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It will be given in evidence, that the ſaving in internal drainage will be at leaſt one ſhilling per acre for ever on all lands draining by engines; and this ſaving will, like the ſaving in tonnage, be obtained for an impoſt of 44d. for ten years; but the grand improvement will be

tthe obtaining the means of drainage, whereby the rents of the land will be increaſed as before

₰ω

ſtated.

Ovjegrion by the growvers of corn and the conſumers of merchandize, or by the inland merchant.— That the tonnage will injure the landed property, and operate as a tax of four-pence a laſt on every laſt of corn ſent to Lynn by the propoſed cut.

That the tonnage of four-pence will be io much additional expence to the conſumer on every chaldron of coals,&c. brought by water from Lynn through the ſaid cut.

Anſwer.— The direct contrary has been already proved to be the caſe(ſee p. 39); but the fact is, that the Lynn werchants, who are a powerful and wealthy body, have ſo intimate a connexion wirh the inland merchants and the barge owners, that many of both have joined in the cry, although the latter know to a certainty that the inland freight muſt be leſſened very confiderably; and the former may, if they think proper, convince themſelves that the ſaving will be what has been before ſtated.

There is alſo every reaſon to believe that the navigation from Lynn to ſea will be put, by means of this improved ourfall, into ſuch a ſtate, as to admit of veſſels differently conſtructed from thoſe which are now uſed; and that of courſe the trade at Lynn will become open to. all the world, inſtead of being enjoyed, as it now is, by a very few indeed. For theſe reaſons, if for no other, the plan that they object to, ought to be carried into execution; for it is by no means proper, that the conſumers, in an extenſive diſtrict, ſhould continue at the mercy of two ſets of traders, however reſpectable they may be, but who in fact ought to be conſidered in no other light than as the medium through which conſumable goods paſs to the public; and, indeed, who might theinſelves be greatly benefitted by this meaſure, in conſequence of the great increaſe of trade that would ariſe, if they choſe to avail themſelves of the oppor- tunity with which they would thus be furniſhed, inſtead of being ſatisfied with a leſs extended

commerce, of which they enjoy a ſort of monopoly.

Okbjection as a work belonging to tbe Bedford Level Corporation.— That the work propoſed by the bill ought to be done at the expence of the Bedford Level Corporation, out of the Q,000 acres allotted to them by the I5th of Charles II. and not at the expence of the free lands within the levels, or at the expence of the navigators, the adventurers having contracted to drain, maintaio, and preſerve the drainage of the Great Level, in conſideration of the 95,000 acres originally aſſigned them; aud that the owners of free lands have a right to exhauſt the value of thoſe adventurers' lands by taxation, before the adventurers can, with any juſtice, eall on them for any further affiſtance.

Anſaver why the propoſed work ought not to Be done by the Bedford Level Corpration.— The work

ropoſed can never be confidered as a work within the object or ſcope of the juriſdiction of the Bedford Level, for the following reaſons:

The proprietors of the eſtates through which the cut is to be made, having petitioned againſt its being done, would obtain an inpjunction from the court of Chancery to ſtop the proceedings of the corporation, in caſe they were to ſet about it without the authority of Parliament.

The Lynn outfall ſerves not only the lands within the Great Level of the fens, but upwards of 100,000 acres of land bordering upon the Ouze, over which the Bedford Level Corporation have no juriſdiCtion, and the proprietors of which are anxious for a better drainage; and there-

fore it would be highly unreaſonable to expect the Bedford Level to do a work which concerns thoſe