142 Sir F. Bramwell on tlie Channel Tunnel. [May 19, 



turn, the opening tliroiigli it would be transverse to the line of the 

 tunnel, which would at that time be therefore effectually stopped by 

 the armour-plated case of the block. 



I know you will say " Why this is nothing more than a stop- 

 cock ! " I agree that is all that it is, but it would be a very effectual 

 one, and as it would be turned hydraulically, it could be worked from 

 Dover Castle, if it were thought desirable ; and I fancy that any 

 soldiers — I beg pardon, I should have said smugglers — ^who came along 

 the tunnel and found the end closed with a smooth curved wall of 

 armour-plate that could not be moved and, short of battering by a 

 hundred-ton gun, could not be injured, would begin to sorrowfully 

 retrace their steps. 



In conclusion, let mo thank you for the kind attention with 

 which you have honoured me to niglit, and let me express my hope, 

 and I trust your hope, that no idle apprehension of increased facilities 

 for smuggling to be afforded by a Channel tunnel, nor, as at this last 

 moment of my lecture I am all but tempted to say, any equally idle 

 fear of invasion, will stop, or even delay, the execution of one of the 

 most useful works that even this nineteeth century, prolific as it has 

 been in works of great utility, has seen proposed. 



[F. B.] 



