y good intelligence, that, when the project was first
suggested from necessity, there were no less than eight different plans,
supported by eight different bodies of subscribers. The cost of the
least was estimated at two hundred thousand pounds, and of the most
extensive at twelve hundred thousand. The two between which the contest
now lies substantially agree (as all the others must have done) in the
motives and reasons of the preamble; but I shall confine myself to that
bill which is proposed on the part of the mayor, aldermen, and common
council, because I regard them as the best authority, and their language
in itself is fuller and more precise. I certainly see them complain of
the "great delays, accidents, damages, losses, and extraordinary
expenses, which are almost continually sustained, to the hindrance and
discouragement of commerce, and the great injury of the public revenue."
But what are the causes to which they attribute their complaints? The
first is, "THAT, FROM THE VERY GREAT AND PROGRESSIVE INCREASE OF THE
NUMBER AND SIZE OF SHIPS AND OTHER VESSELS TRADING TO THE PORT OF
LONDON, the river Thames, in and near the said port, is in general so
much crowded with shipping, lighters, and other craft, that the
navigation of a considerable part of the river is thereby rendered
tedious and dangerous; and there is great want of room in the said port
for the safe and convenient mooring of vessels, and constant access to
them." The second is of the same nature. It is the want of regulations
and arrangements, never before found necessary, for expedition and
facility. The third is of another kind, but to the same effect: That the
legal quays are too confined, and there is not sufficient accommodation
for the landing and shipping of cargoes. And the fourth and last is
still different: they describe the avenues to the legal quays (which,
little more than a century since, the great fire of London opened and
dilated beyond the measure of our then circumstances) to be now
"incommodious, and much too narrow for the great concourse of carts and
other carriages usually passing and repassing therein." Thus our trade
has grown too big for the ancient limits of Art and Nature. Our streets,
our lanes, our shores, the river itself, which has so long been our
pride, are impeded and obstructed and choked up by our riches. They are,
like our shops, "bursting with opulence." To these misfortunes, to these
distresses and grievances alon