A. PHYSICAL UNION WITH IRELAND. T HE notion of a tunnel
between the coasts of Ireland and Scotland is just now attracting a great deal of attention in Belfast. During the autumn, a large and enthusiastic meeting was convened by the Mayor and other influential persons to discuss the proposal, and a committee to investigate the various schemes put forward by the engineers was appointed. That the appointment of this committee of investigation did not, as sometimes happens, dismiss the whole subject to oblivion, may be seen from the reports of the long and interesting discussion which took place some ten days ago at the meeting of the Bel- fast Natural History and Philosophical Society. The pro- ceedings drew a large audience, and it is quite evident that, whether the construction of a tunnel is feasible or not, the idea has, as the Americans say, " caught on" in Ulster. Before we say anything as to the chances of a tunnel being actually made, we must express our entire agreement with the people of Belfast and the North in their desire to be physically connected with Great Britain. The construc- tion of a railway under the Channel would be the very best possible guarantee for the maintenance of the Union and the continued integrity of the United Kingdom. Through- cirriages from London to Belfast and Dublin would be for the ordinary man a symbol of the necessity for preserving the Union, and would afford just the argument needed to convince him that Ireland is not a separate. nation re- quiring a separate Parliament. A tunnel would, however, do more than render the Union indefeasible. It would tend to produce that incorporation of Ireland and Great Britain which all far-seeing men desire to accomplish. At the present time, the chief problem which is presented to the Anglo-Saxon race is the permanent reconciliation of the Irish through a peaceful process of absorption and assimilation. This moral incorporation would be immensely helped by the physical union produced by a tunnel. The free flow of population between the two countries produced by a junction of their railway systems, would tend to raise wages in Ireland, and would offer to the Irishman the same chances of bettering himself that are offered to the Scotchman or Welshman. It will be said that the con- nection by sea does all that a tunnel could do ; but this is not the case. Apart from the fear of storm and sea-sickness, a severe imaginative check is imposed by the idea of a sea-voyage. When a man knows that if he takes a seat in a railway-carriage, and only sits there quietly, he will ulti- mately find himself in London, he feels much more tempted to take his journey than whence has got to face a voyage of four or five hours' duration. The trouble of embarking and disembarking, however well managed, must be more tiresome and difficult than a through-journey. Again, a tunnel would immensely increase the rapidity of travelling. If we measure by time rather than by distance, Dublin and Belfast would be put very much nearer to England than they are at present. Instead of Ireland being, at the quickest, two hours away from the nearest parts of Scotland, she would be separated from them by only half-an-hour. Perhaps the most convincing method of considering the question is to look at it in the small. The Isle of Achill stands to Ireland something in the relation that Ireland occupies towards Great Britain. The people of Achill are poor and needy, and are liable to periodic outbreaks of -distress, and the island is separated from the mainland by a narrow strip of water. The best remedy for the ills of Achill, it was agreed on all hands, was to build a bridge between it and the Irish coast. It is true that the Sound of Achill is very quickly and easily crossed, and that there are plenty of boats ; but, nevertheless, the first need was a physical connection with the mainland. That connection has now been made by a bridge, and if we are not mistaken, one of the now light railways is to be brought into requisition to complete the cure. Just in the same way, Ireland needs to have a bridge built, either above or below water, which will put her into physical connection with Great Britain. But though we can show that political and material benefits would flow from the construction of a tunnel, it does not follow that it would pay. Even taking the lowest possible estimate of cost, it is asserted that the traffic, great as it would be between England and Ireland, would not in itself be remunerative. This fact is, indeed, set forth by the advocates of the scheme. Without wishing to represent them as not sanguine enough, we think, however, that they have forgotten one important result of the construction of a tunnel between Scotland and the North of Ireland. If you could run through-carriages from London to Belfast, you could also run them from London to Galway or Queenstown. In this way the journey between England and America might be greatly shortened. At present, people wishing to get from London to New York generally ship at Liverpool, preferring the extra ten or twelve hours on board to the getting in and out of the Holyhead and Kingstown routes. Suppose, however, they could get through-carriages to Queenstown, and could then count upon only a five days' passage to New York, the tunnel would monopolise the passenger and mail service toAmerica. The tunnel would pay just as the St. Gothard pays, not because it connects Lombardy with Switzerland, but because it is a link in the quickest through-route between one part of Europe and another. The Irish tunnel would not merely connect Great Britain and Ireland, but would be a link in the chain of rapid communication between Europe and America. But even if it would not pay, it would be worth making. We dislike, as a rule, the bestowal of Government aid upon commercial undertakings, and hold in the abstract that the railway which will not pay had better not be built. The present case is, however, an ex- ception. If by guaranteeing the interest on ten millions at 2f per cent. for twenty-five years the tunnel could be made, we hold that it should be guaranteed, the effect upon Ireland more than justifying the risk. Even if the Government were forced to pay the full sum every year, the country would benefit by the change from every point of view.
Though we feel no doubt about the advantages that would flow from the construction of a tunnel, we are some- what less confident about the possibility of carrying out any of the plans which have yet been propounded. These fall under two heads. First, there is the obvious scheme for making the connection between a point near the Giant's Causeway and the Mull of Cantire. The channel between the two islands is there only fourteen miles wide—the Mull of Cantire looks to a traveller up the Antrim coast as if it were only another Irish headland—and therefore the work of tunnelling would be comparatively easy. Un- fortunately, however, when you land on the Mull of Can- tire you are a hundred miles from anywhere; and in order to make a connection with the nearest railway, a new line of considerable length would have to be made. To reach any of the great centres of trade and commerce, an enormous ddtour would be unavoidable. If a tunnel can be made anywhere else, it should obviously not be made from the neighbourhood of the Causeway to the Mull of Cantire. This being so, it is necessary to consider the possibility of utilising other routes. The next narrowest sea-strip is that between the head- lands enclosing the entrance to Belfast Lough and the Wigtonshire coast, where the channel averages some twenty- two miles broad. There are three schemes for making the connection hero. We shall, however, only deal with one of them, that which proposes to follow a line drawn from Whitehead to Portpatrick. The advantages it claims are many and striking. To begin with, it would cut down the journey from London to Belfast to ten hours, and make Glas- gow only three, and Manchester only seven hours' journey from Belfast. A glance at a map will show the convenience of the line. Speaking roughly, Portpatrick is opposite Carlisle, and not more than a hundred miles distant, and therefore a tunnel, with its English, or rather Scotch mouth there, would put Ireland into easy communication with the whole of England. The Whitehead and Port- patrick Tunnel would have to be twenty-seven miles long —twenty-three and a half miles for the under-sea portion, and three and a half miles for the approaches. The greatest depth of sea-bottom is 650 ft. The advocates of the scheme assert that the strata to be penetrated offer no difficulties ; but it has been alleged by its opponents that the red marl which is believed to form the sea-floor, is intersected by basaltic dykes which render it porous and untrustworthy. If this should. prove true, the construction of the tunnel here would of course be im- possible. These matters are, however, capable of investi- gation. Either by driving a small experimental tunnel, or by dredging, a fairly accurate notion of the sea-bottom can be arrived at. The necessity for more information is, indeed, obvious in regard to the whole scheme. Till the engineers' designs have been submitted to careful examiva- tion.by experts, the proposal will'not get beyond the region of speculation. If, therefore, the people of Belfast really wish, as we believe they do, to have a tunnel constructed, they should undertake a thorough investigation into the question. If they put forward a definite and practical scheme, they will greatly assist those persons in England who are friendly to the proposal.
Before leaving the subject of the Irish tunnel, we must mention the exceedingly ingenious scheme for " a sub- merged bridge " which has been suggested by Mr. Maxton, of Belfast. His plan is to construct a tubular bridge of steel containing a roadway, and to sink this vast tube 60 ft. below the level of the sea. It would, as we under- stand, rest, or rather float, upon the water, and be kept in position by chains or anchors attached to the floor of the sea. The tube, which, it should be mentioned, would have for safety an outer and an inner skin of steel, would be made in sections 400 ft. long, and at every 500 ft. there would be water-tight doors, to be used in case of emergency. Another guarantee for safety would be an arrangement by which, in case of an inrush of water, the train would. be forced out of the tube,—we suppose by the air driven along in front of the water. Whether this is a mere dream, or has any element of practicability in it, we cannot say ; but at any rate it is exceedingly ingenious. Upon this, as, indeed, upon the whole matter, we should like, however, to hear the opinions of the experts. The engineers all assure us that there would be no difficulty in tunnelling under the English Channel. But if this is so, what obstacle is there to a successful Irish tunnel ? Does the presence of chalk in one instance and not in the other alter the whole prOblem ?
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