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SCANDINAVIAN ANTIQUITIES OP DUBLIN. 245
The Corporation of Dublin, still anxious to improve the APDK.
port, petitioned the House of Commons in 1698, stating Corporation
that " the river had become so shallow, and the channel so St t"*~
uncertain, that neither barques nor lighters of any burden ^
could get up except at spring tides, much merchandise
being unloaded at Ringsend, and thence carted up to
Dublin ;" and, therefore, prayed that they might be permitted
to establish a Ballast Office. 1
On this petition the " Heads of a Bill," were prepared and
transmitted to England, conformable with Poyning's law, 7
but the Bill was stopped in England by some persons
there (as was alleged), who endeavoured to get a grant from
the Admiralty for the benefit of the chest at Chatham." 8
Ordered a lease for thirty-one years,
at 50, covenanting to take such
rates only as the Corporation shall
think fit. City Assembly Roll.
Christmas, 1685. The Howards,
having neglected to perfect their
lease, order for lease therefore
declared void, and petition to the
Lord Lieutenant that H.M. may
direct Letters Patent to pass to
the city for a Ballast Office. City
Records.
1 23rd Nov., 1698. Petition of
Lord Mayor, &c., to the Commons
in Parliament that the river is
choked up . . .by gravel and
sand brought by the fresh-water
floods and ashes thrown in ...
and, by taking ballast from the
banks below Ringsend, which so
breaks the banks that the river has
carried great quantities of the
loose sands thereof into Poolbeg,
Salmon Pool, Clontarf Pool, and
Green Patch, which were the usual
anchoring places, but are now
become so shallow that no number
of ships can with safety bide
there, and the river, also between
Rings End and the Custom House,
by this means, and by the building
of several bridges which has
shifted the sands, has become so
shallow that the channel is of
little use, and barks of any burden
must unload, and the citizens
bring up their coals, &c., by land;
they, therefore, pray for a Ballast
Board, to be governed by petitioners,
to whom the river and
the strand belongs. Commons
Journals, vol. ii., p. 274.
2 22nd July, 1707. Petition of
John Eccles, Nathaniel Whitwell,
and Robert Chetham, merchants,
on behalf of themselves and others,
showing that the port and channel
in the harbour of Dublin are
almost destroyed by the irregular
taking in and throwing out of
ballast, &c., insomuch that Clon-
tarf pool and Salmon pool have
lost, within a few years, above two
feet of their former depth of water,
&c. For remedy whereof several
merchant* of Dublin formerly