But although it may be safe, it certainly will not be expedient to do so. At twenty-four miles an hour the time required would be nine minutes; total, with twenty-two minutes for the ascent, thirty-one minutes. As regards the journey from Italy to France, Can a higher rate of speed be permitted for the descent of the 429 feet in 3¾ miles than was allowed for the ascent? There appears to us to be but one answer—Certainly not. As regards danger, we believe that with efficient and powerful engines and proper brakes, in the hands of steady and competent men, the transit will not be attended with a particle of danger; but the question arises, Will travellers generally be of this opinion? Many of both sexes will undoubtedly consider that they are as safe in the tunnel as during any other part of their journey; but it is to be feared that the majority of persons who go through it will not only have vividly present in their minds a sense of actual danger from material causes, but also a belief that if they escape any damage from these causes, suffocation must be a natural result of going through seven and a-half miles of foul, fetid, and polluted atmosphere, in a long hole never less than three thousand, and for a tolerable distance five thousand six hundred feet, below the upper and outer surface of the mountain. Death, if it do occur, will be caused, not by actual suffocation, but from some action upon the nervous system, that will produce all the fatal symptoms of suffocation. We have had no less than three very recent illustrations of death from such a cause, no later in fact than in August 1867; for during that month three inquests were held on three persons who had been taken out in a dying state from the London Metropolitan Railway. In each case the suspension of animation took place between Lisson Grove and King’s Cross Stations, yet the distance (all in tunnel) between them only slightly exceeds two miles, and there are abundant means of ventilation at the three intermediate points, Baker Street, Portland Road, and Gower Street Stations. The verdict in the first case was “accidental death from natural causes, accelerated by the suffocating atmosphere of the Underground Railway.” “Death from effusion of serum on the brain” was the verdict in the second case—in other words, apoplexy; but as the medical gentleman who made the _post-mortem_ examination, could not state at the inquest that the atmosphere of the railway had accelerated death, no reference to it was made in the wording of the verdict.