CHAP. V. ITKI'/S CANAL TO Till- MKIJSKY. 371 



his resolution. This was his lirst ;in<l only visit to the 

 |)l;iy. The following week lie enters himself in liis 

 memorandum-book as ill in bed, and the first Sunday 

 after his recovery we find him attending service at 

 " Sant Mary's Church." The service did not make him 

 ill, as the play had done, and on the following day he 

 attended the House of Commons on the subject of the 

 Duke's bill. 



The proposed canal from Manchester to the Mersey at 

 Hempstones stirred up an opposition which none of the 

 Duke's previous bills had encountered. Its chief oppo- 

 nents were the proprietors of the Mersey and Irwell 

 navigation, who saw their monopoly assailed by the 

 measure ; and, unable though they had been satisfactorily 

 to conduct the then traffic between Liverpool and Man- 

 chester, they were unwilling to allow of any additional 

 water service being provided between the two towns. 

 Having already had sufficient evidence of the Duke's 

 energy and enterprise, from what he had been able to 

 effect in so short a time in forming the canal between 

 \Vorsley and Manchester, they were not without reason 

 alarmed at his present project. At first they tried to 

 buy him off by concessions. They offered to reduce the 

 rate of 3s. Ad. per ton of coals, timber, &c., conveyed 

 upon the Irwell between Barton and Manchester, to 6d. 

 it' he would join their navigation at Barton and abandon 

 the part of his canal between that point and Manchester : 

 but he would not now be diverted from his plan, which 

 he resolved to carry into execution if possible. Again 

 they tried to conciliate his Grace by offering him certain 

 exclusive advantages in the use of their navigation. But 

 it was again too late; and the Duke, having a clear 

 idea of the importance of his project, and being assured 

 by his engineer of its practicability and the great com- 

 mercial value of the undertaking, determined to proceed 

 with the measure. It offered to the public the advan- 

 tages of a shorter line of navigation, not liable to be 



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