Domestic Notices. — England. 467 



Art. II. Domestic Notices. 



ENGLAND. 



THE supplying of London with pure Water has of late occupied a good 

 deal of the public attention. According to the Report of a Committee 

 appointed to enquire into the subject, and according to all the public 

 journals, except the journal " edited at the Royal Institution of Great Bri- 

 tain," no water procured from the Thames, between Greenwich and Brent- 

 ford, can be considered pure. A supply must therefore be obtained either by 

 intercepting other rivers proceeding from the north or south to the Thames, 

 or by intercepting a portion of the Thames between Brentford and Windsor. 

 Supposing the situation of two reservoirs to be Blackheath and the neigh- 

 bourhood of Primrose Hill ; then a canal course from each of these reser- 

 voirs, with the same rise as that of the New River, might proceed westward, 

 following the inclination of the ground, descending under roads and navigable 

 canals, and passing circuitously by houses and gardens in the usual way, 

 till at last the two canals intercepted the Thames ; the supply thus pro- 

 cured would be adequate to London with thrice its present population, and 

 a great deal might be spared from the canals in their progress, for domes- 

 tic, agricultural, or gardening purposes. A walk or road accompanying 

 these canals might be rendered most ornamental, and would form an ad- 

 mirable and desirable addition to the sources of recreation of the metro- 

 polis. Invalid soldiers might be stationed all along this road, to prevent 

 idle persons from throwing any thing into the water, and for the general 

 purposes of patrols and watchmen. 



The Thames Tunnel. — Few works have excited more public interest 

 than this new and gigantic undertaking. It is impossible not deeply to 

 admire the original ingenuity of the scheme, and the skill and perse- 

 verance, in carrying it into execution, of the inventor and engineer, Mr. 

 Brunei. The accidents which have occurred under so eminent an en- 

 gineer, may be considered as proving that no human skill could foresee 

 the difficulties of the undertaking. We trust, however, it will ulti- 

 mately be accomplished. So great is the public sympathy with Mr. 

 Brunei's situation, that, since the late accident about the beginning of 

 this year, he has received no fewer than 300 written suggestions for a 

 remedy, besides upwards of 200 verbal suggestions. (See Mr. Brunei's 

 letter in the Times, Jan. 26.) A number of plans for such a tunnel, all 

 differing from that invented by Mr. Brunei, have appeared in different pub- 

 lications. As far as we have been able to judge of these plans, as com- 

 pared with Mr. Brunei's, we think none of them equal to his, where the 

 bed of a river is of perfectly solid earth ; but, where the bed is so little 

 to be depended upon as that of the Thames, it appears to us that the plan 

 of enclosing the space for the tunnel in small portions at a time, digging 

 out the earth up to the surface, or to the day, as the miners term it, and 

 building the arch so that its summit may be merely a yard or two below the 

 water, would have been the safest and cheapest mode. It is not, however, 

 applicable where Mr. Brunei's plan has been commenced, and is therefore 

 only mentioned here with a view to future tunnels under rivers. It is 

 highly satisfactory to learn from Mr. Brunei's letter, that almost the whole 

 of the 500 suggestions alluded to, concur in the principle which he has 

 adopted, viz. that of stopping the breach by a covering above. A public 

 subscription has been opened, by which, we have no doubt, a sum sufficient 

 to complete the work will be raised. Perhaps, also, something might be 

 got by the sale of tickets, to pass through the tunnel when finished, at Is. 

 each, or for perpetual pass-tickets, transferable at a larger sum. 



Vol. III. — No. 12. *h h 2 



