126 
Land Drainage and Improvement 
better able to meet any depreciating effects wliich might follow 
the repeal of the Corn Laws. 
"The Public Money Drainage Act," (9 and 10 Vic. cap. CI.) 
was the result of this concession, and several great advantages 
were gained by it in furtherance of the principle established by 
Mr. P usey's Act. 
These advantages were, first, the removal of the proceedings 
out of the hands of the Master in Chancery (in which they 
were still left by the 8th and 9th Vic. cap. LVI)., into those of the 
Inclosure Commissioners ; next, the precedence given to im- 
provement charges over existing mortgages, — and last, the foun- 
dation of a system of drainage which, though open to some 
objections, has, on the whole, acted wholesomely and beneficially 
for the advancement of agriculture. 
Two millions of money was the first grant under the " Public 
Money Drainage Act," and the applications were so numerous and 
so rapidly made, that the whole of that sum was quickly bespoke. 
A second loan of two millions was afterwards granted (13 
and 1-1 Vic. cap. XXXI.), and although up to this time (Feb. 
1867) the whole of that money has not been actually spent, 
none remained unapplied for at the end of the year 1854. 
The applications for it, indeed, were so large and numerous 
that the Commissioners were very soon compelled to refuse loans 
to landowners in those counties where the applications had been 
larger than in others, and they were ultimately obliged to defer 
applications altogether, even in those counties where they had 
been comparatively few. 
The amount of money actually expended under the Public 
Money Drainage Act up to the end of last year (1866) was 
3,869,142/., leaving 130,858/. still to make up the two grants 
amounting to 4,000,000/. 
The rate of progress at which the public money has been 
expended will be seen from various published essays.* Up to the 
end of October 1855 the expenditure had been 2,528,783/. l^s. Id., 
and up to the same date in 1861 it had amounted to 3,520,258/. 
These figures, compared Avith the expenditure up to the present 
date, show that in the first eight years the expenditure was, on an 
average, about 316,000/. a year; in the next six years about 
165,000/. ; and in the last five years about 70,000/. a year. 
These differences are explained by the circumstances that the 
Inclosure Commissioners were, as stated, very early obliged to 
decline or defer further applications for loans, and that private 
enterprise, in the shape of improvement companies, had stepped 
* See "Land Drainage and Drainage Systems," Eidgway, London; and 
" Journal of Society of Arts," Dec. 14th, 1855. 
