Page:Rivers, Canals, Railways of Great Britain.djvu/378

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£. s. d.

Brought over

£407,576 16 3

By 41 GEO. III. c. 43.

Shares created; intended to be 3000
Lost of these 42
And by Consolidation with other Classes, 4 Half Shares 2
____ 44
. Remaining Shares 2956
At £60 per share
177,360 0 0

By 45 GEO; III. c. 70.

Shares were created 8458
at £20 per Share,
169,160 0 0
And Optional Notes 99
at £33 6s. 8d.
3,300 0 0
Shares 1377
at £20 per Share,
27,540 0 0

By 49 GEO. III. c. 138.

Shares were created 4000 96,432 0 0
Gained by Consolidation from the Two first Acts, 36 Half Shares 18
Shares 4018
at £24 per Share,
______________
CAPITAL £881,368 16 3

The Kennet and Avon completes a circuit of navigable canals, which traversing the northern, midland, and south-western counties of England, connect together its four largest rivers, viz, the Trent, the Mersey, the Severn, and the Thames. Viewed in this light, it forms an important link in that great chain of inland navigation, which has been rapidly increasing in this kingdom for the last fifty years, and which seems to know no other boundary than what the rugged and mountainous parts of the country naturally present. This canal, by uniting the Rivers Kennet and Avon, the former of which runs into the River Thames at Reading, and the latter into the Severn a few miles below Bristol, becomes, in conjunction with the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the Thames, the central line of communication between the Irish Sea and German Ocean. The line of navigation, which thus joins these two seas, passes through a very fertile and populous district. Upon the banks of it lie not only the metropolis, but a great many large towns and cities, the ordinary intercourse between which must necessarily produce a very extensive traffic; and if we take into consideration