Sir T. Brooke-Hitehings, we see, in an address delivered on
Wednesday to a large audience at the United Wards Club, stated that the scheme of a barrage, or dam, across the Thames at Gravesend, which has been recently recommended as a substitute for the great dock extensions now required, would cost only four millions, the interest on which-2120,000 a year—might be paid by a toll of three-farthings per ton. Not only would all merchantmen be safer, resting, as they would, in a deep-water lake, with an impenetrable barrier before it, but London also would benefit by the enormous im- provement in its river, which would be, in fact, a placid lake "with a slow imperceptible current always running down." The water of the lake would always be fresh and sweet—a conclusion said to be proved by experience both in America and Egypt—and might be, in fact, in time of extreme drought a possible reservoir of drinking water. Of the benefit of the barrage when complete there is, we believe, no serious doubt—it would, for one thing, render unneces- sary the very costly and doubtful scheme for buying up the docks proposed in the Port of London Bill—but experts who speak on the subject ought to tell Londoners what amount of interruption to commerce there would be while it was building, and what would be the expense—it must be serious—of keeping it always in repair. Something of the kind will have to be done before many years have passed, and the more well defined and exact the proposals the more certain will they be of acceptance by those whose financial aid will be necessary to the scheme. How long, for example, will the barrage take in building P
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