This bill was rejected, after a long debate on the question of committing and engrossing; nor does it appear that any further attempt was made for more than seventy years, when Lord Fairfax introduced a similar bill into the House of Commons, on the 18th of January, 1698. Petitions in favour of this bill were presented from the mayor, aldermen, and inhabitants of Leeds, the borough of Retford, King's Lynn, Lincoln, Manchester, the magistrates at the Quarter Sessions at Doncaster, Boroughbridge, the magistrates assembled at Wakefield Quarter Sessions, the clothiers of the town of Rochdale, Rotherham, Halifax, Kendal, clothiers of Wakefield, Bradford and Gainsbro'; and against the bill, from the lord mayor and commonalty of York, also one from Francis Nevill, of Chevet, Esq. the owner of the Soke Mills, at Wakefield.
It was not till the 3rd of April, 1699, that an act passed the House of Lords, and which received the royal assent on the 4th of May following. As some interesting particulars are contained in the petitions presented to the house in respect to the bill of 1698, they are briefly noticed below.
In the Leeds petition it is stated "that Leeds and Wakefeild are the principal trading towns in the north for cloth; that they are situated on the Rivers Ayre and Calder, which have been viewed, and are found capable to be made navigable, which, if effected, will very much redound to the preservation of the highways, and a great improvement of trade; the petitioners having no conveniency of water carriage within sixteen miles of them, which not only occasions a great expense, but many times great damage to their goods, and sometimes the roads are unpassable, &c. &c."
The clothiers of Ratchdale state that they are "forty miles from any water carriage." The clothiers of Hallifax, in their petition, state "that they have no water carriage within thirty miles, and much damage happens through the badness of the roads by the overturning of carriages."
The clothiers of Wakefield state "that the towns of Leeds and Wakefeild are the principal markets in the north for woollen cloth, &c. &c.; that it will be a great improvement of trade to all the trading towns of the north by reason of the conveniency of water carriage, for want of which the petitioners send their
