Meanwhile, the canal works, for which the capital was chiefly found in France, have been abandoned, pending the acquisition of additional funds. There are those who hold that it is little likely that the canal will ever be consummated, and the unfortunate issue of the works on the Panama Canal appears to justify the view that the French nation, who are almost alone concerned, will hesitate before they put their hands very deeply into their pockets in order to carry to completion an undertaking which is by no means certain to be a financial success.
FOOTNOTES
CHAPTER XXIV
[213] Plin., t. iv. c. 4.
[214] ‘Moniteur de la Banque et de la Bourse.’
[215] These particulars are taken from a report made to the Foreign Office by Her Majesty’s Secretary of Legation at Athens.
[CHAPTER XXV.]
THE RIVER THAMES.
“My eye, descending from the hill, surveys Where Thames along the wanton valley strays.” —Denham.
The river Thames is in many respects one of the most remarkable in the world. No other river has so large a commerce, no other river can boast such a display of shipping, no other river is the highway for such a large population, no other river has such a romantic and interesting history. The Thames is, however, eclipsed by many other waterways as regards natural advantages for maritime commerce. It has an extremely tortuous, irregular, and dangerous channel; it is subject to great fluctuations of tides; it is liable to be silted up with the deposits of sand and sewage from its lower reaches; and it is inadequately provided with artificial light to enable the mariner to find his way up the stream after nightfall. These disadvantages have again and again been the subject of serious accidents to life and limb, heavy losses to shipping and marine insurance companies, complaints and proposals on the part of the shipping interest, and representations to the Trinity House, the Board of Trade, and other constituted authorities. Only quite recently, the Chamber of Shipping sent a deputation to the Board of Trade, in order to urge that the Duke of Edinburgh channel should be better lighted, and it was then stated that the shifty and temporary character of the channel made the lighting of the Thames difficult at this point. For this reason, and owing to the influence of the tides, steamers have generally to cast anchor off Gravesend, if they reach the Thames after darkness has set in. This is so unpleasant an alternative for passenger steamers that they frequently brave the dangers of the river—much more serious, as a rule, than the dangers of the ocean—and run the risk of grounding or collision, in order that they may reach their destined berth or dock. Those who have had the misfortune to be on board a vessel under such circumstances must have felt devoutly thankful that they ever reached their destination without accident, and must have registered a vow that they would never repeat the experiment. Within the last few years, search lights have been shown from some of the docks, which, although intended to assist the navigator to his intended haven, have been found to produce the opposite effect, inasmuch that they cast into deeper shadow a great part of the intermediate channel. These dangers and difficulties are increasing, as it is natural they should do, when no adequate provision is made to overcome them.