1828.] Motet, for the Monfii. 1 77 



that it would never repay five per cent, of the sum that it has cost, if it 

 were completed. When we were told, at the time of the first accident, 

 that " the bed of the river had been surveyed," and that " no second 

 accidant could occur," we said that such a declaration was either impo- 

 sition or nonsense. That the " surveys," when taken, were not worth 

 one farthing, was clear ; for they had been taken, and the assurance 

 given, that no accident whatever could occur, before the work com- 

 menced. In fact, that such a survey should be of any value was impos- 

 sible. The whole work is now inundated, by a weak point in the bed of 

 the river, only seven feet square : does any engineer mean to say that he 

 ever examined or ever contemplated examining -every " seven feet 

 square" of the bottom of the Thames, in the line that the tunnel was to 

 take ? And this weak point too for the full proof of the benefit of the 

 survey is found distant only a very few yards from the spot of the 

 former accident ! 



It might be possible (perhaps) by laying down an artificial bottom all 

 across the river a bottom of which, within two years, there would not be 

 left a remnant to carry the Tunnel through. But what insanity it would 

 be to incur such an expense independent of the strong probability of 

 future insecurity (when this artificial bed of the river shall have been 

 washed away) for a work which never can hope to pay five shillings per 

 cent, upon the capital laid out upon it ? Doubtless the undertaking would 

 have been a splendid one, if it had succeeded though a most monstrous 

 destruction of all the property embarked in it. It has failed, in defi- 

 ance of a zeal and ingenuity, almost unparalleled on the part of the 

 engineer ; but it has failed, and it would be a pity to allow him to cast 

 away his own life, or the lives of other people, in endeavouring to 

 complete it. We do not affect the ultra humanity, of being deter- 

 red from any valuable purpose, by the apprehension of danger to 

 parties employed : but the late accident has added one fact to those 

 already within the clear perception of reasonable people: to wit, 

 that the machinery of the " shield," however curious and admi- 

 .rable, is quite inadequate to prevent irruptions of the water, or 

 to secure the lives of the workmen when such take place. If the full 

 number of persons usually employed in the Tunnel (independent of 

 visitors) had been present at the time of the disaster, the loss of life must 

 have been enormous. On the whole, we look with no hope whatever 

 ourselves, to the completion of this enterprize ; and we very much dis- 

 trust some rumour that we hear, of parties uninterested, being willing 

 to contribute subscriptions, rather than it should be abandoned. It is 

 clearly proved proved by two events that the engineers know no- 

 thing, with certainty, of the difficulties that they have to encounter. And 

 it is possible that those who have shares, may be inclined, by any means, 

 to keep up the delusion some time longer ; in the hope of being able to 

 sell even for a low price that which is now worth absolutely nothing. 



Reality of History. A paper called " The Revenant" appeared some 

 time last summer in Blackwood's Magazine, describing the adventures 

 and sensations of a man supposed to have been hanged and brought to 

 life again. Three months after, the editor of an American newspaper 

 copied half the article into his journal, and gave it as the particulars of 

 a real transaction, which had lately occurred in England. The French 

 Globe now, en the 6th of January, translates the story from the 

 American paper ; and gives a comment upon the philosophy of \hefact, 



M. M. New Scries. VOL. V. No. 26. 2 A 



