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LXVJ. On the intended Thames Archway letween Rothcr- 

 hithe and Lime/iouse. By Mr. John Farey, Mineralo- 

 gical Surveyor. 



To Mr. Til loch, — Sir, 

 In an age like the present, when the abilities of a Rennie y 

 a Jessop, a Telford, and numerous other British civil en- 

 gineers are so universally known, by the great works which 

 have been executed within the last 30 years under their di- 

 rection, wherein difficulties of almost every kind have been 

 successfully overcome, and tunnels in the most difficult 

 situations have been constructed, in considerable numbers : 

 it must excite surprise in every one to learn, that after more 

 than three years have been spent by a company of proprie- 

 tors in the metropolis of the country, in ineffectual attempts 

 towards constructing a dry tunnel for a road-way under the 

 bed of the river Thames, as a substitute for a bridge, that 

 the directors appointed by these proprietors should now be 

 advertising (in the newspapers, and by a printed hand-bill, 

 which is given below,) for the schemes of inexperienced 

 adventurers, rather than call in the professional aid of one 

 or ino/e of the established engineers of the country, to the 

 effecting of the purposes which they have in view. Surely it 

 cannot be expected by these gentlemen, that any of the ex- 

 perienced engineers alluded to, will submit their designs and 

 estimates for the great work which the proprietors have un- 

 dertaken, on the terms and for the considerations held 

 out ; — who is to decide on the merits of the different designs 

 which may be delivered in? and who is to superintend and 

 execute the design which maybe adopted? On both of these 

 questions, the probability either of honour or profit to be 

 derived from their labours, will in all likelihood turn, 

 according to the conditions which the directors have laid 

 down. 



In your Magazine, No. 97, for June 1806, (vol.xxv. p. 4 6,) 

 I gave a hasty sketch of the state of the works at that time, 

 and an account, extracted from Mr. Robert Vazie's books, 

 of the strata expected by him to be met with in sinking the 

 shafts on the south and north shores, and in driving under 



the 



