1883.] Analyses of Books. 107 
require to be housed, fed, and adequately guarded. For these 
purposes at least two temporary prisons of great size would be 
needed, one in Ireland and one in Scotland. The scene of 
operations on each coast would need to be invested by a cordon 
of troops, and to prevent escape by sea a proper and efficient 
blockade would have to be maintained along both the northern 
and the southern coast of the isthmus, especially as it approached 
completion. Nor do we see that the ordinary prisons, in London 
or elsewhere, could be permanently closed, for, without con- 
sidering the many convidts who would be manifestly unfit for 
such labour, what would have to be done with the able-bodied 
ruffians when the work was completed ? 
Mr. King’s method of raising the necessary funds seems to us 
very judicious. He proposes that “ the tolls and land-rentals of 
so important a position as the isthmus would become for a new 
city, might be hypothecated by a paper currency issued under 
State guarantees for this special objedt.” This plan was, if we 
remember rightly, adopted for the eredtion of the Jersey meat- 
market and proved most successful. 
We must now glance at some of the more formidable difficulties 
in the way. The first consideration is the interference with 
navigation. A glance at the map shows us that the sea route 
from all ports on the west coasts of England, the south-west of 
Scotland up to and including the estuary of the Clyde, and the 
east coast of Ireland, would be greatly interfered with. The 
coasting trade between all those parts and the west of Scotland 
or the north of Ireland would be obliged to seek another channel. 
Without having any statistics at hand we should conclude that 
the greater part of the commerce of Glasgow with Canada, the 
West Indies, the United States, &c., passes along the North 
Channel between Ireland and the Mull of Cantyre. A consider- 
able share of the trade of Liverpool and of Belfast will take the 
same direction. To meet this difficulty Mr. King proposes to 
widen the Canal of Crinan, and to cut another through the 
Isthmus of Tarbert. These projects would involve a certain 
outlay, and hence a toll would be necessitated. A ship-owner in 
any of the ports concerned would say with justice : “ At present 
I have a comparatively short and simple route provided by nature. 
You block it up and compel me to take a longer and more 
intricate track, and for so doing you charge me a toll ! ” Hence 
we conclude that on mere commercial grounds the project will 
meet with warm opposition from the sea-ports in question. 
There is another difficulty to be encountered. The current 
flowing into the Irish Sea through the North Channel is, as 
everyone knows, and as the author expressly mentions, a part 
of the Gulf Stream. To its adtion the south-west of Scotland, 
the Isles of Bute and Arran, the shores of the Frith of Clyde, 
certain parts of the north-east of Ireland, and even the coasts of 
Cheshire, Lancashire, and Cumberland, owe their exceptionally 
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