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 resort to a contract payable in bonds covering all the subjects necessary to be provided for; this course was adopted. The board, with the approval of the Maryland state agents, after advertising for proposals, concluded a contract which was carefully guarded in all its provisions, on the twenty-fifth of September, 1845. For the consideration of $1,625,000 of the bonds to be issued under and pursuant to the act of 1844, the four contractors pledged themselves to commence the work within thirty days and finish the canal to Cumberland within two years, according to the estimate of 1842; they were, also, "to pay to a trustee, for the use of the company, in twenty-one monthly instalments, an aggregate sum of $100,000 in money, to enable the Board of President and Directors to liquidate land claims, engineering, and other incidental expenses—and to pay the interest on the bonds to be issued under the act, until, and including the half year's interest that would fall due, after the work had been finished."

Very soon after the contract was made,