Complex sentence: From the first he took a special interest in the inventions of James Watt and Matthew Boulton; and it was chiefly owing to his exertions that an Act of Parliament was obtained for the London and Birmingham Railway.
Split into simpler sentences: From the first he took a special interest in the inventions of James Watt and Matthew Boulton. It was chiefly owing to his exertions that an Act of Parliament was obtained for the London and Birmingham Railway.