STEAM NAVIGATION. 427 it will exhibit tl.eir plan, and the state in which the company then stood :— " The directors of the American and Colonial Steam Navigation Company , having now arranged matters with those subscribers who signified their intention of withdrawing, and paid all the claims, beg leave to lay before the persisting part of the company the prospects which enable them to propose an extension of their stock, and the resumption of the original objects for which they associated. " Having obtained, by their two acts of Parlia¬ ment, the right of purchasing vessels, and registering under the British flag, in the name of the directors, and limiting the responsibility to the extent of the subscription—rights which no other association of this kind have obtained, and which, but for the im¬ portant national benefits expected from it, would not have been granted to this company, and having also the right of proceeding as soon as funds for the pur¬ chase of one ship are obtained, instead of waiting for the subscription of three-fourths of the capital, and without the obligation of a heavy contingent fund, by the want of which powers the operations of the original company were paralysed—the directors con¬ sider that, without losing any of the advantages which have been universally admitted to attend the undertaking by all persons acquainted with the sub¬ ject, the company are now placed in a much more favourable situation than before; and though much expense has occurred ere this has been obtained, it