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mercial system of the appearance of a foreign army within sight of London; they know how the mere chance of success in such a scheme would tend to cause attempts to be made; they must feel, as well as I do, that the construction of a tunnel—do what we might to neutralize its danger—would multiply the recurrence of panics, and of the evils and commercial losses they entail.
"They can measure these dangers, and knowing that we should be exposed to them, if in time of war, or even when there was any possibility of war, an enemy obtained possession of Dover and the tunnel by surprise, or by treachery, or if our mechanical contrivances for the destruction of the tunnel failed to work when required, I would most earnestly beg of Her Majesty's Ministers to pause ere they accepted for the nation, whose destinies are in their hands, a new element of danger that would threaten our very national existence.
"For me, at all events, there is one plain duty, and that is, on military grounds, to protest most emphatically against the construction of this tunnel between England and France" (p. 305).
Conclusion.—We have, I trust, heard enough of the dangers and risks, to which this country would be exposed by the construction of a Channel Tunnel, to warn us against giving in any way our consent or approval to such a scheme. The many and elaborate plans for defending the Tunnel and rendering it useless are themselves the best arguments against its construction. Whatever advantages or gains are to be derived from it, and these I will not discuss, they are all as nothing in comparison of the disadvantages. The Tunnel if made would be not the messenger of peace and good-will, but the harbinger and forerunner of increased military expenditure, of panics and apprehensions, of possible invasions, strife and bloodshed, and asking once more the question with which I commenced, "Shall we have a Channel Tunnel?" I reply again, decidedly and emphatically, "No".
But I have still one wider and broader reason to give you for not consenting to the Tunnel scheme in view of the increased expenditure it would entail, and that is we have already enough
