The lands saved eight years' revenue 40,000
========
280,000

which is 13,000 pounds more than the charge; and if the work be done
so much cheaper, as is mentioned, the profit to the undertaker will
be unreasonable.

To this I say I would have the undertakers bound to accept the
salary of 3,000 pounds per annum for management, and if a whole
year's tax can be spared, either leave it unraised upon the country,
or put it in bank to be improved against any occasion--of building,
perhaps, a great bridge; or some very wet season or frost may so
damnify the works as to make them require more than ordinary repair.
But the undertakers should make no private advantage of such an
overplus; there might be ways enough found for it.

Another objection lies against the possibility of inclosing the
lands upon the waste, which generally belongs to some manor, whose
different tenures may be so cross, and so otherwise encumbered, that
even the lords of those manors, though they were willing, could not
convey them.

This may be answered in general, that an Act of Parliament is
omnipotent with respect to titles and tenures of land, and can
empower lords and tenants to consent to what else they could not; as
to particulars, they cannot be answered till they are proposed; but
there is no doubt but an Act of Parliament may adjust it all in one
head.