Page:Rivers, Canals, Railways of Great Britain.djvu/215

 company £60,000 over and above what had been paid out of the rates; and as more money was wanted for repairs of dams, &amp;c. the company are hereby empowered to make a call of twenty per cent. upon the capital stock, besides eight and a half per cent. which remained uncollected of the previous per centages.

The last act relating to this navigation, was obtained principally with a view of confirming certain arrangements relating to the waste and salt marshes adjoining the Dee, and is totally void of any thing of public interest; it is dated 10th June, 1791, and entitled,  'An Act for confirming an Agreement entered into between the Company of Proprietors of the Undertaking for recovering and preserving the Navigation of the River Dee, and certain Lords of Manors and other Persons entitled to Right of Common upon the Wastes and Commons, and the Old Common Salt Marshes, lying on the South Side of the said River, below or to the North-East of Greenfield Gate, in the county of Flint, and an Award made in consequence thereof' 

Though Chester is a port into which, in the year 1824, twenty-four English and four Foreign ships entered, yet it falls into perfect insignificance, when placed in comparison with the neighbouring port of Liverpool, into which one thousand five hundred and fifty-four English and five hundred and ten Foreign ships entered its capacious docks in the year above-mentioned. And, as a proof of the small revenue derived from this navigation, we need only to observe, that when the act was passed for making the Ellesmere Canal in 1793, a protecting clause was introduced by the Dee Navigation Company, stipulating that if their annual income should ever fall short of £210, the Ellesmere Canal Company should make up the deficiency.

The objects of this navigation are of a general nature, as may be inferred from the tonnage rates. 


 * 33 George III. Cap. 102, Royal Assent 7th May, 1793.

THIS canal commences on the northern bank of the River Trent, near the village of Swarkstone, and enters the Trent and