Sir Edward Watkin is a sanguine man. In his speech
to the shareholders of the South-Eastern Railway on Thursday, he held out great hopes of carrying the Channel Tunnel Bill next Session, on the ground that Mr. Gladstone favours the Bill ; that Mr. W. H. Smith and Lord Salisbury "do not sympathise with the war scares," whatever that may mean; and that Mr. Bright is heartily favourable to the Bill. He maintained that the break caused by the sea does the same harm to the com- merce of England that the break caused by the mountains of Switzerland, for example, does to the commerce of Europe, and that if we want to compete in commerce with the European nations on equal terms, we must tunnel the sea as they have tunnelled the mountains. To all which the reply is very simple, —that if we are willing to have armaments as big as Italy and France, we may follow the example of Italy and France; and if not, not. The sea eaves us in scares and in military cost a vast deal more than it costs us in commercial profits, and we should be about as much surprised to find the present Govern- ment asking their supporters to pass Sir Edward Watkin's Bill, as we should be to find Sir Edward Watkin asked to accept a place in Lord Salisbury's Cabinet.
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