1829.] Afairs in General. 197 



Mr. Brunei being requested to furnish an estimate of the probable 

 expense of its completion^ gave in the following estimate — 



Remainder of the tunnel, calculated on the cost of the 



first half 9O,00OZ. 



Cost of new shield 5,000/. 



Expense of removing the old, and placing the new sliield 2,000/., 



Pumping well, and drain from the Wapping shore .... 6,000/. 



Diving-bell, with a suitable vessel : also additional covering 

 over the bottom of the river to the extent of 300 feet, if 



it should be required 7jOOO/. 



Salaries for three years 8,000/. 



Shaft at Wapping 7,000/. 



The descents 60,000/. 



Purchase of premises at Wapping 15,000/. 



200,000/. 



It was considered, however, that it would not be safe to take the cal- 

 culation at less than 300,000/. The calculation of income that had been 

 made, out of which the principal and interest were to be repaid, was 

 15,000/. ; and supposing that government were to lend 300,000/. at four 

 per cent, that would take 12,000/. a-year to pay the interest, leaving 

 only about 3,000/. a-year as a sinking fund, to pay off the principal, and 

 until that was done, the proprietors could not expect to receive a penny 

 principal or interest of 170,000/. they had paid. 



Of ^Ir. Brunei's ability there is no doubt on the mind of the directors. 

 But the calculation is clearly against him. If 15,000/. a-year is to be 

 the whole revenue of the tunnel, the loss must be serious ; and expe- 

 rience tells public bodies, that to estimate their profits at one half of the 

 projector's calculation, and their expenses at twice the amount, is in 

 general a fair approximation to the truth. Yet we cannot but think 

 15,000/. a-year much below the income that the tuimel, in the course of 

 a very few years, would produce. Its situation is in the centre of 

 the most active communication of the metropolis, and the most populous 

 and opulent counties ; at one end receiving the commerce of the whole 

 of the docks. East Indian, West, London, and all the canals trending 

 into them, and at the other conveying the goods, provisions, cattle, &c., 

 of Kent, into the city. But it is not merely to the present state of the 

 intercourse that we should look. Wherever there is such a communica- 

 tion, there will soon be a town ; the beggarly buildings that now stand 

 in the Deptford end of the tunnel, will soon be forced to give way to 

 spacious streets, warehouses, and the other contrivances and conveniences 

 of a great mart. We shall have canals cut up to the mouth of the 

 tunnel; and if the noble project of the Portsmouth canal, a project 

 which would add to the security and rapidity of our Channel trade, to 

 the value of ten times the largest sum that it could cost, should be 

 effected, the communication from the coast would pass through the tunnel. 

 The tolls of Waterloo Bridge are said to be not less than 12,000/. a-year ; 

 we should conceive that the traffic and passage through the tunnel 

 would be, at least, four or five times as much, and that the revenue 

 might reach nearer 50,000/., than 15,000/. But we hope that JMr. Vig- 

 noies will sufficiently consider the lives of his workmen, to commence 

 his operations on the Essex side. The excavation is aheady so long, 

 tliat in case of a sudden burst of the water, it would be almost impos- 



