A company was established in 1888 for the purpose of cutting a canal, through the Wallasey Pool, from the Irish Sea to Birkenhead, The object of this undertaking is to improve the approach to the port of Liverpool, which is at present greatly prejudiced by the shifty channel, the numerous sandbanks on either side of the bar, and the risks and delays that are thereby entailed. The scheme is not a new one entirely. On the contrary, Telford, Nimmo, and Robert Stephenson, in 1838, reported upon a kindred project, and estimated its cost at 1,400,000_l._ The sum named, however, was too much for the promoters to raise, and a modified plan was submitted, calculated to cost about half the money. The Corporation of Liverpool, however, opposed the scheme, and privately bought up the land on either side of the Wallasey Pool, with a view to frustrate its accomplishment. Telford’s plans have, however, quite recently been revived, and it is now proposed to make a cut from an arm of the Wallasey Pool—which, running for about half a mile inland, has, notwithstanding the enormous extension of dock accommodation all around, been left in its natural condition—to the west end of the Leasowe embankment, near Dove Point, whence a tidal channel would be formed through the foreshore to the Rock Channel, the ancient entrance to the port of Liverpool. This tidal channel would be protected by a breakwater running from the Leasowe embankment to a point in the Rock Channel west of the Dove Spit. An outer breakwater would also run in an easterly and south-easterly direction for a distance of 5000 feet, sheltering the greater part of the Rock Channel, which is to be dredged for upwards of a mile to a depth of 30 feet below low-water mark. The scheme does not appear to be either difficult or costly, but as it is objected to by the Corporation of Liverpool and by the Mersey Harbour Board, it may not come to maturity. That it would, if carried out, be a great convenience to the many thousands who annually arrive at or depart from Liverpool for the United States and other countries, is sufficiently manifest. THE CANAL CONNECTION BETWEEN LONDON AND BRISTOL. The Wiltshire and Berkshire Canal was acquired by some capitalists towards the close of 1889, with a view to working it in competition with the Great Western Railway between London and Bristol. The canal in question leaves the Kennett and Avon Canal at Semington, a few miles on the Bristol side of Devizes, and proceeds thence through Melksham, Wootton Bassett, Swindon, and Challow to the Thames at Abingdon. Although the Kennett and Avon Canal, which joins the Thames at Reading, is 23 miles shorter between London and Avonmouth, it labours under the disadvantage of rising to a much greater height, and therefore requiring twenty-eight additional locks. It is also proposed to develop the Thames and Severn Canal, which is connected by a short branch from Swindon, through Cricklade, with the Wiltshire and Berkshire.