Railways had by this time made rapid progress, and had been completely established as the future means of conveyance for goods and passengers. The Manchester and Liverpool and the Stockton and Darlington had been completed with the most successful results. The Grand Junction between Liverpool and Birmingham, the London and Birmingham, and Great Western, were making rapid progress towards completion, and numerous other lines were either projected or about being carried into effect. Still the canals were not altogether supplanted; and it was proposed to make a ship canal from London to Portsmouth, by means of which the dangerous, tedious, and expensive navigation between those places would be avoided. The late Mr. Horace Twiss, M.P. for Wootton-Bassett, and afterwards Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, took the greatest interest in this undertaking; and from calculations which he had carefully made from official returns, he stated that a clear revenue of 1,000,000l. per annum might be derived from it. The first Lord Ashburton, then Alexander Baring, with whom I had a long conversation on the subject, said that, if practicable at reasonable cost, it would be a valuable national work.

During the height of the great revolutionary war with France, long before the public had been accustomed to the vast sums which have been raised and expended upon great works in modern times, a canal between London and Portsmouth had been considered as a very desirable and profitable work. My father made a plan for it in 1807, and the then Earl of Egremont offered to subscribe largely to it: a money crisis however occurred, and it was abandoned for the time. A canal, however, upon a much smaller scale was afterwards made by Mr. Josias Jessop, between the Wey and Arun, and from thence through Chichester and Longston harbours to Portsmouth. It was upon too small and imperfect a scale, and therefore did not answer.

A ship canal, however, capable of transporting a 74-gun ship and Indiamen of the largest class, was afterwards contemplated. A very influential committee requested me to investigate the subject thoroughly; firstly, as to its practicability; secondly, what was the best time for such a canal; and thirdly, what would be the cost. I accordingly, with the assistance of the late Mr. Francis Giles, who took the levels and surveys, explored and examined the three lines which were most practicable—the first by the Merstham, the second by the Dorking, and the third by the Guildford valley. The last was decidedly the best line, having the least height, the easiest route, and the best supply of water for the lockage. It commenced at the Thames, and continued up the valley of the Wey to Guildford, where it crossed the summit, descended into the vale of the Arun, which it crossed by an aqueduct, and thence along the base of the hills to Portsmouth Harbour.

The canal was to have been 100 yards wide at the top, and 24 feet deep. At the summit there were to have been ample reservoirs, and capacious basins or docks at each end. The voyage from London to Portsmouth would have been made in two days—that is to say, by common haulage—but steam tugs would have reduced it to twenty-four hours. The estimate was 7,000,000l., which was considered so large at the time, that all idea of prosecuting the undertaking further was at once abandoned. The world had not then been accustomed to the enormous sums since spent upon railways, and then they would never have believed that 16,000,000l. would be spent upon the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway, only the same length as the proposed canal, or that a similar amount would be spent in the same county upon the South-Eastern Railway.

That the canal is perfectly practicable there can be no doubt, and it would have been of great public advantage; but whether, after all, it would have yielded a reasonable profit for the capital expended, is a question which I will not undertake to determine.

One part of my father’s business was the making of machinery, of which he was very fond, being a first-rate theoretical and practical mechanic; but the machinery department formed only a very small part of his extensive business, although he constructed several important works, such as the Albion Flour Mills near Blackfriars Bridge, afterwards destroyed by fire, and where he subsequently had his own works, which still exist. This is admitted to have been one of the best pieces of that class of engineering ever constructed, either before or since, and performed a quantity of work in proportion to the power employed, such as has never been surpassed. He also designed and constructed the rolling mills in the Royal Mint, which have been in full work for more than half a century, and are still in as efficient a state as ever. The diving bell may almost be said to have been an invention of his, for he effected such great improvements in it that he was enabled to apply it to building under water at Ramsgate Harbour for the first time in 1813. It was worked from a scaffold above water, to which were attached movable trucks with windlasses, working upon a rack-and-pinion railway, so that the diving bell and the apparatus for raising and lowering the bell, together with the stones, could be worked, and the building carried on with the same certainty and nearly the same expedition as above water. He also erected a similar apparatus applied for raising heavy blocks of mahogany at the West India Docks: this is the Gantry crane, which has been since very generally employed in almost all building operations. My object in mentioning the subject here is merely to say that when my father died he left this machinery department to my brother George and myself, though I believe that if he had lived a few years longer he would have given it up altogether. The site of this manufactory was formerly one of the most fashionable suburbs of the metropolis, and here the celebrated Nell Gwynne had her country house. My brother and self continued the business, rebuilt the place entirely, with considerable improvements, and did a large amount of business here. We constructed the rolling mills for the Calcutta and Bombay mints; the great flour mills and baking machines of Deptford, Portsmouth, and Cremill Point yards; numerous locomotive engines for different railways, amongst others the ‘Satellite’ for the Brighton Railway, which was one of the first that attained the speed of 60 miles an hour upon the narrow gauge. We made the steam engines and machinery for Her Majesty’s ship ‘Bulldog,’ the yacht ‘Dwarf,’ and others; also for the famous Russian steamer ‘Wladimir,’ which did so much mischief at Sebastopol; two yachts for the Emperor of Russia, and other vessels for the Russian navy, together with the whole of the iron gates for the dockyard at Sebastopol, two pair of which were brought back as trophies by the British and French armies. We built four iron steam vessels and their machinery for the Russian Government, for the Caspian Sea, which were the first that floated on its waters; they were first built in London, then taken to pieces, sent to St. Petersburg, and thence down the Volga to the Caspian; men were sent with them by us, who put them together there, and launched them successfully. We made and erected the small-arms manufactory at Constantinople, for making five hundred muskets per week. We constructed the engines and machinery for the ‘Archimedes’ screw-vessel, which was the first screw used in this country; and again, the iron vessel, engines, and screw for the ‘Dwarf,’ which was the first screw-vessel ever introduced into the British Navy, in the year 1839, for which I take the credit myself; for after we had succeeded so well with the ‘Archimedes,’ I waited upon Sir George Cockburn, then Senior Naval Lord of the Admiralty, and proposed to him to make a small iron vessel worked by a screw. I engaged that the vessel should make the speed of ten knots an hour by the measured mile; and that if after she was completed and tried she did not come up to the required conditions, of which their own officers were to be sole judges, I would take back the vessel and machinery, without any compensation; but if they were satisfied, they themselves were to fix the price to be paid for the vessel and machinery. Sir George said the offer was so fair, that if I would put it in writing in the form of an official tender, he would recommend the Admiralty to accept it; this I accordingly did. The vessel, engines, and screw were completed to the satisfaction of the Admiralty officers, the price settled by them was at once paid, and so the ‘Dwarf’ was the first screw-vessel introduced into the British Navy. It was certainly no small gratification to myself to have introduced the first vessel propelled by the screw into the Royal Navy, as I felt convinced that it was the only proper method of propelling vessels of war: it was the more gratifying, because my father was the first who, in 1819, introduced the paddle-wheel system into the Navy; and thus our family have had the honour—and a great one it is—of introducing into the Navy the two greatest improvements of modern times. My father, who was always consulted by the Admiralty, proposed machinery in every department where it could be applied with any advantage; such as railways; the Gantry crane, and others, worked by machinery; heating anchors in furnaces, by means of which only could they be properly made; employing convicts to do the labour, with a moderate gratuity to stimulate their exertions, and thus reduce the expense of their keep; and employing private establishments wherever they could do the work cheaper than in the dockyards. The state must and ought to have such establishments as should be able to do their own work when occasion requires; but in a country like England, where the arts and manufactures are carried to the highest possible extent by individual competition, and where the field of exertion is so vast and the prizes of success are so great, no government establishment can compete with them. It cannot hold out sufficient inducement for exertion, and hence we find that no great invention has ever emanated from a public establishment. Certain officers the government must have, and these must be at fixed salaries, for which they have to do a certain quantity of work, and for this the hours are fixed; they have no inducement to go beyond this. Yet this perhaps is the wisest course for a government like ours; it can always command the talent of the day, and it is far more economical for a government to pay the market price, whatever it may be, than to take persons, however well qualified, wholly into its employment; the moment this is done the inducement to extra exertion ceases, and the government must go again to the market for the next best talent, and so on. Hence it is my opinion that a government should have the fewest possible establishments it can get on with, so as not to leave itself wholly dependent upon private firms; and that it should go liberally to the public, specifying in general terms what is required, then it will obtain the best workmen in the wisest manner, without being taxed by extra pensions or any other drawback; by this means a government would command all private establishments, and make the most of its own.

In 1832 I was requested by the authorities of the Isle of Man to examine the whole of the coast of the Island, and to give my opinion as to the best plan for improving the harbours. I accordingly sent over my assistant, Mr. Coombe; and having carefully surveyed Douglas, Derby Haven, Castleton, Peel, Ramsey, and Laxey, made complete hydrographical surveys of the whole, and detailed plans for the best way of improving them. At Douglas I proposed to make an extensive low-water asylum harbour, and also at Derby Haven, which were the most important places, and possessed the greatest capability of making good refuge harbours at the most economical rates for the numerous vessels trading between Ireland and England, and also for foreign vessels bound for Liverpool. The other ports susceptible of improvement were chiefly local, and therefore only a moderate sum was proposed to be expended upon them. A great harbour might, indeed, have been made near the Calf of Man; but this would have involved an expense which the revenues of the Island had no means of paying, though a harbour there would have been of importance to the vast number of vessels of all classes trading between Liverpool and America; and therefore, if anything was to be done there, Liverpool ought to have contributed largely towards it. Liverpool, however, thought differently. They had no idea of encouraging their vessels to stop so near home. So that all idea of making a refuge harbour near the Calf of Man was abandoned. Neither could the Islanders obtain foreign aid for Douglas, or Castleton, or Derby Haven. They were therefore left to their own resources, and were obliged to confine their operations to making a small addition to Douglas Pier, which I designed for them, and which was carried into effect by Mr. James Brown—a most excellent practical engineer—who had been employed many years by my father at Holyhead Harbour and elsewhere.

About the same time I was asked to make a plan for the improvement of the ancient port of Hartlepool (I think one of the oldest in England), for shipping coal from the coal-fields of South Durham, which were then being developed to an extraordinary extent. I made a plan, which was afterwards carried into effect under my direction, the late Mr. James Brown, above mentioned, being the resident engineer. When I visited the place, it was the most secluded, primitive fishing village I ever saw. It has now become one of the most thriving and populous towns of Durham.

At this time I was also requested by a society of gentlemen—amongst whom were Messrs. Ladbrooke, Mills, Smith, Webb, &c.—to examine the mouth of the Coquet, near Warkworth, in order to make a harbour there for the shipping of coal from some collieries which were about to be opened in that district. This harbour, which consisted of a north pier and south pier, was made under my direction; Mr. George Remington being the resident engineer. It was merely intended as a tidal harbour, with floating docks attached to it; which latter, for want of funds, were never made. By extending the northern pier farther seaward, they could easily obtain 12 feet or more at low water; and the Coquet Island outside forms an excellent and safe roadstead for vessels drawing 20 feet at low water—an advantage that no other port on the east coast possesses. There is plenty of coal in the vicinity, that has never been developed for want of capital; but no doubt the day will come when this port will be of considerable consequence. Whilst superintending these works, the late Earl Grey, then Prime Minister, who lived at Howick, about nine miles to the north of the Coquet, invited me to spend a day there. I accordingly went over, and was most kindly received. I there met his son, the present Earl, and the present Sir George Grey, and passed my time very agreeably and instructively. The late Earl, when Commissioner of Portsmouth Dockyard, knew my father well, and had great respect for his talents.

Whilst employed in constructing the piers of Sunderland Harbour, I made acquaintance with Mr. Lambton, afterwards the Earl of Durham, who married one of Earl Grey’s daughters. He was one of the commissioners of the harbour, and a great coalowner. He was a slight-made person, of the middle size, with an olive complexion, dark, piercing eyes, and a profusion of jet-black hair. He possessed considerable talent, great firmness, and a stern, haughty, proud bearing, with great impetuosity of temper. Being heir to a large fortune, he was spoiled in his youth, although not without kindly, generous, and noble feelings, and where he took a liking, was a firm friend. He was always very kind and friendly to me, and took a leading part in promoting the success of Sunderland Harbour. His violent temper, and inability to control it, was the cause of his failure as a public man. When Governor-General of Canada he, contrary to all rules of order and subordination, threw up his command in a pet on account of some trifling provocation, and returned to England without authority. The obloquy which this foolish and imprudent step entailed upon him for ever after rendered him unfit to take a leading part in public affairs, for which otherwise he was well calculated, and he died soon after, it is believed of a broken heart.

Railways having been now fairly established, and having to a considerable extent superseded roads and canals, the Brighton Railway scheme was started again. The history of this work I have already described. During the years 1837-1838 it occupied a considerable portion of my time, and although I was then very ill, and totally unfit for business, I was obliged to struggle through it, and carried it at last. At times I was so nervous and unwell that I scarcely knew what I was about. I felt perfectly stupid, and thought that my life must end in a lunatic asylum; and many, even of my friends, considered that my career was over. When cross-examined before parliamentary committees, which examinations I was obliged to undergo at this time, after two or three hours my head got so confused that I could see nothing distinctly—everything appeared either double or upside down. However, I got through not only the Brighton, but also the Blackwall, Railway Bills. Apropos of the Blackwall Railway, I long had an idea that Blackwall, including the East and West India, the Regent’s Canal, and the London Docks, should be connected with London by a railway, and that this line should form the grand trunk and terminus for all the railways which were to connect the eastern counties of Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Cambridge with London. A Bill for making the Eastern Counties Railway through Essex and Suffolk had then passed, having their terminus in Shoreditch, which was quite out of the way, and left out all the docks; whereas the line which I proposed would not only have connected them with London at Fenchurch Street, which is within half a mile of the Royal Exchange, but would have brought the great traffic of the eastern counties there also. Mr. Stephenson, seeing the importance of my Blackwall line, started another in opposition, which was defeated in Parliament, and my line was carried; but my party was not strong enough to carry it into effect; Mr. Stephenson’s was, therefore they took up my line, and he was appointed the chief engineer. He wholly ignored my principle of making the Blackwall line the main trunk for the eastern counties’ traffic, but declared that the Blackwall line should be considered distinct; and as he thought that so short a line was not adapted for locomotives, he said that it would be far better to work it by means of ropes attached to powerful engines fixed at each end of the line. I foresaw that this plan would not succeed, and told my friends so; however, it was of no use, the rope system was adopted, until it was found that the constant breaking of the ropes, their great friction, and the power required to work them, entailed so much expense and inconvenience, that the line would not pay a dividend. The company therefore resolved to abolish the rope system altogether, and adopt locomotive engines, according to my original plan; and the line was extended to join the Eastern Counties Railway at Stratford, and the Tilbury and Southend Railway, and it has been connected with the Victoria, East and West India, London, and St. Katharine Docks, and now pays a dividend of about 3 to 3½ per cent. In fact, all that I recommended has been done, and the result has been successful; but it would have been much more profitable if my plan had been adopted in the first instance, while the extra expense of the rope system would have been saved.

In the year 1844 came the great railway mania. Railways were considered as a mine of wealth to whoever would undertake them; and consequently new lines were projected in all directions, and I had my full share of them: amongst others the Great Northern, the Leeds and Carlisle, the Leeds and Bradford, the York and Scarborough, the Bristol and Monmouth, the Bishop’s Stortford and Thetford (called the Direct Norwich), the Birmingham and Boston, the Newry and Enniskillen, the East Lincolnshire, the Lincoln and Hull, the Cannock Chase, and the North Wales, &c. The consequence was that the demand for engineering surveyors and assistants was very great. Engineering was considered to be the only profession where immense wealth and fame were to be acquired, and consequently everybody became engineers. It was not the question whether they were educated for it, or competent to undertake it, but simply whether any person chose to dub himself engineer; hence, lawyers’ clerks, surgeons’ apprentices, merchants, tradesmen, officers in the army and navy, private gentlemen, left their professions and became engineers; the consequence was that innumerable blunders were made, vast sums of money were recklessly expended, and the greater part of the lines were thrown out of Parliament in consequence of the innumerable errors committed in them.

The committee rooms of the Houses of Lords and Commons were thronged to such a degree with engineers, lawyers, and witnesses, that it was scarcely possible to find sufficient room for them. The barristers, solicitors, and parliamentary agents made enormous sums, and so did those engineers who were fortunate enough to get paid. My labours were most arduous. I had to work night and day for several weeks in preparing plans for Parliament, and if I had only got paid, I should have made a good fortune, for I employed in one department or another above three hundred assistants. It is true that I received a great deal of money; but the expenses were so great that the advances made to me were immediately absorbed, and before I could balance my accounts, most of the companies had vanished, remaining largely in my debt. As to recovering my debts in a court of law, it was impossible on account of the difficulty of proving whether there was a sufficient number of directors present when the order was given, and what were the names of the directors present; because, as they were not legally constituted companies, the different members of the board could only be sued in their individual capacities, whilst I, who employed the different parties to make the surveys and work out the details, was clearly liable to them; so that the claims against me were innumerable, and made without mercy, and I had the greatest difficulty in satisfying them without material loss.

To give an example of the difficulties I had to contend with in establishing my case against one of the companies that employed me—viz. the Cannock Chase Railway, an essentially good concern, which has since been carried into effect with considerable profit to another company who took it up afterwards: My company had paid me 2500l. on account of the expenses, and they owed me 2700l. more, which they never disputed. They had 12,000l. in hand, and could have easily paid my bill; but finding that they could not at that time carry their line, they united with another company without paying me, and handed over to them the 12,000l. subscribed for my company. I then got them to call a meeting, and said that as their original company had collapsed, I was prepared to meet them upon the most equitable terms, namely, that they should pay the balance of my disbursements actually out of pocket; this they declined to do. I then offered to deduct my share of the disbursements if they would pay the balance; this they declined also, and they would pay no more. Finding that I could do nothing with them, I sued them at law, and brought an action against the chairman; he, however, proved that he was not present when the order was given to me, I was therefore nonsuited, and had to pay my expenses and his, which cost me 500l. I then brought an action against two other parties, who were present when the order was given; but then it was proved against me that there was not a quorum, and as I could not get hold of the books, the secretary having absconded with them, I was nonsuited again at the cost of 500l. more. At last this secretary having got into difficulties, I got hold of the minutes of proceedings by an extraordinary combination of circumstances, went to the Court of Chancery, and eventually established my case, and recovered the whole of my claim, viz. 2700l.; but without the costs. So that after seven years’ litigation I recovered the 2700l., which was wholly absorbed in the expenses; and therefore I was where I began.

The principal parliamentary battle I had was in 1844-5; and in the following year I had another with the Great Northern Railway. The late Mr. Gravatt had the dual line from King’s Cross by Barnet, Welwyn, Stilton, Stamford, Corby, Lincoln, Asking to York; this was in every respect the shortest and the most easy of execution; unfortunately, our company was not formed until the end of September, so that it was extremely difficult, in so short a time, to get the surveys and levels made correctly. The late Mr. Francis Giles undertook to have the whole completed in the most perfect manner by the 30th November, 1844, for depositing with the respective Clerks of the Peace, as required by the Standing Orders of Parliament. Mr. Giles’s well-known reputation as a first-rate engineering surveyor appeared to Mr. Gravatt and myself a sufficient guarantee that the surveys would be well completed by the required time; in this, unfortunately, we were most grievously disappointed, for Mr. Giles, who had a good deal of other business in hand, could not devote his whole attention to it, which was absolutely necessary; in fact, he ought never to have undertaken it; but he always assured us that it would be properly done in time. However, finding that he did not go on so well as we expected, we endeavoured, as far as practicable, to remedy the evil by setting on additional surveyors ourselves, under the control of Mr. Giles; but in spite of all our exertions, Mr. Giles failed completely, and our line, in consequence of the numerous defects in the survey, was thrown out upon Standing Orders, and the present Great Northern line, which was our rival, but acknowledged to be not so good, notwithstanding a strong opposition, was carried through Parliament, very much to the annoyance of Mr. Gravatt and myself, and Mr. Gravatt never forgave Mr. Giles’s neglect.

My rule on all these occasions was to endeavour to conciliate the landowners through whose estates we went, always asking and obtaining their permission before entering upon their lands, and by this means we made friends wherever we went; amongst other great proprietors we went through a considerable portion of the Marquis of Exeter’s estate, near Stamford. Upon going down the line I found one of our surveyors drunk, and he had so completely departed from his instructions that I paid and discharged him at once. I called on the Marquis to explain this, but he was not visible, as he was busy with preparations for the reception of Her Majesty and H.R.H. the Prince Consort, who were expected to arrive the next day. I then went down the line as far as York, and upon my return called again upon the Marquis at Burleigh, who received me very coldly, and said when he gave me permission to go through his estate, it was upon a particular line, which I faithfully promised to adhere to; but he was much surprised and sorry to find that I had broken my word, for that when H.R.H. the Prince Consort was shooting in his preserves he found one of my surveyors with several assistants breaking into and carrying the line through them, which he had strictly forbidden, and which I had as strictly promised to his Lordship that I would not touch; and it was most fortunate that the surveyor and his assistants were not shot, for it was never for a moment expected that they would be there. After having heard his Lordship quietly, and having asked the day, and the name of the surveyor, which his Lordship told me, I said that the man was not in my employment, for the very day on which I last called at Burleigh I found this same surveyor drunk, and carrying the line into the preserves, which I had strictly forbidden, and I immediately discharged him. And I added that as his Lordship found him in the preserves, he must have been sent there by somebody else. His Lordship was at once perfectly satisfied with this explanation, and became as friendly as ever, and pressed me to stop and dine with him; this invitation I courteously declined, for I was so much occupied that I had not an hour to spare.

One very important feature of our line, besides making it shorter, more direct, and easier of execution, was the position of the station at York, which we proposed to make on the main line, immediately outside the walls of the city; and in order to effect this we carried our line by a bridge across the railways then entering the York station, while our rivals proposed to carry their line into the station itself; which scheme having been adopted, compels them to back in and out, and not only occasions considerable loss of time, but materially increases the risk of collisions.

Another important line was the Bristol and Chepstow, which would materially have shortened the distance between Bristol, Birmingham, and Liverpool, instead of going round by Gloucester, and would have enabled the South Wales Railway to shorten materially their distance to London. In order to effect this I proposed to carry the line across the Severn at the old passage by an iron bridge, with a clear height of 100 feet above the high-water level of spring tides, so as to enable the largest ships to pass under. It happened that the rocks in the river afforded excellent foundations for the piers.

The late Mr. Cobden was chairman of the Committee in the House of Commons to whom this Bill was referred, and they were all astonished at the boldness and grandeur of the undertaking; although the late Mr. Brunel and others did not deny its practicability, yet the promoters of the undertaking could not see their way to find the means for carrying it into effect, and therefore the Bill was withdrawn.

I forgot to mention the Central Kent Railway line, 1838. It had long been considered a desirable object to connect Dover and London by a railway for the Continent, and the South-Eastern had already obtained an Act to make a line by Redhill, thence to Tunbridge, Ashford, and Folkestone, to Dover, the distance being 86 miles, whereas the old coach road was only 72. Moreover, the South-Eastern avoids all the principal towns and population in Kent; so much so, that it was considered to be very objectionable, and that it would not pay.

I was accordingly requested by a most influential committee to examine the county of Kent carefully, and endeavour to find out a better line. I was not long in discovering one, namely, to commence at London Bridge, thence by Lewisham, Eltham, the Crays, the Darent, 4 miles above Dartford, thence by Gravesend, through Gad’s Hill, crossing the Medway a mile above Rochester, thence, within a mile of Maidstone, to Eastwell, where it was to separate into two branches, one to Ashford, and thence on to Folkestone and Dover; another to Canterbury, thence to Sandwich, where it was to terminate; while from the Darent another branch was intended to run up the valley of that river, with a tunnel at its head, and thence to Sevenoaks and Tunbridge. From this it will be seen that the main line connected all the principal towns in the county together; each was at the same time within the shortest distance from the metropolis, and nearly 14 miles nearer to Dover than the present South-Eastern line; and there was no inclination steeper than 1 in 264, or 20 feet to the mile, and the New Cross inclined plane of the Greenwich and Croydon line of 1 in 100 for three miles would have been avoided. This line was so obviously the best for Kent and the sea-coast, that when submitted to the South-Eastern Company, who had not commenced theirs, they admitted it, and told their solicitors, Messrs. Fearon, to tell our solicitors, Messrs. Freshfield, that they would make terms with us for carrying it into effect. How the negotiations fell through I never heard; whether it was from the opposition of Maidstone and Lord Winchelsea, who, as well as Sir Percival Dyke, violently opposed it—although since, I understand, they have sincerely repented—I never could learn; but the negotiation failed, although we were perfectly ready to give up the line to the South-Eastern upon a reasonable compensation, and they (the South-Eastern Railway) commenced and completed their line round by Tunbridge, and bitter cause they had to repent it. Two of my assistants—Crampton and Morris—after leaving me, considering that it would be a good speculation to get up a shorter line to Dover, persuaded a very worthy nobleman, Lord Harris, who has considerable property near, between Sittingbourne and Canterbury, and some other influential landowners on the line, to form a company to make a line between Rochester and Canterbury, and Mr. George Burge, the contractor of the St. Katharine Docks and Herne Bay Pier, under the late Mr. Telford, joined them.

Burge had invested a good deal of money at Herne Bay, and naturally expected that one day a line of railway would be made to it, and that the value of his property would be considerably increased thereby. Morris, a very honest, painstaking, and industrious man, who had been in my service many years, and afterwards became one of the contractors of the South-Eastern Railway, and made a good deal of money there, had the sagacity to purchase the old harbour of Folkestone, it is said for 10,000l., and sold it to the South-Eastern Railway Company, profiting considerably by the transaction. Crampton had made some improvements in the locomotive engine, and afterwards became the principal executive engineer to Messrs. Samuda. At the time Crampton came into my employment Messrs. Samuda had had a vessel constructed, and had made the engines for propelling her upon a new principle. The vessel was called the ‘Gipsey Queen,’ and a day was appointed for the trial. Whether Crampton had some misgivings about the success of the experiment, or whether he was tired of the employment, I do not know, but he was anxious to come under me. Knowing him to be a clever, hard-working person, I took him, and he continued serving me faithfully for four years. Crampton entered my service four days before the experimental trial of the ‘Gipsey Queen,’ which took place, I think, in the year 1840. The result of the trial was that the boiler blew up, Samuda’s brother and four men were killed, and if Crampton had remained in their service, he would probably have been killed also. During the time Crampton was in my service, he made the acquaintance of my solicitors, the Messrs. Freshfield, who conceived a high opinion of his talents and energy.

Morris, Crampton, and Burge, then, commenced the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway with comparatively very little support for an undertaking of the kind, and experienced very great uphill work; so much so, that Burge got alarmed, and Morris and Crampton bought him out. Morris and Crampton still struggled on with it, and then Morris went out, and Crampton remained alone. At last he got Peto and Betts to join him, and then the concern went ahead. Lord Sondes, a large proprietor in Norfolk and in Kent, also joined them, and they completed the original line. They then went to Parliament to extend their railway by an independent line to London, and from Canterbury to Dover, and, subsequently, by lines to the City, so as ultimately to join the Metropolitan Railway, and from thence with the Great Northern Railway at King’s Cross. How they raised the enormous amount of capital to execute these works was a miracle, but the tale has at last been unfolded, and the unfortunate subscribers have found it out, to their cost; the concern has become bankrupt, and the great contracting firm of Peto and Betts, as well as Crampton, have ended in the ‘Gazette,’ as a melancholy example of what energy and capital will come to when pushed beyond their just limits. The original shares of 100l. may now (at the time of writing) be bought at 18l., and the South-Eastern Railway have been compelled to expend nearly 700,000l. to cut off the angle between London and Tunbridge; whereas, if they had only adopted my line of the Central Kent Railway, as they agreed to do in 1838, all this would have been avoided; the London, Chatham, and Dover would never have been made, the enormous losses would not have occurred, thirty-two millions would not have been spent in railways for a single county, and the South-Eastern shares would not (at the time of writing) be at 65.

CHAPTER VII.

In 1844 Count Adolphe Rosen obtained a concession for making railways in Sweden, and offered me half the concession, provided that I would go over to Sweden, lay out the lines, and bring the matter before the English public. I accordingly employed a Mr. Tottie, a Swede, who had been employed by Mr. Rastrick, to make the surveys of the lines laid out by me, which consisted of a main one from Gothenburg right through the kingdom to Oxhoe, as the central portion for the iron trade; from thence one branch went to the upper end of the Lake Wener, and the other to the Lake Malar, to communicate with Stockholm; the line then proceeded north by Westerâs to Upsala, and thence to Stockholm.

The same year I went from Hull with Count Rosen to Gothenburg by steam, and spent two or three days there. The country through which I passed, though not rich, was much more so and better cultivated than I expected to find it, and the people honest, simple, and industrious, and extremely civil. The general appearance rather picturesque, and in places wild, being covered with dense forests of firs, larch, beech, &c.; large spaces had been cleared of wood and brought under cultivation. The houses were for the most part built of wood, in the Russian fashion, the logs being laid close together, dovetailed at the ends, and the joints caulked with moss, the inside being closely planked, and in every room was a stone or porcelain stove; the windows were double, and in winter the outer and inner were both shut up, and all the joints pasted with paper so as to prevent the admission of the outer air. The houses were generally very comfortable. In some of the larger towns, such as Orebro, many of the houses were solidly built of stone, others had stone foundations and wooden superstructure; most of the country churches were of stone, with a detached building of wood for the bells, which were frequently of a large size, with a very fine full melodious sound. Gothenburg is a very well and regularly built town, chiefly of stone, in the Dutch style, with canals running through the streets. Some of the houses of the principal merchants, as well as public buildings, are spacious and handsome, although the town generally has a heavy, dull, yet substantial appearance.

I resolved to visit the celebrated iron mine of Daunemora, some miles farther northward. I accordingly started off with Count Rosen, and reached it the same evening, and visited the mine next day; it consisted of a mass of rock, cropping out to the surface, of almost solid magnetic iron, containing about 75 to 80 per cent. of the finest metal. There were extensive forests round, so that there was no want of fuel; the wood was converted into charcoal, and the finest iron was extracted, the best for making steel; it fetched the highest price in the English market, where there was a great demand for it. The machinery employed was very rude and simple, the bellows for the forges being in some cases driven by manual or horse labour, in others, where it was accessible, by water power. I was anxious to go to the great mining district of Dalecarlia, about 100 miles farther north, but the season was getting late, and therefore I was obliged to return to England.

When I had got all my surveys finished, I made a report upon the whole line; but I found that the Swedish Government was not sufficiently alive to the importance of railways at that time, or rather the Government did not see its way to giving them encouragement by subscribing or rather taking a pecuniary interest in them. Though by no means undervaluing the importance of railways, yet, being naturally cautious and economical, with only moderate funds at its command, the Government doubted much whether a reasonable profit would be derived from them, but at the same time wished us every success in obtaining the money in England. I represented to them that people in England, knowing nothing of Sweden, or her capabilities, would hesitate to subscribe their money without a certain guarantee by the Government of interest of 4 or 5 per cent. upon the amount of capital expended, and that as it was quite clear that the railways would pay that, there could be no risk; in fact, the guarantee would be merely nominal, but that it would have the effect of obtaining the money in England, and thus conferring upon Sweden a great national benefit, by saving their capital without running the least risk. I was recommended to give a grand dinner, which several of the ministers and all the other notables of Stockholm attended. Everybody was enthusiastic, and a great number of speeches were made as to the importance of railways, and the great national benefit they would confer, and my health was proposed by the Minister of Commerce, Skogman, and was received with the greatest enthusiasm, but the effect was nothing, for we neither got private subscriptions nor public guarantee. However, after all we had done something; we had introduced the subject of railways into Sweden, we had shown the importance of them, and we had in some measure opened their eyes, and we trusted that in time, when they had maturely reflected upon the advantages, they would view them more favourably, and contribute liberally towards them; but as there was no use in then pressing the subject further, we returned at once to England.

In all fevers there is a climax; the railway fever had its climax like the rest, and it was then upon the decline. The vast multitude who had expected to make their fortunes found at last to their sorrow that their money was gone; but that was not the worst, for they would have been very happy if they had not had to pay more. As for any new railway speculation, that was entirely out of the question, and therefore it turned out that the Swedish railways were too late for the market; nobody would entertain the subject; the very name of railway was sufficient to drive everyone away, so that there was no help for it but to abide better times. Accordingly the Swedish railways remained in abeyance until the year 1852; by this time the Swedish Government had considered the subject maturely, and felt that, as every other European nation had adopted them, Sweden, if she desired to keep pace with other countries, must either make the railways herself, for which at the time the Government had not the money, or she must encourage others to make them by guaranteeing a sufficient interest for the capital expended. Accordingly I went there again, and was as usual very kindly received by the King and his Ministers, and I saw that they were becoming more anxious than ever that the railways should be made. I had been there in October, 1848, and had the honour of being invited to dine at the palace in Stockholm, as I had previously the honour of dining with their Majesties at the summer palace of Hoga, near Stockholm. Upon arriving at the palace I was most courteously received by King Oscar, who did me the honour of presenting me to his handsome, graceful, and intelligent queen. When her Majesty heard that the railways were to be commenced, she said that she had heard so much talk about them and nothing had been done, that she feared they never would be made, “therefore talk no more about them, but set to work and make them.” The dinner party consisted of about thirty. I had the honour of sitting next the Lord Chancellor, a very agreeable, intelligent person, who sat next to the Royal Family. We had an excellent dinner, without the least restraint, and the common topic of conversation seemed to be, who would be elected President of the French Republic, Cavaignac or Louis Napoleon, and everybody seemed in favour of Cavaignac as the proper person; they all spoke very disparagingly of Louis Napoleon. It seems curious to think how little the world knew of that extraordinary man, and how completely he disappointed all previous expectations.

When at Stockholm I was presented to his present Majesty, King Charles XV., then Prince Karl, a very handsome intelligent young man. Since his accession to the throne he has done me the honour of conferring upon me the order of Knight Commander of the Order of Wasa, for what his Majesty was pleased to term the great services which I had rendered Sweden. This was the more agreeable, as it was sent to me through my personal friend Count Platen, then the Swedish representative at the Court of London. Many years ago I made acquaintance with his father, the celebrated Count Platen, who was the chief instrument in changing the dynasty from the worn-out old race, and in placing Bernadotte on the throne. My introduction to the Count arose in this manner. The Count took the utmost interest in the completion of the great Gotha Canal, which unites the river Gotha below the falls of that river and the lower end of the great Lake Werner, thus completing the navigation between the whole of the towns bordering upon that lake and Gothenburg. A canal had formerly been made between the lower end of the lake and the river Gotha (which issues from it) below the falls, and at the time a very great work it was, but the locks were so unequally distributed, and the rise of some of them so great, that the navigation was very much impeded; the Count, therefore, came over to England, after the death of my father, to consult Mr. Telford, who was then considered our first engineer, as to what was the best means of improving the Gotha Canal, so as to avoid the inconvenience complained of. Mr. Telford went over, prepared a plan, and carried it into effect, much to the satisfaction of the Swedish Government. During Count Platen’s visit to England, Mr. Telford brought him to Lynn, where we met as engineers of the Eau Brink Drainage and Navigation, and we explained to him the whole of the Eau Brink Works, with which he was much pleased. He was a very superior person, grave and dignified, with great intelligence, and of easy, affable manners. The Mayor of Lynn being informed by Mr. Telford of his visit, called upon him, and being introduced, invited him, in the name of the Corporation, to one of their civic dinners, which he accepted. He had, however, brought no dress suit with him, and indeed was perfectly indifferent about it, and would have gone to the mayor’s feast in his travelling costume, which, to say the least, was very rough. Telford consulted me about it, and we both agreed that the Count could not attend the dinner without the usual evening dress costume. Upon this being delicately explained by Mr. Telford, he took the hint and sent for a tailor, who in the course of a couple of days equipped him properly. The greatest attention was of course paid to him by all the company.

To return to my subject. As time went on, the money market got in such a bad state—no end of failures—that nothing could be done with the Swedish railway, and I began to think all my money and labour would be thrown away. The period for which Count Rosen’s concession was granted had elapsed, and it was very doubtful whether it would be renewed at all, but it certainly would not in any case be to the extent of the original concession, which comprised the whole kingdom.

Fortunately, however, in 1852, confidence in the money market had been restored, and we received a renewal of the concession for so much of the line as extended between the Lakes Malari and Werner, with a branch to the iron mines of Nora from Orebro, which was as valuable as any part of the line; and the Government gave a guarantee of 4 per cent, on the amount of capital required, namely, 420,000l., with power to raise 167,000l. more. The line was very easy, and Mr. Burge, the contractor, agreed to complete it for that sum. A company was accordingly formed, the capital was immediately subscribed, and the shares went to a premium. I went over to Sweden again; appointed Mr. Watson resident engineer, and the works began and proceeded very well for one year; unfortunately the chairman and leading man on the committee was the notorious John Sadlier, M.P., who afterwards made away with himself near Jack Straw’s tavern, Hampstead Heath, when the whole of his proceedings were made public; and, amongst others, his mismanagement of the Swedish railway. What became of the money I never could make out, for I never could account for above 60,000l. as having been expended on the works and land combined; but it is certain that accounts far beyond that were presented to me by the directors for my certificate, which they were obliged to get before they could be passed by the Government, though I never would give the certificate, because they kept everything back from me; and finding that matters were going on in such a discreditable manner, I felt that with any regard for my character I could no longer remain their engineer. I therefore resigned at once, and fortunate it was that I did so, for I afterwards was informed that they had not only spent the whole 420,000l., but also 167,000l. of debentures, and had issued 167,000l. more without authority; so that in round numbers they had expended about 700,000l., and had not completed 50 miles of single line, which required nothing more than surface formation, and one or two short lengths of embankment and cutting scarcely exceeding 20 feet high; for which 6000l. per mile complete was ample. In fact, there never was a good affair so completely mismanaged, not to use much stronger terms. The consequence was that after Sadlier’s death the whole came out, and everyone laid the blame upon him. The particulars I do not know, and thank God I got clear of it in good time, finding that it was impossible to remain with honour. I never would certify the accounts the directors presented to me, because I believed that at the least they were in error, if not something worse. All I did was to certify to the contractor, Mr. Burge (who, as I knew, behaved very honestly), to the extent, I think, of 25,000l. or 30,000l. Thus this fine concern went to the dogs from sheer mismanagement, to speak mildly, and the shares, which had stood at a premium, were worth nothing; whereas in the hands of any sensible, honest body of directors, the line ought to have been completed for the estimate, and would have paid well. The Swedish Government could not with justice pay any guarantee when no part of the line had been completed and no satisfactory accounts rendered; and I have reason to believe that they were so disgusted with the way in which this railway had been mismanaged by the Board that they would have nothing further to do with English or any other companies, but determined to make all the rest of the lines themselves—which I understand they have done—and that the cost did not exceed my estimate of 5000l. to 6000l. per mile, including stations and rolling stock.

I had previously examined several other parts of Sweden, and in November, 1850, I had gone there, undertaking to deliver on my way a confidential letter from Count Reventlow, the Danish Ambassador in London, to the Minister of Foreign Affairs at Copenhagen. We went by Hamburg and Kiel, for at this time war was again expected to break out between Schleswig-Holstein and Denmark, and both parties were watching one another with the greatest anxiety.

Schleswig-Holstein is not a rich country by any means, although there are apparently some substantial farmers. The country is generally flat, with here and there some gentle eminences, with patches of fir trees; but there are some extensive mosses which might be reclaimed and converted into valuable land if properly drained. These mosses in many cases rest upon a bed of marl, which upon being dug up and mixed with the peat forms most valuable manure. We saw many examples of this in the fens of Lincolnshire, and in the north of Denmark. I have been informed upon credible authority that there are vast tracts of moss lands lying upon marl, and small lakes which might easily be drained and become most fertile; and it is to be hoped that the Danish Government will find the means of reclaiming them, as they will well repay the expense. Rendsburg, through which we passed, is a little town, well fortified, and may be made much stronger. Kiel, situated upon a splendid bay in the Baltic, is the university of Holstein, and a very neat little thriving town, with prettily wooded environs. From here we proceeded to Schleswig, the capital of the province, its inhabitants being partly Germans and partly Danes; in the northern part of Schleswig the inhabitants are wholly Danes. The town of Schleswig is about 12 miles from the Baltic; it is well built, surrounded with a very pretty fertile country, well cultivated, and diversified with wood. There is a good deal of agricultural traffic with the surrounding country, and the place appeared very thriving and prosperous. We arrived there about six o’clock in the evening, about two hours after dark, and it began to feel very cold. We got to a very comfortable inn, and were dining, or rather had finished our dinner, when the waiter entered with a quiet, mysterious air, and said, or rather whispered, that a gentleman wished to speak to me. Knowing no one in the place, I could not conceive what he meant; he, however, repeated the whisper in my ear in the same mysterious manner. When I told him to show the stranger in, there was no person in the room but my friend, Mr. William Sim, afterwards the solicitor to the Swedish Railway Company, who had accompanied me. Immediately after the waiter’s departure the door opened, and in came a gentleman muffled up to the eyes in a blue military cloak. He cautiously shut the door, then uncovered his face, and looking stealthily round, and observing nobody but Sim and myself, advanced at once to the table, threw off his cloak, took off his cap, and saluted me as a naval officer. I motioned him to be seated, which he courteously declined, and addressing himself to me, said that he had been informed that I was the English gentleman who had brought despatches of importance from Count Reventlow to the Danish Government, and that he was a Danish naval officer, and had been sent by the commanding officer of Alsen to request that I would deliver up my despatches to him, as it was of the utmost consequence that they should be delivered to the Danish Government as soon as possible. I told him that I was perfectly unacquainted with him, and that I could not do so without a personal conference with the General commanding at Alsen, because these despatches had been confided to me by the Danish Minister in London, and as a point of honour I could not deliver them to any but an accredited officer of the Government. He then said that if I would be at Dussel, opposite to Alsen, the following morning, at eight o’clock, the General would have a boat ready to take me over to the island, and would have a war steamer in readiness to take me to Kosoa, where I could readily get to Copenhagen. I accordingly agreed to be at Dussel the following morning at eight o’clock. The officer, who was a perfect gentleman, then muffled himself up in his cloak, and requesting that we should say nothing about his arrival, quietly left the room. Sim and myself ordered a carriage with four horses to be ready the following morning at six o’clock, paid our bill, and went to bed. During the night there had been a very heavy fall of snow, and when we started there was some difficulty in moving forward. We were therefore obliged to take extra horses, and passing by the now celebrated heights of Dussel, reached the shore opposite the island of Alsen precisely at the time appointed, where we found a boat with four oars ready to take us across the Sound (which was about half a mile wide); here we were received by the General in full uniform. I then delivered him the despatches, for which he felt very much obliged, and we went on board a small war steamer, which got under way immediately, and landed us at Kosoa, not far from Copenhagen, where we slept. Next day we examined the cathedral at Roskeld, and reached Copenhagen in the evening.

When I first visited Sweden, a vast quantity of brandy distilled from potatoes was consumed; so much so, that the country was, to a certain extent, demoralized, and drunkenness was very common; and the farther north you went, the worse it was. The Government therefore determined to take every means in its power to suppress it. Heavy duties were imposed on potato brandy; and since that time, I am glad to hear that drunkenness has considerably abated. The Swedes are an excellent, open-hearted, gallant, and generous people, and most amiable and hospitable. I was treated with the greatest kindness by them, for which I shall always feel grateful. Christmas is a general holiday throughout the country for a month, commencing with Christmas Eve. During that time, scarcely any business is done. There is nothing but visiting and social parties from morning to night; and it requires a strong stomach and head to go through that festive ordeal without feeling the worse for it. When once entered the house, you cannot refuse to accept their kind and profuse hospitality. As a specimen, whenever a marriage takes place, the bride not only appears before her friends, but the house is thrown open to the public, and everybody is at liberty to enter and pay his respects to the bride and bridegroom, who receive all comers in full-dress bridal costume; and refreshments of all kinds are in great profusion. When I was there a marriage took place between two noble families, to which I was invited. The bride and bridegroom were both young, and bride very handsome and splendidly dressed. I was most kindly received and entertained, and did not get home until very late in the morning. I found that I had taken as much as I could decently carry, and if I had not escaped at the time I did, I must have remained all the next day, as many of the bridegroom’s friends did.

In Sweden I made acquaintance, amongst many others, with our excellent Consul, Major Pringle, who during the last American war had the command of Washington for twenty-four hours. I was frequently a guest at his house, and I owe many thanks to him and his amiable wife and family for their great kindness and hospitality. Another excellent fellow was Mr., or Colonel, Elsworthy (as he called himself), the American Consul. He was a bachelor, and kept open house, and he was so exceedingly hospitable, and pressed his guests so strongly, that it was with the greatest difficulty you could escape sober enough to reach your quarters with safety.

The woods of Sweden were being fast cleared away, both to furnish fuel for the iron manufactory, in which a great quantity was consumed, and also that the land might be used for agriculture, so that this source of fuel for iron making is rapidly disappearing. In addition to these causes may be mentioned the great export of timber to every part of Europe for building and other purposes. It is true that large forests of fine timber still exist farther north, and also in Norway, but then the expense of transport to the iron districts will be very heavy; yet as Swedish iron is so very valuable, on account of its magnetic properties, for making steel, a large quantity must always be required for the southern markets of Europe, and with the greater cost of fuel the price of Swedish iron must increase.

The Bessemer process has considerably reduced the expense of producing good iron in England, and also for converting it into steel, still the Swedish iron is so much better that there will always be a certain demand for it.

It becomes a question, then, whether it would not be worth while to export the Swedish ore to England, where there is plenty of fuel, and where it could be converted into the best iron at the least expense. Would it not be cheaper to do this, than to manufacture the iron in Sweden, where fuel is so much dearer? and as the Swedish iron ore is very rich compared with ours, except the haematite, the extra freight would soon be recouped. I think it is by no means improbable that it will come to this at last.

About the time that the Railway guarantee was obtained from the Swedish Government, and the company was successfully started, another undertaking was proposed to me by a M. Von Alstein, a Belgian proprietor, and a man of some influence and property in that kingdom. The Dutch Government was anxious to get a more direct and constant navigation up the Scheldt, as that round by Bergen-op-Zoon was only practicable from half tide to high water, while at low water the whole channel was completely dry. It was considered, also, that the whole of the old channel might be filled up and converted into valuable land, so that the fertile island of St. Beveland might be joined to the mainland, and thus the kingdom would be greatly benefited. The Government did not, however, want to undertake the necessary works itself, but was ready to give up the whole of the old channel to any company that would construct the new canal above mentioned, as well as an embankment and road across the old channel, so as to connect the island of St. Beveland with the mainland. Accordingly upon these terms a concession was granted to M. Von Alstein and others, giving them the whole of the lands to be reclaimed, which would amount to a very considerable tract. The plan, upon due investigation, appeared to offer considerable advantages to any party who would undertake it. It was accordingly brought before the English public. A Belgian and English company was formed to carry it out. The money was duly subscribed, and Mr. Thomas Hutchings, at that time a large railway contractor, and considered to possess undoubted means, offered to take a large number of shares. He accordingly became the contractor for the work, and I was appointed the engineer-in-chief, while M. Von Alstein became the managing director, and a M. Dronker, a Dutch engineer and contractor of considerable experience, was appointed by Mr. Hutchings sub-contractor under him. I went over to Holland to examine the whole district and the works proposed, and it appeared to me that if they were properly carried into effect, it would turn out a very fair speculation, yielding considerable profit. My visit was made in December, 1851.

Things having, in 1852, been satisfactorily settled with the Government at the Hague, as soon as the weather would permit, arrangements were made for commencing the works, and in the month of June Mr. Hutchings, myself, and the English and Belgian directors being present, the first sod of the canal was turned with considerable ceremony by one of the Dutch Princes.

Whilst the canal was proceeding, the company was empowered to enclose as much of the land of the old channel as was considered advisable by a jury of Dutch experts, without whom nothing could be done. M. Von Alstein, the manager of the company, attended, and the jury marked out a space in the old channel of the Scheldt, which was always covered to a considerable extent at high water of spring tides, and even neap tides, including the green marsh as well as the sands. The Dutch jury marked a space of 3000 acres, which included about one-third of green marsh and two-thirds of sand—part of which was clayey; when this was done, I went over to examine it, and was much surprised to find that so large a space had been decided upon. I said to M. Von Alstein, the director, that I thought it was far too much to be taken in at once; that it would cost a great deal of money; that the sands were not worth the expense; and that I thought it would be far better to confine the intake to the green marshes for the present year, and that before the sands were taken in they ought to be worked up so as to become green marshes. For, in fact, in England, where I had reclaimed many thousand acres, I never thought of enclosing bare sands. The manager, however, told me that was totally contrary to the Dutch system, and as the jury had decided upon taking the sands as well as the green marshes to the extent above mentioned, it must be done, and he would not listen to my recommendation of taking in a less quantity. The Dutch engineers also fixed the dimensions and form of the embankments, which I did not approve of. In fact, I disapproved of the whole plan, and told M. Von Alstein my opinion, and that I could not take upon myself the responsibility. The manager said that the works must be carried into effect as decided by the Dutch jury and the Dutch engineers. I was therefore obliged to be silent, particularly as Mr. Hutchings, who was the contractor and also the leading shareholder, had consented to it. The works accordingly began under M. Dronker, Mr. Hutchings’ sub-contractor; and Mr. Brown, one of Mr. Hutchings’ partners, was sent over to superintend the works on the part of Hutchings, Brown, and Wright. I remained some time on the spot, and had a boat fitted up to live in at Barth, for there were no lodgings to be had. I soon saw by the manner in which M. Dronker was carrying on the works that they could not succeed, and I wrote repeatedly to Mr. Hutchings to come over, otherwise he would be ruined, as his partner—Brown—knew nothing about it, and allowed Dronker to proceed as he liked. It appeared to me as if it was nothing more nor less than throwing away money by handfuls, no adequate amount of work being done for it. I never saw such gross mismanagement in my life. There were from twelve to thirteen hundred men employed at 3s. to 4s. a day, with a number of assistants, and they were not doing work enough for half that number. I also expostulated with Dronker, the Dutch contractor, but he would not listen to me, and said that he would do as he liked. The works continued to proceed in this manner, and I wrote almost every post to Hutchings to come over himself without delay, or to stop the works, for it was impossible to complete them for any reasonable sum in the manner in which they were being carried on. I told him, moreover, that it was in vain to attempt to reclaim 3000 acres at once, and the better plan would be to confine his operations, in the first instance, to taking in the green marsh, which was about 1000 acres, and to wait until the sands were worked on the outside, which would be done much more rapidly when once the green marsh was enclosed. I told the manager and Dronker the same; however, they would not listen. At length, after great difficulty, I got them to divide the enclosure into two parts, each consisting of 1500 acres, and I hoped that I should be able to induce them to subdivide these two again into 750 each. By this means the green marsh in each division would have been reduced to about 500 acres, which would easily have been enclosed at a considerable profit, leaving the sands to be dealt with hereafter according to circumstances.

However, nothing would do but they must continue pushing on the outer bank over the sands, which I saw was impracticable at any cost within reason. At last, Hutchings came over himself, and when he visited the works held up his hands in astonishment, and saw that he was a ruined man. By this time money ran short, the workmen rebelled for wages and threatened destruction to Hutchings and all concerned; and the Dutch Government, being applied to, sent three hundred soldiers and two armed cutters to keep order. The men were paid, great numbers were discharged, and the works went on upon a much better system, and considerable progress was made, but still they would not confine themselves to the enclosure of the green marsh. After a great deal of difficulty they nearly succeeded in enclosing 1500 acres near to Barth; but before this could be done Hutchings’ funds were exhausted, and he was obliged to stop payment. If my advice had been followed this never would have occurred. Some fresh parties then joined the concern, and, adopting my advice, confined themselves to enclosing the 1000 acres of marsh land.

At certain times of the year, particularly at the end of summer and in the autumn, it is difficult to conceive a more unwholesome district, as at those times the marsh fever invariably makes its appearance with the most deadly effect. I had several fine, strong, healthy young men as assistants with me, living in my ship, and at dinner it was by no means uncommon to see one taken ill and fall off his chair. The only remedy was to give him a strong stimulant of wine or brandy, wrap him up in blankets, and send him off as quietly as possible. Fortunately I had been so thoroughly cured of my fever when at Naples, as before mentioned, that I had become as it were acclimatized and never experienced the least attack. The island of St. Beveland, where these works were carried on, is one of the most rich, and fertile districts imaginable, teeming with luxurious vegetation of every kind, and abounding in beautiful little villages, the very models of cleanliness and comfort; but amongst them the fever lurks in the most insidious form. Mr. Brown, a fine, powerful man of about forty-five, whilst superintending these works for his partners and himself, had an excellent house in the village of Yersike, about four miles distant, supplied with every English comfort both of furniture and provisions; but after a time he caught the fever, which stuck to him for a considerable time, and ultimately he was obliged to leave the place, as otherwise he must have succumbed. The Dutch never go out in the morning without taking a cup of coffee and a dram of bitters, composed of gentian, quinine, and gin, and a pipe, which is scarcely ever out of their mouths, and they repeat the dose at night and not unfrequently during the day. In the English fens and lowlands we do pretty much the same, and good port wine and quinine are considered a specific; but I do not think that the fever is so bad with us as in Holland; the cause may be that these Dutch islands being surrounded by the sea, the tide leaves a large surface of mud exposed to the action of the sun, and thus a considerable amount of malaria is engendered; this I have always found to prevail most densely where there are trees, which prevent it from being dissipated; so that it is always safer to be in a boat, or in a house without any trees near it, so as to be exposed to the free circulation of the air, also to sleep at least 20 feet above the ground.

The whole of the seaboard of Holland requires to be remodelled. The numerous channels through which the tidal and fresh waters pass occupy a considerable surface which is comparatively useless, and only serve to deteriorate the main channels of the rivers, and thus prevent them from discharging their waters effectually, and so keeping them open, in the best state for drainage and navigation. If these superfluous channels were filled up, and the islands which they surround were united to the mainland, a great quantity of valuable land would be gained to the State; the extensive embankments which are now necessary to prevent these islands from being submerged, and which entail a great and constant tax upon the kingdom, would be considerably reduced; the main rivers and harbours would be materially improved, and the general surface of the water in the interior would be lowered; the drainage also might be improved in the same manner, so as to render a considerably less amount of artificial drainage power necessary, which would in turn cause a corresponding reduction of the taxes; while the land would be greatly improved, because the present general body of water is too near the surface, so that it is impossible to carry on agriculture to the greatest advantage; also the risk of breaking the banks would be greatly reduced. I think, moreover, that the vast multitude of shoals which skirt the coast might, by the adoption of proper means—and those not expensive, compared to the object to be obtained—be raised sufficiently so as to be converted into valuable land, and be added to the kingdom with considerable profit, while the navigation along the coast and in the interior might be greatly improved. Further, the whole of the Zuyder Zee, which is said to have been under cultivation in early times, might be reclaimed. As extraordinary spring tides seldom rise high along these coasts, and as vegetation generally takes place at the level of high water of neap tides, the lands on the coast, if properly managed, should not be above 4 or 5 feet below the level of high water of spring tides, although I believe it is a fact that many tracts in the interior are much lower, and this arises from their having been embanked too soon.

Now that these lands have been brought into cultivation at vast expense, it would be difficult to raise them without rendering them useless for a considerable time. Still, in all contemplated new enclosures, the lands should be raised by warping, that is, accumulating the alluvial matter, which can always be done if properly managed up to the level of high water of neap tides. In fact, I repeat, a considerable extent of Holland has been embanked too soon, and what has been done it would be extremely difficult, perhaps not advisable, to disturb; although, if any of these very low lands are not sufficiently fertile, it would be well to warp them up with fresh soil. They might thus be sufficiently raised to do away with the greater part of the artificial power now required to keep them dry, and be rendered very fertile; thus a double advantage would be gained. This subject is well worthy of the serious attention of the Dutch Government and its able staff of hydraulic engineers, who, nevertheless, go too much upon the old routine, and prefer patching up the old system in preference to striking out a new course. Probably this is not the fault of the engineers, as they would naturally attempt any new course whereby they might distinguish themselves. The Government, also, would most likely be induced to adopt any new method, provided that it could see its way to bettering the condition of the country. But, on the other hand, the Government feels great disinclination to depart from an old system which, it may be said with some reason, has continued so many years, has answered its purpose very well, and has rendered Holland, under the circumstances, one of the most extraordinary countries in the world. This is very true; but then it must be recollected that hydraulic science has advanced like other sciences, and what would be considered good practice some centuries back would not be thought so now. The Dutch introduced their system into England in the reign of Charles I., when Vermuyden was considered the first hydraulic engineer of the time. He certainly was considerably in advance of the English engineers of that period; but at the present time his method would be wholly inadequate to deal with the circumstances to be encountered, and it was abandoned long ago. The combination system, and comparatively narrow channels, combined with warping the land, is what is required in Holland as in all other countries similarly situated.