amounted to $531,160, and the sum required to finish the canal to Cumberland, according to the estimate of January 1839, was stated to be $1,825,892. In addition to this, estimating the unsold state bonds at eighty per cent, the company would need $700,000, exclusive of the interest due the state, to redeem the scrip and other debts. A committee was appointed by the legislature which made a rigid examination into the affairs and transactions of the company. The disposal of the state bonds and the issues of scrip were severely censured—and the general assembly again adjourned without adopting any measure of relief. Because of the threatening aspect of affairs, and the difficulty of procuring the necessary means for the continuance of the work on the canal, in the year 1839 the company began to cut down operations. In the month of May of that year the amount expended on the work was $96,320. In December, 1839, and January and February, 1840, the expenditure had been reduced to an average of $40,817 per month. The policy was also adopted of paying off the old loans, which had been secured by a pledge
