Page:Rivers, Canals, Railways of Great Britain.djvu/553

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before from or to the port of Arundel; and it confirms a power of the first act for enabling the Portsmouth and Arundel Navigation Company to borrow £40,000.

In 1828 a fourth act, entitled, 'An Act for granting further Powers to the Company of Proprietors of the Portsmouth and Arundel Navigation,' was obtained, whereby the company are empowered to raise an additional sum of £50,000, in £25 shares, each share being entitled for ten years to a dividend of £6 per cent. per annum, the surplus of profits, after paying this amount of dividend to the new subscribers, to be then divided amongst the original shareholders; and if the nett receipts will not pay the said dividend of £6 per cent. per annum to the said new subscribers, the deficiency shall be made up, before any dividend to the old subscribers is declared, and £5 per cent. after the ten years, is to be paid to the new subscribers in preference to the old. The money or any part of it, may be borrowed on mortgage of the works if more advisable.

This is a stupendous work, and from its connexion with others, as seen by the inspection of our map, opens a communication with almost every part of the kingdom; its utility, therefore, is self-evident. By the execution of it, military stores also may be transmitted inland from London to Portsmouth, which would avoid the risks that transports would otherwise incur in time of war, by the necessity of going through the straits of Dover and coastwise.

RAMSDEN'S (SIR JOHN) CANAL.

14 George Ill. Cap. 13, Royal Assent 9th March, 1774.

THIS canal commences at the River Calder near Cooper's Bridge, and thence runs in a south-westerly direction to the King's Mill, near the town of Huddersfield, in Yorkshire. It was executed under sanction of an act of parliament, entitled, 'An Act for enabling Sir John Ramsden, Baronet, to make and maintain a navigable Canal from the River Calder, between a Bridge called Cooper's Bridge, and the Mouth of the River Colne to the King's Mill, near the town of Huddersfield, in the West Riding of the county of York,' and is about three miles and three quarters in length, with a rise of 57 feet 4 inches.