CHAP. VII. 



LONDON DOCKS. 



197 



to a vast amount of smuggling', by which the honest 

 merchant was placed at a disadvantage at the same time 

 that the revenue was cheated. The Government, there- 

 fore, for the sake of its income, and the traders for the 

 security of their merchandise, alike desired to provide 

 an eifectual remedy for these evils. 



Mr. Rennie was consulted on the subject in 1798, and 

 requested to devise a plan. Before that time various 

 methods had been suggested, such as quays and ware- 

 houses, with jetties, along the river on both sides ; but 

 all these eventually gave place to that of floating docks 

 or basins communicating with the river, surrounded 

 with quays and warehouses, shut in by a lofty enclosure- 

 wall, so that the whole of the contained vessels and their 

 merchandise should be placed, as it were, under lock 

 and key. By such a method it was believed the goods 

 could be loaded and unloaded with the greatest economy 

 and despatch, whilst the Customs duties would be levied 

 with facility, at the same time that the property of 

 the merchants was effectually protected against depre- 

 dation. At the beginning of the century a small 

 dock had existed on the Thames, called the Greenland 

 Dock ; but it was of very limited capacity, and only 

 used by whaling vessels. Docks had existed at Liver- 

 pool for a considerable period, which had been greatly 

 extended of recent years ; so that there was no novelty in 

 the idea of providing accommodation of a similar kind on 

 the Thames, though it is certainly remarkable that, with 

 the extraordinary trade of the metropolis, the expedient 

 should not have been adopted at a much earlier period. 



The first of the modern floating docks actually 

 constructed on the Thames was the West India, 

 occupying the isthmus that formerly connected the Isle 

 of Dogs with Poplar, and of which Mr. Jessop l was the 



1 Mr. William Jessop, C.E., was 

 among the most eminent engineers of 

 his day. His father was engaged 



under Smeaton in the building of the 

 Eddystone Lighthouse ; and, dying in 

 1761, he left the guardianship of his 



