Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 June 1883 — The Channel Tunnel. [ARTICLE]

The Channel Tunnel.

Sir John Hawksliaw, civil engineer, recently stated that there were no engineering difficulties in the way of the formation of the tunnel between France and England, and that its maintenance would be cheap. He estimated the cost of the tunnel at £8,000,000, and said the work would accupy in construction eight years. He had no doubt as to the financial success of the tindertaking. It was reasonable to reckon upon 2,000,1)00 passengers being earned through the tunnel annually a 6s. per head, and 1,200,000 tons of goods at ss. per ton. That would produce a revenue of £900,000. Allowing 40 per cent, for working expenses, 6} per cent, could then be paid upon the capital of £8,000,000. As one means of defence, it had been suggested that steps should be taken by which the tunnel could be flooded. He, however, was of opinion that arrangements could be made to throw up a mass of shingle inside the tunnel, and thus prevent its use. If necessary, the tunnel could be blown up. Should more than one tunnel be constructed, the question whether or not they should all be defended by forts was a question for a military man. If there were several tunnels they oould be easily defended by the same fortifications on the English side. The tunnel would be 180 feet below the bed of the channel.

In the Commons Fifty-three Tears. The present “Father of the House of Commons,” Mr. Christopher Rice Mansell Talbot, has sat for the county of Glamorgan, without interruption, from 1830, down to this day. Like Other ‘‘Fathers of the House” who preceded him, he has been distinguished for

brilliant silence rather than obstructive loquacity. His immediate predecessor, Mr. Cecal Forester, the present Lord Forester, sat for Much-Wenlock, from 1828 to 1874, and never broke silence daring that tune. His predecessor, Sir Charles Burrell, sat for Shoreham from 1806 until 1862, and during that period of nearly sixty years spoke but pnce, and that to introduce * a bill forbidding housemaids to be compelled to clean windows from the outside.