from abroad has for the last five years averaged 1,145,000 quarters a year, at a cost of about two millions and a half sterling, annually; and there is no good reason why this 'good round sum' should not come to Ireland instead of going abroad. But one of the first and leading steps towards the accomplishment of this most desirable object, is, by improving the port of Dublin, to facilitate the transmission of corn, and all other commodities, to and from the metropolis, and thus render really available all the other improvements enumerated, which without this are likely to prove comparatively nugatory. To promote this great end then, a general meeting of persons interested in the prosperity of Ireland, was convened by public advertisement in August last, and at this meeting it was unanimously resolved that the best means of carrying the design into effect would be by the construction of a Ship Canal, connecting the asylum harbour at Kingstown with the port of Dublin,' and a committee was appointed with a view to promote this undertaking. The report of this committee, embodying also the report of the select committee of the House of Commons on the same subject, now lies before us. The preliminary report of the committee of the House is so pregnant with matter, that we cannot bring the question more fully and fairly before our readers, in a brief compass, than by some short extracts selected from its contents : "Your Committee find that the Board of Commissioners for improving the port and harbour of Dublin, commonly called the Ballast Board, have subsisted for a great number of years, are invested with ample and extraordinary powers, and possessed of large funds, raised by a heavy impost on the trade of the city of Dublin, applicable to the improvement of the river and harbour: the Board appear, even by the evidence already given, to have expended very large sums for that purpose; to have been for some years past sedulous in discharge of their duty, not without some success in particular instances; yet, from the natural defects of the river and harbour, the trade of Dublin, materially affecting as it does the trade of the country, so far as it is connected with shipping, remains subject to many and VOL. II. serious difficulties arising from those defects, and from which, there is reason to fear, it cannot be effectually and fully relieved by any measures such as have hitherto been resorted to for that purpose." Considering the subject of a Ship Canal, referred to your Committee, as a proposed remedy for those defects, and with a view to the general and national expediency of such a work, the attention of your Committee was necessarily attracted to some very important considerations connected with the present state of the trade and port of Dublin, and of the inland navigation of Ireland. Among those considerations, they could not overlook the fact, that there now exist in the country two canals traversing it in different directions and to a great extent, and connecting themselves with the river Liffey in Dublin; the one reaching to, and communicating with, the river Shannon, and thus bisecting the whole island; the other, in a north-western direction, reaching towards, and not unlikely hereafter to be extended to Lough Erne, as a very few miles only distant from the Atlantic. Deep and capacious docks, communicating with the Liffey, have also been made by, and belong to, each of those canal companies; and there is also extensive and valuable dockage, the property of the public, connected with the Dublin Custom-house. Kingstown harbour, itself a great national work, one of the finest artificial harbours in the empire, and situate not more than five or six miles distant from the site of those docks and canals, and the landing quays of Dublin, stands singularly circumstanced, inasmuch as it is in no other way connected with those docks and quays than by a passage in a great degree artificial and imperfect, through the Dublin harbour and river Liffey; the one, obstructed by a bar at the entrance, not likely to be permanently removed, the other, shoally and shallow, and with an uneven bottom, where vessels lie aground at almost every ebb tide; circumstances, which, taken together, render the harbour and river to a great degree inconvenient, if not dangerous, to any but vessels of small tonnage, and generally productive of very inexpedient delays. Looking at facts like these, and considering them with reference to a remedy for those 4 R inconveniences, and to give to the country at large, as well as to the immediate trade of Dublin, the benefits which Kingstown harbour is obviously so capable of affording to both, through the medium of those canals, and their extensive, but at present nearly unused dockage, the expediency of a Ship Canal has been considered by your Committee. It has appeared in evidence to your Committee, that the making of a Ship Canal from that part of the coast where Kingstown harbour is now situate, has long been in the contemplation of those who have from time to time during the last century been led to consider the state of the harbour and river of Dublin. Several of those gentlemen, and particularly the late Mr. John Rennie, the late able engineer, Mr. Nimmo, and the late Mr. Killaly, an engineer also of very considerable abilities and experience, were favourable to the adoption of such a canal." "On the whole, therefore, of the evidence taken by your Committee, combining that given by Mr. Cubitt with that bearing on the nature of the defects under which the river and harbour of Dublin labour, and taking also into account the improvements lately made by the expenditure of the Ballast Commissioners, and the probable future improvements which they may be capable of making, your Committee have felt it their duty to report to the House, that, in their opinion, such a Canal would be both expedient in a national as well as local view, and certainly practicable between the City of Dublin and Kingstown Harbour, and would, if completed, tend to place the port of Dublin among the best in the empire, instead of being as it now is, in many respects, one of the most inconvenient." above suggested, as the basis for the undertaking of a work of such great national utility." From the evidence appended to this report, it certainly appears that by such a measure as the proposed Ship Canal, the harbour of Dublin might be rendered one of the best commercial harbours in the empire, and capable of producing the most important national benefits; the only obstacle being the question of expense; and even that, we believe, will be found, on the necessary survey and estimates being made,* not to exceed a few years' revenue of the Board whose funds are specially set apart to be devoted to the improvement of the port of Dublin. The Dublin and Kingstown Rail-road Company have been, we perceive, so superfluous as to petition against the formation of the proposed Ship Canal, on the ground of its interfering with their interests; and the select committee heard counsel on their behalf before making the very favourable report from which we have quoted.We are far from wishing to interfere with the interests of the Rail-road, or of any other public work in Ireland, so long as its promoters are willing to abide by the sound maxim of British jurisprudence, "so use your own as not to harm your neighbour's;" but it really seems monstrous, to propose that the commerce of the country should continue to be crippled, and a great national benefit be defeated, lest it might perhaps partially diminish the profits of a company established chiefly for the more rapid conveyance of passengers, with a chance of the occasional carriage of the cargoes of large vessels coming into Kingstown and discharg ing there for the Dublin market. As well might the jingle-men and Rock car-boys have sought to prevent, as indeed they did in their own summary way, the formation of the railway itself. But the schoolmaster and the march of intellect ought to have taught the directors of a great company better * Mr. Cubitt, the engineer, has, we believe, at length commenced a survey for the government, with the express stipulation that such survey shall not exceed 300%, and also that said government be not pledged to any ulterior proceedings grounded upon his report. This seems very like a conciliation humbug; but we hope and believe that should the merchants of Dublin feel that the trade of the port would be very materially benefitted by such an undertaking, there is sufficient ability and energy among them to have it carried into effect. things. Let the railway flourish, say we; but not the less on that account let the ship canal, which is of incomparably greater public importance, have dominion from Kingstown harbour to Ringsend docks, so as to render Dublin a far superior port, and ultimately, we trust, a not less flourishing emporium of trade and commerce than Liverpool itself. The private advantage that may possibly accrue to the Railway Company in particular, from the incalculable number of tourists who will be induced to avail themselves of their conveyance, for the sake of the novelty and variety of a circuit by sea and land, sailing over the watery-way in steam ships, and returning in chariots over an iron road, at the trifling cost of an hour's time and a shilling's coin, we think it needless to dilate upon in this place, being sufficiently obvious to the dullest capacity. Before taking leave, however, of the subject of roads and internal communication, we cannot forbear making most honourable mention of the extraordinary and successful exertions in this behalf, not of a great company incorporated by act of parliament, and backed with public loans and private purses, but of a single stranger, unmonied and unfriended, who, coming from his own sunny land of the South, Il bel paese Set up his staff amongst us, in the lowly, though not servile nor unrefined vocation of an itinerant printseller; and learning from personal experience, that best of all possible teachers, the painfulness and inconvenience of toiling from town to town, weary and travel-stained, on foot, he set up a jaunting-car as soon as he could muster the very moderate funds requisite, and endeavoured to defray the expenses of his horse's keep, by picking up stray passengers occasionally along the road. For a time the speculation did not tell; but by degrees the convenience began to be felt and appreciated. The plan was relished; another car was set up, for passengers only, with two horses instead of one, and a careful, courteous driver. The thing took, and the establishment spread. The comfort, regularity, cheapness, and despatch, of these conveyances are now universally known; radiating from Clonmel, as a centre, they traverse Munster in every direction, and include not a few of the towns of Leinster and Connaught in their round. In fact, this spirited and enterprising foreigner may be said to have opened up the whole south of Ireland to the traveller, and to have done far more to promote and facilitate internal intercourse in a large division of the kingdom than even the farfamed coaching company of Messrs. Anderson of Fermoy. He is now the principal contractor for the conveyance of the royal mails on all the cross-roads in the south; his establishment gives constant and well-paid employment to upwards of six score of families, directly as his servants, besides consuming an immense quantity of agricultural produce for the food of man and horse, and employing numbers of tradesmen in the construction of his vehicles, harness, and other appendages. Whenever any of the persons in his own immediate service becomes by age or accident disabled from duty, if they have been well behaved, he continues to support them; and, what perhaps they value more, when they die he buries them in the grave of their own people, and lays their bones by their father's bones, at his own expense. Their children, too, are cared for after them, schooled with diligence, and in due time preferred in the establishment. There is something so very amiable, as well as excellent, in all this, that when we read the other day that government had granted letters of naturalization to this gentleman, we own we felt for a moment more than half ashamed that the courtesy was not accompanied by some more flattering and distinguished mark of approbation. But 'tis better as it is. To such a man the consciousness of his own pleasant thoughts is the most suitable reward. The respect of the wise, the esteem of the good, and the blessing of the poor, far, far transcend the hollow mockery of official compliment. Be it ours to record, and to transmit to our children's children, in the deathless pages of imperishable MAGNA, honour and praise to CARLO BIANCONI! NOTES OF A TOUR THROUGH PALESTINE. CHAPTER I. Jerusalem-Calvary-Mar Michael-Church of the Sepulchre-Mount of Olives-The King's Dale-Mosque of Omar-Synagogues-Camels-Bethany-Bethlehem-Solomon's Gardens. On the 31st of August, 1831, my fellow travellers and I came in sight of the Holy City, Jerusalem, and never shall I forget the feelings which struck me at the first sight of a place so memorable as the great scene of our Redemption. All the other associations of ideas which scripture supplies, in connection with the Holy City seemed absorbed in this one most interesting, most important fact, that here the corner stone was laid of that stupendous edifice which well may mock the ravages of time, when its builder has declared that it shall be coeval with eternity. Its appearance struck on me in a more favorable light than I had anticipated. "The walls with the towers thereof" gave it an air of importance, whilst the lofty minarets of the mosques, and the domes of the church of the sepulchre gave sufficient proof of a still existing consequence. Jerusalem, even to the present day, "is builded as a city that is compact together," its situation exactly answers to what we have in Psalm cxxv. 2. "As the mountains stand round about Jerusalem." It is built on a hill with the valleys of Hinnom and Jehosophat separating it from the Mount of Olives and the surrounding hills; this explains the expression, "Whither the tribes go up." I called to mind its former greatness, and the wonderful love of an offended Deity towards its rebellious inhabitants; and, whilst I deeply sympathised with its present state of affliction and punishment, the cheering promises, which are in so many passages set forth in the book of Truth, of its final and perfect restoration, helped to dissipate the gloom that its present separation from the divine favour threw around me. On my left, as I entered the city, lay the Mount of Olives; at its foot, inside the walls, rose the beautiful and majestic mosque of Omar, built upon the site of the ancient Temple. But my eager eyes refused to dwell on these, no doubt, most interesting objects. Where is Calvary? was my first and hasty demand from my surrogee, (or muleteer) when pointing to a large cupola, he informed me it was the Church of the Sepulchre built on Calvary. I gazed intently in this direction, and felt myself influenced by emotions which I cannot describe. This, indeed, seemed the bourne of my pilgri mage, "What spot on earth," I asked myself, "can ever be so full of interest to me, or excite such pleasurable feelings?" I looked upon the object of my now rivetted attention, as if I could have seen a ray of light yet hovering over this hallowed spot; my friends seemed also lost in their reflections, not one word was spoken the remainder of the journey, and the first thing that recalled my wandering senses, and awoke me from my dream of thought, was the wailing and lamentations of some of the "daughters of Jerusalem" for one they were conveying to the burial ground. They uttered shrieks such as I never heard before, threw their garments in the air, and accompanied their expressions of sorrow with frantic gestures of their hands. It reminded me of the funerals in the South of Ireland, one of which I saw take place at Killarney, where there were women regularly hired to bewail, or rather vociferate, the merits of the deceased, while "ever and anon" the bottle was applied to add fresh vigour to this strange celebration of their no less extraordinary orgies. I must except this latter part of the ceremony from the mode in which Eastern funerals are conducted, as wine and spirits are forbidden to the followers of the Prophet; while in Ireland one of the two, at least, is considered indispensa ble, it is hard to say whether as a remedy for or a stimulant to grief! The tombs or "whited sepulchres resemble towns in miniature. The Christians, Jews, and Turks have each their separate burial grounds. We at length arrived at the gate |