Note 71 — PART I. INTRODUCTION. (continued 2)

This fund was at first usefully applied, and the channel and navigation of the Nene considerably improved. The interest of the money borrowed on the occasion, was also for some years regularly and punctually paid; so that the river Nene securities, as they were called, were generally reckoned very good. Of late years, however, the state of things has greatly altered for the worse: the river has been neglected, and suffered to be filled up with silt and mud; the navigation impeded; the interest of the money borrowed between fifteen and twenty years in arrears, and the creditors gravely told, that there is no money in hand for them. Their case therefore seems to be without remedy and without hope; there being, it is to be feared, no prospect of another chance to restore or improve the said river. What is become of the said fund?