Sir Edward Watkin makes in Monday's Times a suggestion that
we have urged on several occasions in these columns,— that is, that a serious attempt should be made to create a physical union with Ireland by means of a submarine tunnel. If, as seems certain, there is nothing impossible in the plan from an engineering point of view, we hold that the estab- lishment of dry communication between the two islands would be moat beneficial. Sir Edward Watkin wants besides a ship- canal between the East and West of Ireland ; but this seems to us to be a far less important matter. If the tunnel gave us a through-railway communication between London and Galway, and Galway were made the starting-place of the Atlantic steamers, ten or twelve hours' railway and four days' steam would be all that would be required for the ocean-ferry service. No doubt a 3 per cent. guarantee for ninety-nine years on the ten millions the tunnel would cost—i.e., £300,000 a year—would secure the work being carried out. We are not generally in favour of public help to such undertakings, but surely this is a case for making an exception to the rule.
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