218 History of Inland Transport 



first time on March 15. Then, however, came the opposition 

 from the canal company. On April 8, as the " Journals " 

 further record, the Commons received a petition from the 

 Company of Proprietors of the Glamorganshire Canal Naviga- 

 tion setting forth that they had been authorised under two 

 Acts to make and maintain a navigable canal from Merthyr 

 to Cardiff ; that they had expended on this undertaking 

 a sum of 100,000 ; that they had seen the Bill above- 

 mentioned, and, they proceed : 



" That the Dram Road or Way, proposed to be made by 

 the said Bill, will pass from one End thereof to the other, 

 nearly parallel, and in almost every Part near to the said 

 Canal ; and in some places will cross the same ; and that 

 the Petitioners were induced to undertake the making of the 

 said Canal, in hopes of being repaid the Expence thereof, 

 with proper remuneration for the Risk of the said Undertaking, 

 by the Carriage of Coal, Lime, Iron, Timber, and other goods 

 and Merchandizes thereon, but if the said Dram Road or 

 Way should be made as proposed they would be deprived 

 of a great Part of those Advantages which they apprehend 

 they have had granted and secured to them, and are there- 

 fore now fully entitled to, by the said Two Acts, without the 

 Country adjacent or the Public in General, receiving any 

 particular Benefit or Advantage." 



The company further pleaded that under their Acts they 

 were " restrained from ever receiving more than a moderate 

 Dividend on their Shares, and whenever the Profits of the 

 Canal shall be more than sufficient to pay the same, their 

 Rates of Tonnage are to be lowered ; * and for that reason, as 

 well as many others, of equal Justice, they conceive they 

 should be secured in the possession of all the advantages 

 proposed to be granted to them by the said Acts." 



The House ordered that the petition do lie upon the table 

 until the said Bill be read a second time, and that counsel be 

 then heard on both sides. On May 3 a day was appointed 

 for the second reading, and on May 4 the House received a 

 further petition from landowners, tradesmen and others in 

 support of the Bill. The " Journals," however, contain no 

 record of the second reading having been reached, and their 



1 In regard to this particular plea, see further references to the 

 Glamorganshire Canal Company on pages 238-9. 



