passing through the two locks erected between the river Severn and the canal basin, are to pay a toll or lock-due at the rate of 1d. per ton, in lieu of the tonnage of 11⁄2d. per mile, fixed by the said recited act; and the said tolls or lock-dues are to be collected, recovered, and applied as before directed, &c. By the same act of 10 Geo. 3. it is enacted, that the shares of the company, which by the former act the proprietors held in the nature of real estates, shall be deemed personal estates, &c. The lockdues received by the company in the last year, for boats and other vessels passing through the said two locks, which locks are locally situate in the hamlet of Lower Mitton, amounted to 350l. The tonnage of the goods brought in boats down the canal and landed at Stourport, which is in the hamlet of Lower Mitton and the termination of the canal, or transhipped therefrom on board canal boats to Severn barges, amounted in the year 1798 to 9650l., making, together with the said 350%. the sum of 10,000l.: which sum of 9650l. arose

in the following manner; viz. (here the case set forth the different sums received for the tonnage of goods taken in at different places on the canal, showing how much the tonnage amounted to in each parish, reckoning by the number of miles that the canal passed in the several parishes; according to which mode of calculation by the mile, a very small part of the toll arose in Lower Mitton.) But the said sum of 9650l. was not received by the company at Lower Mitton, but at the several places where the goods were shipped. The expences of repairing the basin and that part of the canal which lies within the hamlet amount annually to 540l.; other parts of the canal and basins lying out of the hamlet are also repaired at a great annual expence; and the repair of every part contributes to the profits and use of the whole canal. The dividends per share of each proprietor of the canal, for the year 1798, amounted to 321. clear of all expences and deductions. The agents of the company, on receiving accounts in writing of the

quantities of goods which are in each vessel, and the places where the same are intended to be landed in the manner required by the first act, deliver permits to the master, &c. of every such vessel, &c. to navigate the same accordingly upon the canal. The company are not carriers upon the canal, nor the owners of any vessels employed thereon; and the payment of the tolls on goods carried on the canal is, by the direction of the company, made to their agents at the places where such goods are laden or shipped, and the company consider such places as the places at which they become due under the act. The land used in the canal, the towing-paths, and basins, lying in the hamlet of Lower Mitton, measure eight acres, two roods, and thirteen perches; and the land used in the whole of the canal, towing-paths, and basins, measure three hundred and seventy acres, two roods, seven and three quarter perches. The length of the whole canal is forty-six miles and a half, amounting to 81,840 yards; 1367 yards of which, in

cluding the length of the basin, and measuring to the Severn lock, being the termination of the canal, lie in the hamlet of Lower Mitton; so that that part of the canal which lies within the hamlet bears to the whole length of the canal the proportion of about one to sixty." Nolan.

Lord Kenyon, Chief Justice, said, "I consider this case is brought forward to give us an opportunity of reviewing the opinions we delivered in the former cases. that have been alluded to: but on reconsideration, I do not see any reason to induce me to change the opinion I then gave. In the first of those, Rex v. the Undertakers of the Aire and Calder navigation, which was decided soon after I came into this court, though it differs from the present case, some rules were established applicable to this case. But I cannot distinguish the other case, Rex v. Page, from the present in principle and substance, though there are some nice distinctions between them. And if the rules there laid down had occasioned any great inconvenience, the parties

interested have had, in the interval of several years, many opportunities to apply to the legislature for a remedy; but no application of that kind having been made, I presume that no inconvenience, has resulted from those determinations. This does not appear to be a contest between the parishes through which the canal passes and the company of proprietors, but the company are struggling against the rate altogether. To this company, indeed, as well as to others of the same kind, the public are much indebted for their undertakings; but they ought to contribute to the relief of the poor, in common with the owners of all other species of property, in proportion to the profits that they acquire. As the company have objected to the present mode of rating, I am anxious to know what other mode they would substitute for it. On this point, however, their counsel have left me in great doubt. They gave me the choice of two modes; they wish the company either to be rated for the whole in the parish where the tolls are re