Page:Rivers, Canals, Railways of Great Britain.djvu/86



EXEMPTION FROM TOLL.
Paving-stones, Gravel, Sand, and all Materials for the making of Roads (Limestone excepted) and all Dung, Soil, Marl and all sorts of Manure, provided they do not pass a Lock but at such times as when the Water runs over the Gauge, Paddle or Niche of the Lock.

Boats of less Length than Seventy Feet, not to pass a Lock without leave.

In this act, power is given to the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal Company to open a communication with the Birmingham Canal, at the cost of the proprietors of the last-mentioned canal, if they do not do it within six months after it is finished to Birmingham.

The second act, entitled,  'An Act to rectify a Mistake in an Act passed in the Eighth Year of his present Majesty, entitled, An Act for making and maintaining a navigable Cut or Canal, from Birmingham to Bilstone, and from thence to Autherley, there to communicate with the Canal now making between the Rivers Severn and Trent, and for making collateral Cuts up to several Coal Mines, and to explain and amend the said Act,'  was obtained chiefly in consequence of having neglected to introduce, in the description of the course of the intended canal, a detached part of the county of Salop, near the village of Oldbury. The company, however, took this opportunity of obtaining power to make reservoirs anywhere within three miles from that part of the canal, lying between the two extreme locks, intended to be constructed between Smethwick and Oldbury. In consequence of being enabled to raise only £50,000, instead of £55,000, they, by this act, reduce the number of shares to five hundred, instead of five hundred and fifty, retaining, however, authority to raise the additional sums of £5,000, and £15,000, granted under the former act.

In 1783, parliamentary sanction was given to a very important act, entitled,  'An Act for making and maintaining a navigable Canal, from a place near Rider's Green, in the county of Stafford, to Broadwater Fire Engine, and six collateral Cuts, from the same, to several Coal Mines; and also a navigable Canal, from or near the town of Birmingham, to join the Coventry Canal, at or near Fazeley, in the parish of Tamworth, in the said county of Stafford, with a collateral Cut to the lower part of the