+-------------------------------+----------------------+--------+ | Canal. | Shares. | Price. | +-------------------------------+----------------------+--------+ | | £ _s._ _d._ | £ | |Trent and Mersey | 75 0 0 | 2,200 | |Loughborough |197 0 0 | 4,600 | |Coventry | 44 0 0 (and bonus) | 1,300 | |Oxford (short shares) | 32 0 0 " " | 850 | |Grand Junction | 10 0 0 " " | 290 | |Old Union | 4 0 0 | 103 | |Neath | 15 0 0 | 400 | |Swansea | 11 0 0 | 250 | |Monmouthshire | 10 0 0 | 245 | |Brecknock and Abergavenny | 8 0 0 | 175 | |Staffordshire & Worcestershire | 40 0 0 | 960 | |Birmingham | 12 10 0 | 350 | |Worcester and Birmingham | 1 10 0 | 56 | |Shropshire | 8 0 0 | 175 | |Ellesmere | 3 10 0 | 102 | |Rochdale | 4 0 0 | 140 | |Barnsley | 12 0 0 | 330 | |Lancaster | 1 0 0 | 45 | |Kennet and Avon | 1 0 0 | 29 | +-------------------------------+----------------------+--------+ These substantial values, and the large dividends that led to them, were due in part, no doubt, to the general improvement in trade which the canals had helped most materially to effect; but they had been greatly swollen by the merciless way in which the traders of those days were exploited by the representatives of the canal interest. As bearing on this point, I might interrupt the course of my narrative to say that in the House of Commons on May 17, 1836, Mr Morrison, member for Ipswich, made a speech in which, as reported by Hansard, he expressed himself "clearly of opinion" that "Parliament should, when it established companies for the formation of canals, railroads, or such like undertakings, invariably reserve to itself the power to make such periodical revisions of the rates and charges as it may, under the then circumstances, deem expedient"; and he proposed a resolution to this effect. He was moved to adopt this course in view of past experiences in connection with the canals, and a desire that there should be no repetition of them in regard to the railways then being very generally promoted. In the course of his speech he said:--