Baltic and American trade, the fisheries, &c. It will contain eighty ships.

WEST INDIA DOCKS.

The depredations to which the shipping in the river was liable was not the only circumstance which called for some new regulation in our trade with the West Indies; the warehouses on the quays were insufficient to hold one-third of the quantity of sugar that was imported, and the vessels employed in the trade were too large to discharge their cargoes except through the intermediate aid of lighters, which could never unload with sufficient rapidity, but formed a line from the quays to the vessels, which were inoored at a considerable distance. This afforded such a facility to the river plunderers, that the loss in West India produce, which generally averaged upwards of 230,000l. annually, increased so much as, in the years 1799, 1800, and 1801, to amount to 1,214,505l. 8s. 4d., of which the loss to the revenue during that period was 411,100l. 15s. 4d. The West India Docks, as will be seen by a reference to the map in our last part, are situated in that peninsular part of the environs of London, called the Isle of Dogs, and that they communicate with the Thames at Limehouse on the west, and at Blackwall on the east. These docks were commenced on the 12th of June 1800, and finished in August 1802. The West India Docks, and the ground belonging to them, occupy an area of 204 acres. The dock for unloading inwards is 2600 feet long, 510 wide, and 29 feet deep; it is built round with brick-work five feet VOL. III.]

D

thick the dock for loading outwards is similarly constructed, and of the same dimensions except in the width, which is only 400 feet, narrower than the other. The entrance basin at Blackwall, which communicates by means of two locks with the import and export docks, occupies a space of six acres: the basin on the Limehouse side, which also has a communication with both docks, is somewhat smaller. The warehouses which surround the docks are necessarily of immense magnitude, and they are built in a style of neatness that would render them an ornament to any part of the metropolis.

The spirit with which these docks were commenced and finished in a period of little more than two years, and that too during one of the most expensive wars ever waged, is a proof of the extent of British commerce. The expense of these docks, which have rendered an inestimable service to the trade of the metropolis, was 1,200,000l.

During the construction of these docks, the ballast which formed a barrier between the dock and the Thames was driven away, and the water rushing in from the river several persons were killed. The largest dock was completed and opened for the reception of the water on the 3rd of August 1802; and such is the extent of this artificial lake, that although the water flowed in at the rate of from 500 to 1000 gallons in a second, yet the great dock was not completely filled a sufficient depth until six o'clock the next morning, being ten hours. On the 3rd of Sept. the grand ceremony of receiving the first ship took place, when the Henry Addington, a new-built West India vessel of 350 tons burden, was towed in

by ropes amidst the cheers of at least 10,000 spec

tators.

So great was the advantage of these docks to the West India trade, that it was calculated that upwards of 2,700,000l. had been saved by their formation in the first seven years, of which more than a million had been added to the public revenue. Calculating on the same scale, it may be inferred, that by the formation of the West India Docks more than eight millions of money have been saved, of which 3,000,000l. has been received in revenue. It is due to George Hibbert and Robert Milligan, Esqrs. to state, that the formation of these docks was principally owing to their active zeal and spirit.

The proprietors of the West India Docks are an incorporated body, under the title of the West India Dock Company, and they are reimbursed by a tonnage on the vessels that enter the docks, and a per centage for landing, weighing, and warehousing the cargoes.

Near the docks is a school, established by the company, for the accommodation and instruction of apprentices in the West India trade during the time that the vessels are in the dock. The boys are taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, and the elementary principles of mathematics and navigation.

Parallel with the docks there is a canal, which enables vessels to save a distance of a mile and threequarters by avoiding the circuitous navigation round the Isle of Dogs. This canal, which is three-quarters of a mile in length, and two hundred feet in width, was cut pursuant to an act of parliament, passed in 1799, at an expense of 133,849l. 12s. 6d. For the

first three years after it was formed, a small duty was charged on all vessels that passed through it.

EAST INDIA DOCKS.

As the East India Company possesses warehouses in town sufficiently large to hold the goods they import, their docks are used more as a protection to the shipping during the time of unloading, than as a place of safe custody when delivered. The East India Docks are farther down the river than the West India Docks, though at no great distance from them; they consist also of an import and an export dock: the former, covering an area of eighteen acres and a half, is 1410 feet long, 560 wide, and 30 feet deep; the latter, which is of equal depth, is 730 feet long, 520 wide, and covers a space of 9acres. The entrance basin occupies an area of two acres and three-quarters. The largest dock is sufficiently capacious to admit at the same time twenty-eight East Indiamen, with double that number of smaller vessels. When the goods are landed, they are conveyed along the East India Dock and Commercial Roads to the Company's warehouses in covered waggons, which are well secured against all depredations.

The establishment of the West and East India Docks has created around them an immense and industrious population, to which they give employ

ment.

LONDON DOCKS.

The London Dock, situated in the parish of St.

John, Wapping, was formed for the same purpose as the East and West India Docks-the facilitating the unloading of vessels, and the safe custody of the cargoes. This dock, which is not confined to any particular branch of commerce, is 1262 feet long by 699 wide, and in depth 29 feet. It is capable of containing two hundred sail of merchantmen, and was constructed at an expence of 1,200,000l. The dock, which is entered through a basin, opposite Wapping Old Stairs, capable of containing several sail, was opened on the 1st of Feb. 1805, when the Perseverance of Liverpool, the oldest vessel in the Oporto trade, decorated with the flags of all nations, not excepting the French, with whom we were at war, sailed majestically into the dock, which is nearly surrounded by a quay 100 feet in width. The warehouses are immense, particularly two appropriated to the reception of tobacco, which are under the direction of the officers of the customs. One of these warehouses is 762 feet long and 160 wide; the other 250 feet long and 200 feet wide. Underneath these warehouses are cellars, in which there are seldom less than 7000 pipes of wine.

The London Dock water is said to be very injurious to health, and a modern historian of the mctropolis gravely assures us, that it "never fails of proving fatal to persons long immersed in it," a quality not peculiar entirely to the London Dock water; nor is it very remarkable that a gentleman who was eight minutes under water, should be drowned.