Page:Rivers, Canals, Railways of Great Britain.djvu/419

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by contributing amongst themselves in such manner as they may direct, or by mortgage of the navigations, cuts and works, conformably to any order of a general assembly of the said proprietors, where there shall be present, as principals or proxies, the holders of not less than twelve hundred shares in the said navigation. It may be observed, that when the first parts of the canal opened for business, the interest ceased on the money advanced for calls, which was made stock, thereby causing an original share to amount, on the 1st of January, 1779, to £139, 8s. 9d.

Upon inspection of the map, it will appear that this canal connects the Irish Sea with the German Ocean, and the great ports of Liverpool and Hull, by which a cheap and ready transit is afforded to the Foreign Trade to and from the Baltic, Holland, Hanseatic Towns, the Netherlands, France and Germany; also with Ireland, the West Indies and America. Besides, the public are greatly benefited by the ease with which the interior trade is carried from Leeds and the West Riding into the manufacturing districts of Lancashire and to Liverpool, and vice versa. Moreover, upon the banks of this canal are found immense quantities of stone for paving and building, limestone for repairs of roads and for burning into lime for manure; inexhaustible beds of coal, which not only supply the neighbouring districts, but furnish an abundance for exportation at Liverpool; in short no part of the kingdom is more benefited by a public work of this kind than the country, through which the Leeds and Liverpool Canal passes.

LEEDS AND SELBY RAILWAY.

11 George IV, Cap. 59, Royal Assent 29th May, 1830.

THIS railway commences from the east side of Marsh Lane, in Leeds, and immediately enters a tunnel, eight hundred yards in length, to be made through a hill the apex of which is 72 feet above the base of the railway. Its course is eastwardly, approaching the Waterloo Colliery, and passing the Osmanthorp Colliery to Halton Dial; thence by Cross Gates, the villages of Moor Garforth and Church Garforth, Newthorp and South Milford; and thence in nearly a straight line to the town of Selby, where it