agreed, that the tonnage upon all coal navigated from Birmingham to Fazeley, and upon all or any part of the Coventry and Oxford Canals, should not exceed one penny per ton, per mile.
The act embodying this agreement, and authorizing the several parties to carry the works into execution, was passed on the 13th June, 1785, (25th George III. cap. 98,) and is entitled, An Act to enable the Company of Proprietors of the Navigation from the Trent to the Mersey, and the Company of Proprietors of the Navigation from Birmingham to Fazeley, to make a navigable Canal from the said Trent and Mersey Navigation on Fradley Heath, in the county of Stafford, to Fazeley, in the said county; and for confirming certain Articles of Agreement entered into between the said Trent and Mersey, the Oxford, and the Coventry Canal Navigation Companies. The act also confirms an agreement between the Coventry and Trent and Mersey Canal Companies, to this effect, viz, that within two months after notice had been given to the Coventry Canal Company that the part between Whittington Brook and Fradley Heath was completed, such company should be at liberty to purchase this portion at the original cost, with interest, from the time of advancing the several sums expended thereon.
In the preamble of the act of the 26th George III. entitled, An Act to enable the Company of Proprietors of the Coventry Canal Navigation, to complete the said Canal to Fradley Heath, in the county of Stafford, and for other Purposes therein mentioned, it is stated, that the sum of £50,000 had been expended in making the canal from Coventry to Atherstone, and that they had not been able to raise any portion of the additional sum of £30,000, which the act of 8th George III. authorized them to do. For the purpose, therefore, of enabling the company to execute the remaining part of the canal, between Atherstone and Fazeley, and to purchase that half-part of the canal between Fazeley and Fradley, belonging to the Trent and Mersey Canal Company, authority is given to raise, on mortgage of the undertaking, the sum of £40,000. This act limited the dividends, on that part of the navigation already executed, to three per cent, until the whole was completed; it also repeals that part of the original act limiting the number of shares to be held by one person, to ten, unless
