At several subsequent meetings of the Commission, the Gloucester commissioners amused themselves by offering every possible opposition to the speedy progress and completion of the work; though they were, of course, appointed for the express purpose of carrying it out. However, they were always out-voted by those commissioners who felt their interest and honour alike concerned in the duties assigned to them by Parliament, and the trial weir at Lincombe was opened on December 23, 1843. Spite of the ratiocinations of adverse engineers, and those ignoramuses who fancy they know everybody’s business better than their own, the weir was found to stand the current, floods, and frosts of the winter admirably, and the barge was passed through the locks in three minutes. The work now proceeded rapidly—the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal Company having advanced the necessary funds, and the contracts having been taken by Messrs. Grissell and Peto; with the exception of one sad accident on the 5th of August, 1844, by which twelve of the workmen engaged at Diglis lost their lives by the upsetting of the boat in which they were returning from their work, they were completed without a single drawback or mishap. The lock at Diglis was opened on the 9th October, 1844; and this part of the work was thus completed in fifteen months, in the most able and satisfactory manner, within the original estimate of its cost, £140,000—a fact almost unexampled in the construction of great national undertakings of this kind. The dredging, however, between Diglis and Gloucester, occupied a longer time than had been expected, and proved a very costly business; but this, it must always be borne in mind, formed no part of the promoters’ scheme, but was forced upon them by the landowners, who objected to the erection of any weirs below Diglis. The completion of the locks and weirs was celebrated on the 25th of January, 1844, by a public dinner at the Guildhall, Worcester, when a testimonial was presented to J. W. Lea, Esq., for the zeal he had always manifested in the improvement of the river. J. S. Pakington, Esq., M.P., occupied the chair, and Alderman Edward Evans was vice-president. Amongst the party were Lord Hatherton, the Mayor of Worcester, T. C. Hornyold, Esq., Captain Winnington, John Dent, Esq., William Cubitt, Esq., &c. The testimonial, which consisted of a quantity of silver plate, with Mr. Lea’s crest engraved on each article, was of course presented by the chairman.