[ 604 J [Dec. 
METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS: N°. III. 
Britisu Sub-ways. 
“ Thus far into the bowels of the land.” 
Amone the many projects for digging and diving, for mining and 
under-mining, for watering and lighting, and paving and building, 
which characterized those eventful years of speculation, from 1822 to 
the end of 1825, when so many of these schemes vanished into air, “ into 
thin air,” but, alas ! unlike Shakspeare’s cloud-capped towers, left many 
a “wreck behind,” that of Mr. Williams, for the erection of suB- 
ways in the British Metropolis, had there been a possibility of its 
accomplishment, would have been one of the most useful to the city, and 
acceptable to its inhabitants. When they are told that one of his great 
objects was to get to the sewers, the water, and the gas pipes, without 
breaking up the paving, we are quite sure that there is not a hackney- 
coachman, or a cabriolet-driver in the metropolis, who would not have 
voted for, and subscribed, in assistance of the measure. We have, our- 
selves, in the course of the last summer, driven up the Strand, and been 
baulked at every turning, till we came to Temple Bar, and were actu- 
ally compelled to go from Charing Cross to Chancery Lane, before we 
could find a clear way into Holborn, at a period when every minute 
was worth an hour to us. How did we then wish the rammers, and 
paviors, and diggers, at the bottom of their own sewers, and the pipers 
blown up with their own gas, and how sincerely did we lament the 
failure of Mr. Williams’s scheme, the excellence of which presented 
itself to our mind at every disappointment we experienced, as our half- 
turned horse was obliged to resume the direction of the Strand, at the 
appearance of those ropes, boards, and workmen, in St. Martin’s Lane, 
Bedford, Southampton, and Newcastle Streets, which forbade our access 
up any of these outlets, from the great thoroughfare between the two 
ends of the town. Mr. Williams’s project had for one of its objects the 
prevention of this inconvenience, which, since the introduction of gas, 
in addition to the water service, and the necessary repairs to sewers, has 
become so great as to be a general, and almost perpetual nuisance. In 
addition to this, however, the proposed plan was intended to convey, 
with greater certainty and purity, both water and gas into the houses of 
the metropolis. 
Anxious to accomplish so desirable ant object, Mr. Williams spent 
much time in taking levels, forming plans, calling general meetings, 
making estimates, petitioning parliament, and procuring patrons, but all 
would not do. Our water still comes in the same muddy stream—our 
gas-pipes are still buried just under the kemnels ; and there is not a 
defect in a sewer, however trifling, that does not stop the passage of a 
whole, and perhaps an important street, for days together, before it is 
repaired. The fact is, we believe, that such a project should precede, 
rather than follow, the construction of a city. Our metropolis has grown, 
by degrees,-to what it is; and it has been impossible to connect its 
different parts, so as to form one general and efficient drainage, or sup- 
ply. Previous to the construction of a city, the plan might be easily 
executed ; but, in the present extent of our metropolis, there is so much 
