The carrying business required a great deal of personal supervision.  Only a man of determined spirit and indomitable energy could have done it.  He had a flying boat in which he rapidly passed along the canals, seeing that the men were at their posts, that the agents were at work, and the traffic duly provided for.  He did this by night as well as by day.  At other times, he would fly along the roads in his special travelling carriage,—­always paying the highest prices to the innkeepers, in order that he might secure the best horses, and avoid delay and loss of time.  He would overtake his vans, and see that his men were sober, and that they were well forward at the stations along the road; that their blunderbusses were loaded (for highway robbery was then one of the risks of travelling by road), that the agents were doing their duty, and that everything was in proper order.

Besides overtaking the vans, he would sometimes travel by a by-road—­for he knew nearly every road in the country—­push on, and then double back upon his drivers, who never knew whether he was before or behind them; and thus general vigilance became the rule of all.  By these and various other means the business of the concern was admirably done, and the carrying trade of the country was brought to as high a state of perfection as was compatible with the then state of the roads and canals.

When all this had been accomplished, the disturbing influence of railways began.  “I see mischief in these confounded iron roads,” said the Duke of Bridgewater.  But the time for railways had arrived, and they could not be postponed.  The first railroads were used for the conveyance of coals from the pits to the seaside, where they were shipped for London.  Then it was proposed that they should be laid for the conveyance of goods from town to town; and the largest traffic being in Lancashire, one of the first railways was constructed between Liverpool and Manchester, from which towns they were afterwards constructed in all directions throughout the country.

Had Mr. Baxendale resisted the new means of conveyance, he would, before long, have been driven off the road.  But he clearly foresaw the ultimate triumph of the railway system; and he went with it, instead of against it.  He relieved the Liverpool and Manchester Company of a great deal of trouble, by undertaking to manage their goods’ traffic and by collecting and delivering it at both towns.  Then, when the railways from Warrington to Birmingham and from Birmingham to London were projected, he gave evidence before the committees of Parliament, in proof of the estimated traffic.  And when the lines were made, he transferred the goods from his carrying vans to the railway.  He thus became a great railway carrier, collecting and delivering goods in all the cities and towns served by the railways which had by that time become established.