LANCASHIRE; 1861-76 BLACKBURN GAS-LIGHT CO, Receipts for B & C SHARES with Revenue stamps as per images.

NOTES ON THE COMPANY BELOW.

" Lighting with Gas the Town and Township of Blackburn, in the County Palatine of Lancaster." By this Act the Company was constituted a Body Corporate, and was empowered to raise an additional share-capital for the extension of its works. A second Act was obtained by the Company in the 16th Victoria (dated "14th June, 1853"), entitled "An Act to extend the limits of the Blackburn Gas-Light Company's Act for the Supply of Gas, and to authorise the raising of a further sum of Money, and for other Purposes." The Company got a third short Act in March, 1860, entitled "An Act for enabling the Blackburn Gas-Light Company to raise a further sum of Money, and for other Purposes." The only subsequent legal powers granted to the Company are set forth in an Order from the Board of Trade, called "The Blackburn Gas Order, 1875," which "empowers the Blackburn Gas-Light Company to raise additional Capital." Abstracts of these Company's Acts, and the clauses and schedule of the "Blackburn Borough Gas, Water, and Extension Act, 1877," which refer to the conditions of the transfer of the Gas Works by the Company to the Blackburn Corporation, will be inserted in this History of the Company under their respective dates.

The Company from first to last appears to have largely owed its steady prosperity to the good management of a succession of shrewd and vigilant directors-men of business, who have avoided the equally injurious extremes of extravagance and parsimony; who have perceived the right time for extension and improvements, and when anticipating assured public needs have not hesitated to provide ample funds for the outlay demanded, even at the expense of a temporary slight reduction in the returns to the proprietory. Such appropriations of money for enlargements of the works have in each instance been justified speedily by pecuniary results, and have uniformly aggrandised the Company's commercial position.

These few particulars are prefixed to the chronological arrangement of the Records of the Company by way of slight historic introduction to the official documents, and as indicating some of the leading features of the Company's administration, details of which will be found under the dates mentioned. The Minutes and Reports of the Company explain themselves; and excepting a few passing notes on persons deceased who have been connected with the directorate of the Company, my task as editor of this volume will consist chiefly in seeing that each document or extract falls in its proper place, and in summarising the less essential matter which could not be printed at length without rendering the volume too bulky.

The first document which occurs is a copy of a requisition for a meeting of persons favourable to the formation of a Gas-Light Company, which is dated the 9th January, 1818