26 
Trunk Drainage. 
The Earl and his participants had received a Charter of In- 
corporation from King Charles I., but the new company of 
adventurers who proceeded with the drainage under William, 
first Duke of Bedford, were Incorporated " hy Statute" the 15th 
of Charles II. Tlie constitution of the present Bedford Level 
Corporation is therefore founded by the three estates of the 
realm ; the extensive powers entrusted to the Corporation — such 
as the power of taxing the land of the subject ad libitum, of 
arbitrarily selling lands in default of payment, &c. — being of too 
grave a character to be exercised solely under a charter. They 
continue to maintain their ancient drainage works to effect im- 
provements, and to contribute towards new undertakings likely 
to benefit their domain, by means of a peculiar organization of 
members and officers ; their revenue of about 11,000/. annually 
being derived fi"om taxes on the adventurers' 95,000 acres, rated 
according to their differing values, and from further sums levied 
over the entire district. Some of tiieir machinery for governance 
and management I shall presently refer to as a pattern for general 
imitation, but being founded upon the basis of draining by 
bargain for part of the ground, their constitution seems no longer 
applicable to the reclaiming of river valleys or maritime deltas 
now waiting for improvement. 
At a time when ready money was principally deposited with 
the commercial citizens, and in fens where it was only poverty 
that was overwhelmed by the waters, the land itself formed the 
only fund which could be expended upon the drainage ; but in 
•our own times the landowners themselves can be the capitalists 
and share-takers ; money, materials, and scientific or mechanical 
ability can be raised or procured by the district to be won, and 
thus a more sensible and equitable system has succeeded the 
clumsy transaction of bartering away what might be self-im- 
proved. 
At the very commencement of the " undertakings" Local Acts 
of Parliament were needed in order to insure to the drainers the 
fee-simple of the ground they had bargained for ; and even the 
general Act of Elizabeth did not sufhce in their stead. Thus 
an act (4tli James I., cap. 13) passed in IGOG, authorizing the 
drainage of Waldcrsea district, about 6000 acres, near Wisbech, 
by three gentlemen undertakers, for two-thirds of the land — being 
the first local district act passed for improving the Fens. And 
some time after the general drainage of the Bedford Eevel had 
been accomplished, local or private acts for the better drainage 
of single parishes or of separate or combined estates, became 
multiplied over the Fens. As these were found indispensable, 
notwithstanding the Corporation with all its resources, I ought 
just to mention the causes of this extension. Very soon after 
