE LAWS.

CONSTANTINOPLE: LIBRARIES.

See LIBRARIES, ANCIENT (page 2006).

Mediæval Commerce.

See (in this Supplement) COMMERCE, MEDIÆVAL.

CONSTITUTION OF BELGIUM: Start--------

On page 2304 of this work, under NETHERLANDS (BELGIUM): A. D. 1892-1893, there is given some account of the revision of the constitution of the kingdom, in 1893, and the peculiar new features introduced in its provisions, relative to the elective franchise. The following is a translation of the text of the revised constitution:

Title I. Of the Territory and of its Divisions.

Article 1. Belgium is divided into provinces, these provinces are: Antwerp, Brabant, Western Flanders, Eastern Flanders, Hainaut, Liège, Limburg, Luxemburg, Namur. It is the prerogative of law, if there is any reason, to divide the territory into a larger number of provinces. Colonies, possessions beyond the seas or protectorates which Belgium may acquire, are governed by particular laws. The Belgian forces appointed for their defense can only be recruited by voluntary enlistment.

Article 2. The subdivisions of the provinces can be established only by law.

Article 3. The boundaries of the State, of the provinces and of the communes can be changed or rectified only by a law.

Title II. Of the Belgians and their Rights.

Article 4. The title Belgian is acquired, preserved and lost according to the regulations determined by civil law. The present Constitution, and other laws relating to political rights, determine what are, in addition to such title, the conditions necessary for the exercise of these rights.

Article 5. Naturalization is granted by the legislative power. The great naturalization, alone, assimilates the foreigner to the Belgian for the exercise of political rights.

Article 6. There is no distinction of orders in the State. Belgians are equal before the law; they alone are admissible to civil and military offices, with such exceptions as may be established by law in particular cases.

Article 7. Individual liberty is guaranteed. No person can be prosecuted except in the cases provided for by law and in the form which the law prescribes. Except in the case of flagrant misdemeanor, no person can be arrested without the order of a judge, which must be served at the time of the arrest, or, at the latest, within twenty-four hours.

Article 8. No person can be deprived, against his will, of the judge assigned to him by law.

Article 9. No punishment can be established or applied except by provision of law.

Article 10. The domicile is inviolable; no domiciliary visit can be made otherwise than in the cases provided for by law and in the form which it prescribes.

Article 11. No person can be deprived of his property except for public use, in the cases and in the manner established by law, and with prior indemnity.

Article 12. The penalty of confiscation of goods cannot be imposed.

Article 13. Civil death is abolished; it cannot be revived.

Article 14. Religious liberty, public worship, and freedom of expressed opinion in all matters are guaranteed, with a reserve for the repression of offenses committed in the exercise of these liberties.

Article 15. No person can be compelled to join, in any manner whatsoever, in the acts and ceremonies of any worship, nor to observe its days of rest.

Article 16. The State has no right to interfere in the appointment nor in the installation of the ministers of any religion, nor to forbid them to correspond with their superiors and to publish their acts under the ordinary responsibility of publication. Civil marriage shall always precede the nuptial benediction, with the exceptions to be prescribed by law in case of need.

Article 17. Teaching is free; all preventive measures are forbidden; the repression of offenses is regulated only by law. Public instruction given at the expense of the State is also regulated by law.

Article 18. The press is free; censorship can never be re-established; caution-money from writers, editors or printers cannot be required. When the author is known and is a resident of Belgium, the editor, the printer or the distributor cannot be prosecuted.

Article 19. Belgians have the right to meet peaceably and without arms, in conformity with such laws as may regulate the use of their right but without the requirement of a previous authorization. This stipulation does not apply to open air meetings, which remain entirely subject to police regulations.

Article 20. Belgians have the right of association; this right cannot be subject to any preventive measure.

Article 21. It is the right of every person to address to the public authorities petitions signed by one or several. The constituted authorities alone have the right to address petitions in a collective name.

Article 22. The secrecy of correspondence is inviolable. The law determines who are the agents responsible for violation of the secrecy of letters confided to the post.

Article 23. The use of the languages spoken in Belgium is optional; it can be prescribed only by law, and only for acts of public authority and for judicial transactions.

Article 24. No previous authorization is necessary for the undertaking of proceedings against public officials, on account of acts in their administration, except that which is enacted concerning ministers.

Title III. Of Powers.

Article 25. All powers are derived from the nation. They are exercised in the manner prescribed by the Constitution.

{3728}

Article 26. Legislative power is exercised collectively by the King, the Chamber of Representatives and the Senate.

Article 27. The initiative belongs to each one of the three branches of the legislative power. Nevertheless, all laws relating to the revenue or to the expenditures of the State, or to the contingent of the army must be voted first by the Chamber of Representatives.

Article 28. The interpretation of laws by authority belongs only to the legislative power.

Article 29. The executive power, as regulated by the Constitution, belongs to the King.

Article 30. The judicial power is exercised by the courts and tribunals. Decrees and judgments are executed in the name of the King.

Article 31. Interests exclusively communal or provincial, are regulated by the communal or provincial councils, according to the principles established by the Constitution.

Chapter First.—Of The Chambers.

Article 32. Members of both Chambers represent the nation, and not merely the province or the subdivision of province which has elected them.

Article 33. The sittings of the Chambers are public. Nevertheless, each Chamber forms itself into a secret committee on the demand of its president or of ten members. It then decides by absolute majority whether the sitting on the same subject shall be resumed publicly.

Article 34. Each Chamber verifies the powers of its members and decides all contests on the subject that may arise.

Article 35. No person can be at the same time a member of both Chambers.

Article 36. A member of one of the two Chambers who is appointed by the government to any salaried office, except that of minister, and who accepts the same, ceases immediately to sit, and resumes his functions only by virtue of a new election.

Article 37. At every session, each Chamber elects its president and its vice-presidents and forms its bureau.

Article 38. Every resolution is adopted by the absolute majority of the votes, excepting as may be directed by the rules of the Chambers in regard to elections and presentations. In case of an equal division of votes, the proposition brought under deliberation is rejected. Neither of the two Chambers can adopt a resolution unless the majority of its members is present.

Article 39. Votes are given by the voice or by sitting and rising; on "l'ensemble des lois" the vote is always taken by the call of the roll of names. Elections and presentations of candidates are made by ballot.

Article 40. Each Chamber has the right of inquiry [or investigation].

Article 41. A bill can be passed by one of the Chambers only after having been voted article by article.

Article 42. The Chambers have the right to amend and to divide the articles and the amendments proposed.

Article 43. The presenting of petitions in person to the Chambers is forbidden. Each Chamber has the right to refer to ministers the petitions that are addressed to it. Ministers are required to give explanations whenever the Chamber requires them.

Article 44. No member of either Chamber can be prosecuted or called to account for opinions expressed or votes given by him in the performance of his duties.

Article 45. No member of either Chamber can be prosecuted or arrested in affairs of repression, during the session, without the authorization of the Chamber of which he is a member, except the case be "de flagrant delit." No bodily constraint can be exercised against a member of either Chamber during the session, except with the same authorization. The detention or the prosecution of a member of either Chamber is suspended during the whole session if the Chamber so requires.

Article 46. Each Chamber determines by its rules the mode in which it will exercise its powers.

Section I.—Of the Chamber of Representatives.