To meet the objection of the Trinity House that any of these schemes would be impracticable without essential injury to the river and its navigation, Mr. Reveley proposed a fourth plan (_see_ Appendix K), under which, as you will see, the new channel of the river is made to take its course from near Wapping to the old channel of the Thames between Greenland Dock and Deptford, thence inclining gently to the northward till it falls into Woolwich Reach; thus leaving two spacious docks to the northward by shutting out the Ratcliff and Blackwall bends of the river. The docks thus formed would have yielded a water space of 559 acres. Each of these rejected schemes, of course, represented particular, and, in some instances, conflicting, interests. The West India merchants who suffered most severely from the depredations on the river, were very anxious to have a dock in the Isle of Dogs, and in two days, December 22 and 23, 1795, raised subscriptions of £800,000 for the purpose. Opposed to the West India merchants was the Corporation of London, with its large collateral vested interests. They professed to be jealous of any measure which would have the effect of removing the shipping from the City; hence their gigantic scheme, to which I have called attention, and which, as you will remember, so far met the views of the West India merchants as to include a large dock in the Isle of Dogs. The fact is, the Corporation wished to get the control of the docks of London into their own hands; and although Parliament was not inclined in this way to swell the sufficiently plethoric bulk of the Corporation, that body, with its allied interests, was strong enough in Parliament to defeat any body of merchants going to it for powers opposed to their interests; and, as you are aware, all the Dock Companies when first started were largely represented by nominees of the Corporation.