Of coal, he further shows, some 12,000 tons a year were going from the Shropshire collieries to Nantwich, on the Weaver, at a cost of ten shillings per ton for land carriage only, apart from the supplementary cost of river transport. In the opposite direction the farmers of Cheshire and Staffordshire brought about 1000 tons of cheese annually, by road, to Bridgnorth fair--presumably for redistribution thence via the Severn among the various centres of population in the western counties, and also in Wales. The cheese was carried in waggons, and, on the basis of the journey taking, altogether, three or four days, Whitworth calculates that the cost to the farmers in getting the cheese to Bridgnorth must have been about thirty shillings for every two tons. One of the subsidiary disadvantages attendant on river transport of which mention should be made was the pilfering of goods that went on, more especially when the barges were stopped in the open country, perhaps for days together, by reason of shallow water. In "A View of the Advantages of Inland Navigations" it is said, on this point:-- "It is, also, another circumstance not unworthy of notice in favour of canals, when compared with river navigation, that as the conveyance upon the former is more speedy and without interruptions and delays, to which the latter are very liable, opportunities of pilfering earthen wares, and other small goods, and stealing and adulterating wine and spirituous liquors, are thereby in a great measure prevented. The losses, disappointments and discredit of the manufacturers, arising from this cause are so great that they frequently choose to send their goods by land at three times {163}the expense of water carriage, and sometimes even refuse to supply their orders at all, rather than run the risque of forfeiting their credit and submitting to the deductions that are made on this account. "We may also add, with respect to the potteries in Staffordshire, that this evil discourages merchants abroad from dealing with those manufacturers, and creates innumerable misunderstandings between them and the manufacturers." These complaints seem to have been made not without good cause. In 1751 it had been found expedient to pass an Act "for the more effectual prevention of robberies and thefts upon any navigable river, ports of entry or discharge, wharves or quays adjacent." Any person stealing goods of the value of forty shillings from any ship, barge, boat, or any vessel on any navigable river or quay adjacent thereto, was, on conviction, to _suffer death_! The penalty seems to have been modified into one of transportation; and in 1752 thirteen persons were convicted under the new Act, and sent across the seas.