n 1825, bringing great business ability and
unquenchable zeal to his task, the perishable wooden locks were
gradually replaced with stone, a new stone dam was built at Billerica,
and the service brought to a high state of efficiency. The new dam was
the occasion of a lawsuit brought by the proprietors of the Sudbury
meadows, claiming damages to the extent of $10,000 for flooding their
meadows. The defendants secured the services of Samuel Hoar, Esq., of
Concord, assisted by the Hon. Daniel Webster, who accepted a retaining
fee of $100 to "manage and argue the case in conjunction with Mr. Hoar.
The cause was to have been tried November, 1833. Mr. Webster was called
on by me and promised to examine the evidence and hold himself in
readiness for the trial, but for some time before he was not to be found
in Boston, at one time at New York, at another in Philadelphia, and so
on from place to place so that I am satisfied no dependance can be
placed with certainty upon his assistance, and," plaintively concludes
the agent, "our $100 has gone to profit and loss account."

On the other side was the Hon. Jeremiah Mason, assisted by Franklin
Dexter, Esq. This case was decided the following year adversely to the
plaintiffs.

With the accession of business brought by the corporations at Lowell,
the prospect for increased dividends in the future was extremely
encouraging. The golden age of the canal appeared close at hand; but the
fond hopes of the proprietors were once more destined to disappointment.
Even the genius of James Sullivan had not foreseen the railway
locomotive. In 1829 a petition was presented to the Legislature for the
survey of a railroad from Boston to Lowell. The interests of the canal
were seriously involved. A committee was promptly chosen to draw up for
presentation to the General Court "a remonstrance of the Proprietors of
Middlesex Canal, against the grant of a charter to build a railroad from
Boston to Lowell." This remonstrance, signed by William Sullivan, Joseph
Coolidge, and George Hallett, bears date of Boston, Feb. 12, 1830, and
conclusively shows how little the business men of fifty years ago
anticipated the enormous development of our resources consequent upon
the application of steam to transportation:--

The remonstrants take pleasure in declaring, that they join in the
common sentiment of surprise and commendation, that any
intelligence and enterprise should have raised so rapidly a