Although the subject of this letter had occasionally occupied the attention of the Commissioners of the Northern Light-houses, yet the Bell Rock, as the site of a light-house, was then for the first time brought formally under the notice of the Board; and some erection there, was considered a primary object, whenever the funds should be in a state to meet the expence of such a work. But, the estimates for such an undertaking admitted of an almost unlimited range of amount, both from the nature of the buildings which were proposed, and on account of works of this kind being subject to unavoidable risk in all their stages, from the commencement till the completion. In conversation, it was common to compare the situation of the Bell Rock with the rocks of the Eddystone off Plymouth Sound, and Corduan at the mouth of the Garonne. The expence of erecting a light-house on the Eddystone, though understood to have been about L. 20,000, has never been communicated to the public by the lessees of the light-house duties, from the consideration, perhaps, of their being obliged, by their agreement with the Trinity Board of London, to erect and uphold the building, and also from claims which they afterwards made, for having the value of the light-house reimbursed to them at the end of their lease; but it was well known that the present building is no less than the third erection which the lessees had made upon the Eddystone, between 1696 and 1759, or in the space of 63 years. It was therefore natural to conclude that a building on the Bell Rock, situate under a greater depth of water, being nearly on a level with low-water mark, would be a work of greater difficulty and expence, than the Eddystone light-house, where the top of the rock is on a level with high-water mark. We are also left in the dark in forming any opinion on the important point of expence with regard to the French work at Corduan, but we know that it met with repeated misfortunes while in progress, and that it occupied from 1584 till 1610, or 26 years in building. The main rock here is about a mile in length, and half a mile in breadth, and, in its position as a sunken reef, it resembles the Bell Rock more than the Eddystone. From the difficulties which attended the erection of these two celebrated light-houses,--both of which the writer has visited,--the erection of a light-house upon the Bell Rock, in comparison with these, was estimated by the public at so wide a range as from L. 20,000 even to L. 100,000. [Sidenote: Funds for the Light-house Board inadequate.]