In the speech subsequently made at the luncheon which took
place in a tent close to the new bridge, Mr. Gladstone dilated on the markets for the coal of North Wales which this new line would probably open up, and on the new markets for the slate and granite of Carnarvonshire which it would certainly open up, and dwelt with playful emphasis on the new stimulus which the facilities of the line now in progress would apply to the great competing Railway Companies, the North- Western and the Great Western. But the climax of his speech was his remark, in proposing the health of Sir Edward Watkin, that Sir Edward is one of those men who had been wicked enough to desire that a tunnel should be constructed under the Channel to France, and that he himself was one of those who were wicked enough to agree with him. Public opinion, said Mr. Gladstone, would soon dispose of most of "that luxury of terror," "that indulgence in the production of passion," which has of late years been found so powerful to retard the extension of great benefits to mankind. Mr. Gladstone re- garded this tendency to panic as certain to pass away, if we would but have patience with it. He may be right. Perhaps it may pass away, and perhaps even something of prudence and caution may pass away with it of which we shall one day feel the loss. We can conceive it possible that England might, under the magic fascination of engineering science, so connect herself with the Continent as to lose all the special advantages of insularity, —nay, might come to ridicule the mere suspicion that any danger could arise from that sacrifice of insularity. But you no more gnard yourself against peril by ceasing to be aware of it, than you guard yourself against a malarions poison by ceasing to take quinine. If England sacrificed her insularity, how long would it be before she would also find that she had sacrificed her liberty and the most distinctive of her national characteristics P
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