c houses for the
accommodation of the boatmen, were considerable; but the heaviest
expenses were incurred in opening the Merrimac for navigation. From
Concord, N.H., to the head of the canal the river has a fall of 123 ft.,
necessitating various locks and canals. The Middlesex Canal Corporation
contributed to the building of the Wiccasee locks and canals, $12,000;
Union locks and canals, $49,932; Hookset canal, $6,750; Bow canal and
locks, $14,115, making a sum total of $82,797 to be paid from the income
of the Middlesex canal.

The constant demand for money in excess of the incomes had proved
demoralizing. Funds had been raised from time to time by lotteries. In
the Columbian "Centinel & Massachusetts Federalist" of Aug. 15, 1804,
appears an advertisement of the Amoskeag Canal Lottery, 6,000 tickets at
$5, with an enumeration of prizes. The committee, consisting of Phillips
Payson, Samuel Swan, Jr., and Loammi Baldwin, Jr., appealed to the
public for support, assuring the subscribers that all who did not draw
prizes would get the full value of their money in the reduced price of
fuel.

In 1816 the Legislature of Massachusetts granted the proprietors of the
canal, in consideration of its usefulness to the public, two townships
of land in the district of Maine, near Moosehead lake. This State aid,
however, proved of no immediate service, as purchasers could not be
found for several years for property so remote. Appeals to capitalists,
lotteries, and State aid proved insufficient; the main burden fell upon
the stockholders. In accordance with the provisions of the charter,
assessments had been levied, as occasion required, up to 1816, 99 in
number, amounting to $670 per share; and the corporation was still
staggering under a debt of $64,000. Of course, during all this time, no
dividends could be declared.

Under these unpromising conditions a committee, consisting of Josiah
Quincy, Joseph Hall, and Joseph Coolidge, Jr., was appointed to devise
the appropriate remedy. "In the opinion of your committee," the report
reads, "the real value of the property, at this moment, greatly exceeds
the market value, and many years will not elapse before it will be
considered among the best of all practicable monied investments. The
Directors contemplate no further extension of the canal. _The work is
done_, both the original and subsidiary canals.... Let the actual
incomes of the canal be as great as they may, so long as they are
co