which the tolls produced for the first twenty-four years, were laid out in completing the works of navigation. So small was the trade of the country, that in the year 1730, the whole navigation, together with all the property attached thereto, was rented at £2,000 per annum, upon condition that the Undertakers themselves should be at the risk of keeping all dams, on the said rivers, good against any accidents.
As the trade of the country increased, it was found expedient to avoid many impediments that took place on several parts of the navigation, some by improperly drawing off the water at the mills; but the most serious inconvenience arose on that part of the river between Weeland and Haddlesey Lock; the course of the navigation to the Ouse, at Armin, was also found very inconvenient for the trade of York, Malton, Boroughbridge, Ripon, and other places in the same direction: a project was therefore commenced in the year 1771, for making an entire new canal from Leeds to Selby, which was surveyed by Mr. Whitworth, at the request of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal Company, and a few gentlemen in Leeds; and an application was made to parliament, to carry the same into execution, by a new set of subscribers; it was, however, successfully opposed by the undertakers of the Aire and Calder Navigation.
In consequence of this application, and "of several memorials signed by the principal merchants and traders of Leeds, Wakefield, Halifax, Rochdale, York, Boroughbridge, Lincoln, Gainsborough, and other places in Yorkshire, Lancashire, Lincoinshire, and Nottinghamshire, and by many owners and masters of vessels navigating the Rivers Aire and Calder, complaining of the frequent and long stoppages in those rivers, addressed to Sir William Milner and the rest of the undertakers," the undertakers of the Aire and Calder Navigation applied for and obtained a second act, to enable them to make a canal from Haddlesey to Selby, bearing date the 14th of June, 1774, entitled, 'An Act to amend an Act passed in the Tenth and Eleventh Years of the Reign of William III. entitled, An Act for the making and keeping navigable the rivers of Aire and Calder, in the county of York; and for improving the Navigation of the said River Aire, from Weeland, to the River Ouze; and for making a
