THE CHANNEL TUNNEL.
(To THE EDITOR. OF THE " SPECTATOR:I Sfs,—The following passage, taken from an address of the late' Dr. Vaughan, of Manchester, delivered in 1853 at a meeting of the Geological Society in that city, seems to be well worthy of quotation at the present moment. I copy it from "The Auto- biography of Mr. Nasmyth," who observes that tunnels were not thought of at that time :—" After referring," says the writer,. "to the influence which geological changes had produced upon, the condition of nations, and the moral results which oceans, mountains, islands, and continents have had upon the social history of man," he (Dr. Vaughan) went on to say,—" Is not. this island of ours indebted to these great causes F Oh, that blessed geological accident that broke up a strait between Calais and Dover ! It looks but a little thing ; it was a matter to take- place; but how mighty the moral results upon the condition and history of this country, and through this- country's in- fluence, upon humanity ! Bridge over the space between, and you have directly the huge, Continental barrack-yard system all over England. And once get into the condition of a great Con.- tinental military Power, and you get the arbitrary power; you. cramp down the people, and you unfit them for being what they. ought to be,—free ! And all the good influences together at work in this country could not have secured us against this,. but for that blessed separation between this Isle and the-Con-
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