I have thus finished my notice of the entire dock system of the Port of London, for a complete view of which _see_ Appendix L: and a glance at this plan, which has been specially drawn in connection with this lecture, will convey some impression of its magnitude. It will be found very interesting to compare London as it _is_ with what it _might have been_ had some of the schemes to which I have called your attention, been carried out. The aggregate water-space of the docks of London, when the extensions in progress shall have been completed, will not be less than 560 acres. It should be borne in mind that the whole of these costly undertakings are the birth of the present century. Within the like period we have seen the commerce of the port multiplied nearly seven-fold; and it is no exaggeration to say, that to this marvellous result, the docks, in conjunction with the development of the warehousing system, which they have so much assisted, and to which I should like to have referred, have contributed more than any other agency. I fear that the public generally are rather inclined to lose sight of this fact, which becomes obvious enough after a few moments’ consideration. If the tremendous evils to which I have called attention as existing less than a hundred years ago, when the business of the port was not one-seventh of its present magnitude, were the result of overcrowding, it stands to reason that, in the absence of dock accommodation, the increased business must have gone to the out-ports, and, failing the necessary accommodation there, have located itself on the Continent. This, it is unnecessary to say, would have been nothing short of a national calamity. Look at Liverpool, a little fishing village at a time when London absorbed four-fifths of the business of England and Wales. But the dangers incident to the navigation of the Mersey early called attention to the necessity of artificial water accommodation for its shipping. This the people of Liverpool were wise enough to recognise; and who can doubt that Liverpool, which, considering its importance three hundred years ago, has grown even more rapidly than London, owes its marvellous prosperity to its magnificent dock system. Look, again, at Bristol. Time was when Bristol, as a port, ranked next to London; and why? Simply because of her unrivalled geographical situation and the early establishment of the dock system. Why does Bristol no longer occupy that prominent position? Because, as is generally the case where Nature has done so much, Art, her handmaid, has been less assiduous in her attentions than at London, Liverpool, Hull, and other places; and so, in the race for commercial prosperity, Bristol has been left behind by her younger, and more enterprising, sisters. Clearly Nature intended Bristol to be, what she once was, the most flourishing port on the west coast of England, and no mean rival of London. But the Bristolians appear to have forgotten that