398 
On  River  Conservancy , 
prevent  wilful  obstructions,  but  there  is  no  duty  on  the  Crown 
by  common  law  to  cleanse  or  keep  free  from  silt  or  deposit  the 
bed  of  a navigable  stream.  Neither  is  there  any  liability  at 
common  law  on  the  owners  of  a bed  of  a navigable  river,  or  in 
a body  of  proprietors  when  the  same  is  vested  in  them  for  the 
purposes  of  navigation  only,  to  keep  the  channel  clear  of 
natural  obstructions,  or  to  remove  weeds,  although  floods  may 
be  caused  thereby. 
In  fact  there  appears  at  the  present  time  to  be  no  authority 
or  person  on  whom  devolves  the  duty  of  maintaining  the  rivers 
of  this  country  in  efficient  condition,  except  where  some 
portion  of  the  channel  has  by  the  enterprise  of  the  landowners 
in  its  neighbourhood  been  vested  in  Commissioners  created  by 
special  Act  of  Parliament,  or  where  the  rivers  have  in  certain 
districts  been  placed  under  a Commission  issued  by  the  Crown 
under  a statute  passed  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.* 
Even  where  legislation  has  been  effected,  it  only  applies 
to  a section  of  the  river  where  some  body  of  proprietors,  more 
enterprising  than  their  neighbours,  have  obtained  special  Acts, 
enabling  them  to  carry  out  works  creating  separate  rights  and 
interests  which  become  the  cause  of  great  complications,  and 
stand  in  the  way  of  any  future  general  scheme  of  improvement. 
Thus  it  occurs  that  on  some  rivers  the  banks  are  vested  in  one 
set  of  trustees,  and  the  channel  in  another,  and  even  the  rights 
over  the  channel  are  divided  between  navigation  and  drainage 
trusts.  The  number  of  these  private  Acts  now  in  force  amounts 
to  between  2000  and  3000. 
With  regard  to  the  banks  of  the  river,  it  occurs  in  some 
cases  that  the  maintenance  of  these  devolves  on  the  riparian 
proprietors,  ratione  tenurce,  and  they  are  divided  in  short 
sections,  each  proprietor  being  responsible  for  his  own  length. 
The  difficulty  of  getting  a number  of  persons  to  carry  out 
works  simultaneously,  or  to  deal  rapidly  and  effectually  with  a 
bank  that  is  liable  to  be  broken  in  a flood,  is  obvious,  and  to 
this  cause  may  be  traced  many  serious  disasters  which  have 
occurred. 
The  earliest  attempt  at  legislation  with  regard  to  the  rivers 
and  watercourses  of  this  country  was  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII., 
when,  in  consequence  of  the  frequent  representations  to  the 
Crown  of  the  condition  of  certain  low  fen  lands  on  the  east  and 
south  coasts, — from  the  breaking  of  the  protecting  banks,  and 
choking  up  of  the  drains  and  watercourses  by  means  of  which 
a great  deal  of  this  land  had  been  rendered  uninhabitable, — a 
statute  was  enacted,  under  which  power  was  permanently  given 
* The  author  is  indebted  for  the  principal  part  of  tho  information  here  given 
to  ‘ The  Law  of  Waters,’  by  Coulsan,  published  in  1880. 
