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 of lands through or near which the said canals or either of them, may, or may be proposed to, pass, to all bodies politic and corporate, public or private, and all citizens or inhabitants of this or any other of the United States, for cessions, grants or donations of land or money, for the purpose of aiding in the constructing or completing of both or either of the said canals, according to the discretion of the several grantors or donors, and to take to the people of this state, such grants and conveyances as may be proper and competent to vest a good and sufficient title in the said people to the lands so to be ceded or granted as aforesaid, and for the purposes above-mentioned, it shall be the duty of the said commissioners to open books of subscription in such and so many places as they may think necessary and expedient, and under such rules and regulations as they may from time to time establish: And further, it shall be their duty to ascertain whether to any and to what amount, and upon what terms loans of money may or can be procured on the credit of this state, for the purpose aforesaid.