A volume of papers connected with the passage of the Bill through Parliament during the 1887 Session. This includes annotated drafts of the proposed Bill, and subsequent Act. It also includes newspaper cuttings, notices of the intended application to Parliament, and notes regarding clauses proposed for insertion into the Bill.

A number of reports on the Bill have been included:a report on the state of the River Trent by Frederick W. Jarrad for the Board of Trade (pages 39–42), a report by the Railway and Canal Traders' Association (pages 79–82), and a report by Henry G. Calcroft for the Board of Trade (pages 83–84).

The volume contains Petitions (pages 113–168) against the Bill deposited with Parliament by: the Humber Conservancy Commissioners; Lincoln Corporation; the Great Northern Railway; the Undertakers of the Aire and Calder Navigation; the Gainsborough Local Board and others; the Borough of Doncaster; and Merchants and Traders interested in the Navigation and the Owners or Occupiers of land on the banks of said River below Gainsborough.

Maps illustrating the Trent Navigation as of May 1885 can be found on pages 185–187.

An index to the volume can be found at the front: page 1.