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it is briefly said, "To the bridge it is unnecessary to refer". Regarding the Tunnel, it is said, "The financial difficulties are very great indeed. The time mentioned by the promoters as needed for the execution of the work is ten years, and the estimated cost 10,000,000l."
"On the 15th January, 1872, the Channel Tunnel Company was formally incorporated and registered in London, but the French Government refused to consider the application of the promoters till they knew the opinion of Her Majesty's Government as to the principle of the scheme.
"Early in June, 1872, the promoters of the Channel Tunnel applied to the Foreign Office for an expression of acquiescence on the part of Her Majesty's Government in the principle of their scheme, and this application was referred to the Board of Trade.
"The Board stated (June 15, 1872; p. 16) that subject to the observations contained in Mr. Farrer's letter of the 23rd December, 1871 (the letter referred to just above), they saw 'no objections in principle to the proposed Tunnel between France and England,' and in accordance with these views. Lord Granville (Foreign Secretary in Mr. Gladstone's Ministry) informed Lord Lyons (in a despatch dated. Foreign Office, June 22, 1872) that Her Majesty's Government did not consider it advisable to give its consent to the Tunnel, if ever constructed, becoming a perpetual private monopoly, but that subject to this observation, it saw no objection in principle to the proposed Tunnel between France and England (pp. 17, 18).
"A communication to this effect was accordingly made by Lord Lyons to the French Government" (Paris, June 24, 1872, p. 19).
I pass over the correspondence and negotiations of the years 1873, 1874, except to observe that (dating from Foreign Office, December 1874), Lord Derby (Foreign Secretary in Mr. Disraeli's Ministry) wrote to the French Ambassador in London, (Count de Jarnac) in reply to a communication from him, that "Of the utility of the work in question, if successfully carried out, there appears no reason for any doubt, and Her Majesty's Government would, therefore, offer no opposition to it, provided they are not
