Tue 3 Jun 1851
Special Meeting.
T&S Committee reiterate proposal for a reduction on tolls to Brimscombe Port on equal terms with Stroud Navigation Committee. Letter to Mr Salt, treasurer of Thames & Severn Canal Co. In 1824 the Bill for a Tram Road from Framilode to Brimscombe with a branch to Nailsworth was opposed by both Companies in Parliament. They pledged to reduce tonnage from 3s 6d to 2s 6d per ton for coals to Brimscombe. 1845 Act gave power to Companies to alter tonnage. Committee to follow independent course, if Thames & Severn Canal Co decision is final, by reducing drawbacks given to coal beyond Brimscombe.
At a Special Meeting of the Committee of the Stroudwater Navigation held at the Committee Room at Wallbridge on Tuesday the 3rd day of June 1851
Present: M^r Will^m Fryer, M^r G H A Beard, Fred^k Eycott, T C Croome Chairman, Jn^o H Warman, Rich^d Martin.
This Meeting was called in consequence of an answer received from M^r Salt to the Communication copied in the Minutes of the last Meeting which letter is as follows:
20 Lombard Street London
27th May 1851
Sir
I am directed by the Committee of the Thames and Severn Canal met here this day to acknowledge the receipt of your letter to M^r Richards of the 24^th.
The Committee are quite alive to the necessity of a combined and speedy action if any effectual resistance is to be made to the efforts of the Railway Company to abstract the trade of the two Companies and is prepared cordially to combine with the Committee of the Stroudwater Navigation in any necessary measures on equal terms.
At present by an arrangement which has existed beyond the date of most Members of the respective Committees the partition of Tolls received at Brimscombe has been in equal portions. The Committee see no reason why the Stroudwater Navigation Committee should revert to the state of things created and acquiesced in above 26 years as a basis of a new arrangement and not take the existing arrangement as the natural course. The Committee therefore reiterate the proposal made by M^r Richards to make any necessary reduction of tolls to Brimscombe Port on equal terms with the Stroudwater Navigation Committee. Whatever the reduction is one Company bears half leaving the relative proportion of Receipt as heretofore.
The uniform Tonnage of 6d is necessary to facilitate the traffic of both Canals but gives no pecuniary advantage or extra receipts to the Canal and must be considered as carrying no claim to compensation.
The desire of this Committee to regulate their own tolls where they do not interfere with the Market of the Stroudwater Canal Navigation is natural and ought in the spirit of mutual concessions which must guide the two Companies to be given up.
As to any countervailing and equivalent restriction if such exists the Company will at once abandon it but the Committee does not understand to what corresponding Concession Mr Beard alludes.
We are not aware of any legal difficulties under the Act of Parliament if such exist our proceeding must be controuled by them.
I am Sir
Your very Obed^t Sev^R
signed John Salt
(Treasurer)
To the Chairman of the Stroudwater Nav^n Committee.
On consideration of this letter it was Resolved that the following reply be signed by the Chairman of this Meeting and sent to M^r Salt:
Canal Office Wallbridge
3rd June 1851
Sir
In answer to your letter of the 27th Ulto addressed to this Committee I beg to say that the proposal already made by this Committee is in their opinion in direct accordance with the existing arrangements. Some of the present Shareholders in this Canal took an active part in the alteration of tonnages in the year 1824 whereby the proportion received by the Thames & Severn Canal Company on Coals landed between Wallbridge and Brimscombe was encreased from one third to one half but you are quite in error in stating that this alteration was the result of any new arrangement then made between the two Companies.
In order to explain this it is needful to reply at some length. Down to the year 1824 this Company charge the full rate of tonnage mentioned in their Act of Parliament namely 3/6 on Coals carried from Framilode to Wallbridge and of course received 2/3 only in consequence of the 60th Clause of the Thames and Severn Canal Act (page 44 in the private print) on coals entering your Canal and landed between Wallbridge and Brimscombe.
In that year a Tram Road was projected from Framilode to Brimscombe with a Branch to Nailsworth and this was vigorously opposed alike by the Stroudwater Navigation and by the Thames and Severn Canal Company.
The Bill for this Tram Way was rejected by Parliament and on that occasion a pledge was given by this Company that they would reduce their Tonnage on Coals from 3/6 and 2/6 per Ton.
The effect of this reduction upon Coals carried into your Canal and landed between Wallbridge and Brimscombe under the 60th Clause of your Act became immediately apparent no power then existed to alter that Clause without a new Act of Parliament and though discussion took place upon it and the injustice to this Company was felt yet as no power existed to alter it and carry it out in the spirit instead of in the dry letter and it was impossible to obtain an Act for the alteration at the moment because Notices had not been given the forms of the House therefore precluded it this Company carried out the pledge to reduce their Tonnage without any alteration to that Clause. You therefore now claim as a vested right that which was submitted to at the time from a combination of circumstances and not be any new arrangement and this Committee are unanimously of opinion that such a view ought not to exist between two companies negotiating to protect their mutual interests.
The Act of 1845 has given power to the Companies to alter Tonnages in a way that would in our opinion enable them to adopt the spirit and not the strict letter of the Clause above alluded to and for these reasons this Committee feel bound to adhere to the proposal already submitted to your Committee as their final decision.
It seems right in this state of the correspondence to call your attention to another view of the case and the observation is made not in the spirit of a threat to your Committee but to shew that this Company's position does not require them to make the sacrifice which your proposal calls for.
This Committee at once admit that it would be more convenient to be placed under the Act of 1845 than to rely on their already existing process but should they fail to obtain your consent and cooperation they have still the power of reducing their tonnages in any way they please and if it should eventually be found that the construction put upon the 60th Clause of your Act is correct and that they must continue to allow 1^s/3^d as at present out of the tonnage charged on such coals from Framilode to Wallbridge as pass into the Thames and Severn Canal and landed between Wallbridge and Brimscombe that they must repay themselves by a diminution or abandonment of the present drawbacks on Coals carried eastwards of your Tunnel and thereby either deprive both Companies of a considerable trade or render it incumbent on your Committee to make a corresponding abatement out of their tonnage.
A little further consideration of this reasoning will shew that the view of taking 6^d per ton on Goods carried that your Tunnel is a much more important concession to the Interests of the Thames and Severn Canal than your letters express and if your Committee feel that they are making a concession in adopting out views by accepting one third of the tonnage on Coals landed between Wallbridge and Brimscombe this Committee propose a much larger concession on their parts by offering to accept the tonnage of 6^d on Coals carried through your tunnel.
If we are to look upon your letter of the 27th Ulto as the final decision of your committee it is only needful to ask you to say so as this Committee will then abandon the expectation of carrying out their arrangement in communication with your company and will take an independent course although as a matter of courtesy there is no doubt that your Committee will be appraized of the result of our deliberations on that head.
I remain Sir
Your Most Obed^t Sev^t
signed Tho^s C Croome
John Salt Esq^re
Treasurers of the Thames and Severn Canal Company
20 Lombard Street, London
Resolved that Jn^o Burbidge's Salary for two Months due 20th day of May last be paid and that he be permitted to absent himself for one Wek during the approaching stoppage of the Canal.
