82 
Proceedings of the Royal Society 
This modern mode of improvement was therefore naturally 
generally regarded as thoroughly safe, and almost free from any 
suspicion of danger; yet, nevertheless, we have within the last 
year or two witnessed the greatest suspicion and excitement 
about the risk of silting in connection with the intended Man- 
chester Ship Canal, as originally proposed to he carried out, by the 
erection of training walls in the estuary of the river Mersey. But a 
few months ago very eminent engineers were ranged on opposite 
sides in Parliamentary Committees ; and it was only, after an 
almost unprecedented struggle that a physical question was decided, 
which, in the opinion of many, myself among the number, might — 
settled otherwise than it was — have ended in something very like a 
national calamity, namely, the silting up of the sea approaches to 
Liverpool. 
After not much short of half a century of the most varied ex- 
perience in different parts of the United Kingdom, the profession 
hesitated to answer with a united voice either aye or no, one of the 
most important questions ever laid before them by the public. 
Thirty years of practice, and of successful practice, might have 
been thought enough to give a satisfactory solution ; but when the 
question was laid before us, with regard to this particular river, it 
took a new shape. Hew considerations arose, and new criteria 
were evolved. This was a lesson to me, and, I think, it should be 
one to the profession. Among those who from the first confidently 
predicted that disastrous consequences from silting would follow .in 
the Mersey, I may mention the names of Mr Vernon Harcourt, 
C.E. ; Mr Lyster, the engineer of the Liverpool Docks ; and Captain 
Hills, the marine surveyor of the port of Liverpool. 
The Mersey was, at first sight, no exceptional river. The rise 
and maximum velocity of tide was much the same as in the Kibble ; 
the breadth of estuary was similar to that of the Tees ; and the 
matter in suspension was much less than in the Lune. Yet training 
walls and steam dredging had increased the depth in the Kibble 
to between 7 and 8 feet up to Preston; in the Lune to 4 feet up 
to Lancaster; and in the Tees from 3 to 20 feet as high as Stockton. 
With such facts before me, I was slow in coming to any decided 
view. My instincts or “ my feelings,” as Smeaton would have 
expressed it, no doubt warned me against the adoption of training 
