The acquisition of additional territory at home should, therefore, be more attended to, and have more expense bestowed upon it than has hitherto been the case. In par ticular situations, indeed, a few active and enterprising per sons have taken advantage of the opportunities which have been presented ; as in the counties of York, Lincoln, Cam bridge, and others, many hundred thousands of acres have been gained by embankments. In Norfolk, too, a erable extent of land has been gained in this way. In the neighbourhood of Chester, the River Dee Company have likewise gained several thousands of acres from the sea, which have since been divided into different beautiful fitrms, the whole of which pay in rent more than 2,000 pounds per annum. And in Holland the whole country has, in a great degree, been obtained by these means.
It is stated by Mr. Beatson, in the second volume of Communications to the Board of _Agriculture, that large sums have been expended in some places by individuals with a view of guarding against inundations, but, owing to the embankments they have made being injudiciously placed, and as badly constructed, the desired effect has not always been produced, particularly in the northern parts of Cheshire, on the banks of the river Mersey, where works of this kind have been thrown up at a great expense, which, from the manner of their being placed, may, in some eases, by con fining the course of the river, do more harm than good. By the appearance of that part Of the country, so fir as he could judge from the cursory view he had of it, it seemed to him that the inundations from that river might have been effec tually prevented at a much easier rate, if a proper method had been taken at first ; but from a certain ill-judged and mistaken tenaciousness of property, the embankments are constructed so close upon the sides of the river, that, in many places, it is confined to a space not more than t?.0 yards over. Owing to this, and to an aqueduct across the river, with only one arch instead of two, which it ought at least to have had, the water sometimes, in great floods, rises, he was informed, to the height of about 20 feet above its ordinary level, and overflows the embankments, although now, by frequent addi tions, they are about that height. Instead of •20 cards, had these embankments been SO or a 100 yards distant from each other, and the river widened in the narrowest places, one third or one-fourth of their present height would have been quite sufficient. They would have been much easier made,
and less liable to damage by the floods; a great deal of 111011ey also would have been saved, not only in the first construction, but in keeping the banks afterwards in repair. The space of ground between the embankments and the river thus left, would have produced the richest pasture, or meadow-hay, by its frequent manuring:4 with the fertilizing particles left upon it, when flooded by the swelling of the river ; and in those pi:leo-4. if any, that are unfit for pasture or hay, willows or other aquatics have p1:111::.4 to great advantage: and thus it might have been of more value perhaps than at present, chile die interior grounds would have been more effectually secured from the ravages of sudden floods. Not withstanding the general indolence shown in most parts of the respecting the acquisition of land by embanking, and the seeming aversion that most people have to engage in such undertakings, there have been, however, some ingenious and enterprising projectors, whose ideas upon that subject have soared fir beyond the bounds allotted to common understandings. From the speculations of such people, the most important advantages are sometimes produced ; and surely the loan ytho is possessed of a specelative turn of mind, and who considers no obstacles insurmountable. is a much more useful member of society than he who is perpe tually starting difficulties against every new project, and is for having all things remaining in state quo, that is, for leaving the world as he foutei it.
The idea of reclaiming land from the sea, for example, would have appeared to a torpid genius of this kind, as a matter too visionary for sober-minded men. A thousand diffieulties would have started up at such a proposal ; and obstacles, which to a more expanded mind, would seem per fectly practicable to overcome, would have presented to hint impediments insuperable.
What would such anti-projectors think of proposals to exclude the sea entirely from extensive bays, many miles across, and exposed to the till swoep of the winds and the waves t Such was the proposition to carry a railway enikinkinent across Morecambe Bay, and the estuary f wined at the mouth of the lluddon, the embankments on Lough Foy le in Ireland, and other similar works.