1796. ] 
blood, however it may be tinged near 
its fource, with mixtures of earthy fub- 
ftances, 
Works itfelf clear, and as it runs refines, 
Till by degrees the floating mirror fhines. 
it then becomes, indeed, a glafs of 
fafhion, and all the courtiy youth drefs 
their faces by it. Iam, fix, &c. 
Fuby 15,1796. DBs hea Se 
ee 
Ti , the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, ; 
N vour Magazine, No, II, p. 120, J. W. 
has recommended the plan for form- 
ing wet docks\at Wapping. His letter 
drew my attention to the fubjeét. Having 
procured the report from the committee 
appointed by the Houfe of Commons to 
enquire into the beft mode of accommo- 
dating the increafed fhipping of the port 
of London, I compared the teveral plans, 
and afked many queitions concerning 
them. I cannot agree with J. W. in 
preferring the Wapping plan. 
The Wapping company propofes to 
purchafe 120 acres of diftri€t, to convert 
40 acres into quays, warehoufes, ézc. 
40 acres into a wet dock, and 4o acres 
into a navigable canal, communicating 
with the Thames below the Ifle of Dogs. 
‘The fhips are to be moored ten in the 
acre, and thirty are to go or come every 
tide. From Mr. Ludlam’s evidence, it 
fhould. feem, that the plan will not pay 
' itfelf, but will require the affiftance of a 
parliamentary tax. 
To this enterprize it may be objected, 
that by cluttering together fo immenfe a 
property, the danger of {weeping fires 
becomes extreme : that the line of exca- 
vation intercepts from the river a pre- 
digious range of common-fewers, which 
cannot be let into the dock, to the ex- 
tenfive nuifance of a populous neighbour- 
hood: that the Shadwell water-works 
will be lopped of all their profitable 
branches: that the idle length of canal, 
ufelefs to fair ftowage, will give oppor- 
tunity for the contraband difcharge of« 
cargoes innumerable: that the plan itfelf 
is puny and inefficient, and muft be fol- 
lowed up, in twenty years, by three or 
four more fuch, in whofe way it will have 
placed mighty difficulties: that all thips 
are ill-moored, which are not perpetu- 
ally afloat ; and that if the whole trade of 
London could be moved out of a tide- 
river, into a ftill dock, it would be better 
than removing only a particle of it. 
Herewith, contrat Mr. Revely’s ~xZ 
Wapping and Reveley’s Plan of Docks cotapared. 
443 
plan. He propofes to cut a new bed for 
the Thames, from Limehoufe to Black- 
wall, and to convert the old bed (the 
femi-circular reach jurrounding the Ifle 
of Dogs) into one vaft wet dock. This 
. plan, by the purchafe and excavation of 
126 acres of: diftri€t (for the ifthmus to 
be cut through meafures no more) ob- 
tains 434 acres of wet dock : fo that, at 
the expence of an equal furface, it ob- 
tains ten times the mooring-room of the 
Wapping plan: and_as the excavated foal 
can in this cafe be removed by water, the 
coft of the proce{s will be partly dimi- 
nifhed. 
By thefe means the uncertain naviga- 
tion around this bend of the Thames is 
equally avoided: the hourly expence of 
cleanfing a crooked part of the river, - 
fingularly given to generate fhoaly ob- 
firuétions, is faved; and a magnificent 
crefcent-fhaped wet dock is obtained, in 
which fhips can moor at a fate diftance 
from each other, and can enter in any 
number at once. Neo property of confe- 
‘quence is violated, except fome houfes in 
Blackwall. An immenfe property is 
created on the Ifle of Dogs, and on the 
Deptford and -Greenwich jhore. The 
new quays, cuftom-houfes, and ware-. 
houfes will have room for expanding into 
a coloffal magnificence, fuited to the age 
and the country. And a porto-jrancoy 
the long claim of commerce, may be 
created in the metropolis, without dan- 
ger tothe revenue. if the national af- 
fiance muft be given; be it given to an 
object worthy of the nation; not to a 
monopely company. 
I fhall not detain your readers by any 
comment on the bye-projects of Mr. 
Reveley (fuch as the reconftruétion of 
London-bridge) which appear to me fe- 
parable from this bold and fimple {fcheme: 
but I earneftly recommend the perufal 
of his whole Memoir to thofe who know 
that greater enterprifes have been achiev- 
ed, and that nations only excel by daring 
to put confidence in genius. 
I hear that this plan is difliked by an 
elder brother of the Trinity: fo much 
the worfe. ARISTOPHILOS. 
Fuly 1, 1796- 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR 
N the Monthly Magazine, for June, 
at p. 385, your correfpondent H. P. 
very juftly remarks, that the fick and 
labouring poor are prohibited the ufe of 
Port wine, at atime when they moftly 
need it, by the enormous advance on the 
4 price 

