A hundred years ago
From the 'Spectator', 30 May 1868—M. Boutet, a French engineer, has laid a plan for bridging the Channel before the Emperor of the French, and the Times seems to believe that a tunnel is practicable, at a cost of about 10,000,0001. The plan has been laid down by an English engineer, who believes that the bottom of the Channel is a stratum of white chalk, below that a stratum of grey chalk, and below that the green sand. He would run the tunnel through the grey chalk, and would spend two millions on a preliminary "driftway," which would settle the great question whether there is any break or "fault" in the chalk from coast to coast. Air would be obtained by shafts, and as chalk is the easiest of materials to tunnel, the time consumed in the work would not be very great. It will never, of course, be attempted without a State guarantee, and we doubt if the House of Commons will be quite ready to destroy our insularity. The defence of the island from foreign armies would, 'of course, be as easy as ever, but not its defence from foreign ideas.
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