CASE OF THE TOWN and PORT of King's-Lynn IN NORFOLK, As to their Navigation.  
THE said Port is an Ancient Port, situate on the River of Great Owze, furnished with great numbers of Ships, many Considerable Merchants, and able Seamen and Watermen, employed as well in all Foreign as Inland-Trade and Commerce, having at this time near 400 Seamen in His Majesty's Service.  
By means of which River, and of many Navigable Rivers falling into the Same, ten Counties of this Kingdom, have in a great Measure been Supplied with Coals, Fish, Salt, Wine, and all sorts of Sweedish and Danish Goods, and other Commodities, and made Returns of Corn, and other Products, Whereby;  

I. Great and mutual Advantages have accrued to that Port, and the said Counties.  
II. Great Revenues have been raised to the Crown.  
III. The Poor have been well employed.  
IV. Navigation, building of Ships, and increase of Seamen, have been encouraged.  
V. And the Kingdom in general, much Strengthened and Enriched.   
But, by a Dam and Sluice, cross the said great River Owze, at a place called Denver Dam, set by the Undertakers for Draining the Fens of Bedford Level, and other Works by them made under colour of a pretended Act, in the year 1649; And by them alleged to be Confirmed, by an Act made in the 15th year of King Charles the II. The flow and reflow of the Sea, for more than 24 Miles, beyond the said Dam and Sluice, up the said great River Owze into the River Grant towards Cambridge, and not much less in the Rivers of Mildenhall, Brandon and Stoake, are wholly obstructed and cut off, and the great Streams in the said River Owze are stopped, divided and much weakened, that the Passage of Ships, Boats and Vessels, in all those Rivers is very much hindered, and become tedious, difficult and chargeable, and the Channel from the said Dam, to Lynn-Haven, and from thence to Sea, for want of a sufficient Indraught, and the ancient Receptacles of Water, to keep the same open, is become so silted up, unsafe and dangerous, that the Navigation in the said Port and Rivers, and the Communication with those Counties must inevitably and entirely be lost, unless suddenly prevented; And it is Humbly shown;  

I. That the erecting that Dam and Sluice is Contrary to Magna Charta, and 10 or more Statutes of this Realm, made for avoiding all Obstructions on Navigable Streams, and Advancement of Trade and Navigation, and still in force; none of which are in any wise repealed or dispensed with, by the said Act for Draining, or otherwise.  
II. That it is also Contrary to the Proposals, Cautions, Pretences, and Conditions, upon which the said Adverturers first began, and afterwards continued their Works of Draining, expressed in the Journals of their own Proceedings, and their Laws and Ordinances of Sewers, by which they were to imbank the Rivers falling into the Owze, and this was set to keep out the Tides, and save that Charge; and are besides expressly contrary to the very Letter and Intention of the said Act of the 15th Car. II.  
III. That whereas the Adventurers pretend they have cut a River, called, New Bedford River, in a straight Line, as an equivalent for what they have stopped, it will by the plainest Demonstration appear, that it is of little Advantage to scouring the Outfall.  
IV. That before the first Setting down the said Dam and Sluice, and at the time of Erecting it, and since it was Finished (upon apprehension and prospect of the now visible Effects thereof,) repeated Complaints and Applications have been made, for preventing and removing the same, but by great Charges in prosecuting, and by fair Promises and Pretences of the said Adventurers; and the ill Consequences not being then so apparent, the same have been evaded and come to no Effect.  
V. That the said Dam and Sluice were set, and are now continued for the only and particular benefit of the South part of the said Level, being in general the worst Lands, and of the least Value in those Fens. The Inheritance of several thousands of Acres thereof being yearly sold for 4 d. per Acre, and such inconsiderable Rates; And this part is separated and divided from the rest of the Level, by great Banks and Defences, so as the removing the said Dam and Sluice, as it can be no damage to the rest of the Level, will be inconsiderable to this part, if compared to the loss of so great and valuable a Port and Navigation.  
VI That these obstructions tend not only to the apparent prejudice of Navigation, but also by Silting up the said River, have already wholly stopped up and disannulled, all the Drains and Outfalls of more than 50000 Acres of profitable Lands, ancient Meadows and Pastures, in the Hundreds of Marshland Freebridge and Clackclose in the said County of Norff, and parts adjacent, far more valuable than the said South Level in all respects: Which Lands, Meadows and Pastures, for divers years past, have been and now are (on that occasion) in a miserable Condition, much annoyed with Waters, and likely to become of little or no Value, if the Causes be not timely removed.  
VII. That besides the said Prejudices to Navigation, and the inestimable Damages to the said Lands in those Hundreds and Parts adjacent, the Drains and Outfalls of the South, and Middle Level, of the said Fens, are in like apparent Danger of being wholly lost, there being no other passage for their waters to Sea, but by the said River Owze, which daily grows worse, and less capable of Draining them.  
VIII. That these Complaints proceed not from any mistaken Notions, as the Adventurers have been pleased to insinuate, but from sad Apprehensions of those approaching Calamities, which being matters of the greatest Weight and Importance to the public, and ready to be made appear by Proofs, and Demonstrations, and for that the Provisions intended by the Statute of the 15th. Car. II. for Redress of such Mischiefs are ineffectual and impracticable, It is Humbly Prayed;   
That by an Act for removing Obstructions in the said River, and preserving the said Port and Navigation such proper Remedies in this behalf, may be provided, as the Nature of the Case, upon due Examination shall appear to Deserve and Require.