Erection of New Docks and Quays

The Galway Advertiser, Vol XIV No.14 7th April, 1832.

Public Works — the Grand Jury

(From the Free Press.)

We feel great pleasure in having to announce to the people of Galway that the Grand Jury of the county, to their very great credit, have granted 1501, and the Grand Jury of the town 1001., to pay the interest of the 14,000I. granted by government for the erection of the new docks and quays. To the gentlemen composing the two grand jurists the thanks of the public are deservedly due — for our part we hail such liberality as the forerunner of a union of all classes in co—operating to elevate the capital of this county to that height of commercial prosperity, of independence and affluence in trade, and beauty and elegance in every thing connected with and essential in producing these fortunate results, tending to establish trade and commerce of Galway, and the happiness of its people, on a basis that cannot be easily shaken. Mr. Val. Blake, of Menlo', who for a long period has distinguished himself by his activity, zeal, and research in endeavouring to accomplish this desirable object, personally addressed the Grand Jury on Thursday last, with a view to impress on their minds the necessity of the grant, and succeeded to the extent we have already stated. We give below an outline of his observations. Mr. Blake afterwards went to the town grand jury and addressed them on the same subject, arguing the case on a new and different ground. The town jury, accompanied by Mr. Blake, Mr. Bermingham, and a few other gentlemen, then returned to the grand jury room, when Mr. Blake addressed the gentlemen of both juries on the necessity and advantages of forming a ship canal from Galway to Dublin, running parallel with the grand canal, and connecting both seas. — Mr. Bermingham agreed in support of a different line for the canal, and submitted a plan of the work according to his views. We publish Mr. Killally's plan, drawn up in 1827, together with an estimate of the probable expenses ; we also publish a resolution of a former grand jury of the county on the same subject, and an extract from a history of Egypt (published in 1823) relatives to the great ship canal connecting the harbour of Alexandria with the Nile. The documents were referred to by Mr. Blake in the course of his observations before the grand jury.

If we were permitted to offer any opinion on the subject of a Ship Canal running across Ireland, and connecting its eastern and western shores, we certainly cannot conceive why it should be looking upon as a work of impossibility by some, and sneered at by others as the proposition of a distempered imagination. It is, we are ready to admit, an enterprise of vast labour and expense, but in Ireland there is a vast population unemployed. 250,006 men were employed in making the Egyptian Canal, and if one hundred thousand men were employed at a similar work in Ireland, we should not perhaps be doomed day after day to be torturing our ingenuity in devising new plans for the amelioration of the condition of the Irish People, every one of which has failed in accomplishing the object for which it was intended. But the fact is, the spirit of enterprise is not amongst us. We are not a People whose minds are invigorated, enlarged and expanded by the happy influence of accustomed liberty, so as to render us capable of conceiving bold notable designs worthy of a free nation. We have been too long cramped in our energies and conceptions — too sunken and withered by a long and wretched contact with oppression and mis government, ever to think of launching into ground and exalted speculations. But it is time to begin to know ourselves, it is time to think that at least we are worthy to be free and to let the splendour of our designs be commensurate with the sense of our national greatness. Cast an eye across the Atlantic and in the new world contemplate the mighty works of a free and therefore a mighty people. See her Lakes, remote from each other to a degree that would inspirer a less enterprising People with despair of ever approximating them by any ingenuity, now within a few hours journey of each other by Railroads and Canals of several thousand miles in length.

Ireland has within her resources inexhaustible — public spirit and Government liberality are all that are required to bring them into usual operation, and we will venture to say that the enormous sums issued from the Treasury to support an extra large Military and Constabulary Force to keep down the unemployed and starving population of Ireland, would go at length in defraying the necessary expenses of a Ship Canal. Such an expense would be useless when the brawny arms of the Irish peasantry were engaged from the west to the east of the kingdom in constructing a work that would contribute to the splendour and prosperity of Ireland.

Since we have written the above we received a copy of the Resolution of the County Grand Jury, which will be found in the advertising columns. One of the resolutions relates to the advantages of opening "a complete water communication thro' the centre of Connaught" by the connection of Loughs Corrib and Mask to this portion of the Province, and the further extension, by Canal Steamboats, by the Lakes Care, Con, and River Moy to Ballinasloe to the improvement of the inland navigation of Connemara. These objects would be most desirable, at the same time that he would be for commencing the greater and more important work first from the successful accomplishment of which every other good would easily and naturally follow. At the same time it is gratifying to see that there is at length some spirit of enterprise springing up in the County, and if men of influence and expanded ideas would only seriously consult and co—operate — merging every selfish and narrow feeling in the consideration of what may benefit the public — they would live to reap a rich reward in contemplation the happiness of an industrious and contented people, at the same time that they were laying down the material of a golden mine that would here after prove an exhaustible source of national wealth.

We trust that no unnecessary delay will be given to the immediate commencement of at least the New Docks and Quays and as the Government and the Grand Jury have so far performed their duty, the public expect that no obstruction will proceed from any other quarter in any shape.

The following are the observations delivered by Mr. Blake before the County Grand Jury.

Gentlemen — To the consideration of this important subject I have devoted a great deal of time and attention — and however defective I may be in many of the essential attributes which are requisite in order to be able to form a correct judgement upon maters connected with the amelioration of the condition of the people of Ireland, still I presume to hope that some attention is true to my suggestions, as one of those suggestions, and the most important of all, has already obtained the sanction of the very highest authorities connected with the Government of Ireland, and of other men of great capability, after the most minute—deliberation, and after a survey made by one of the most eminent Civil Engineers, Mr. Killally. I believe it was in the year 1815 when distress prevailed in Ireland that I called the attention of the Irish Government, both personally and by letter, to the vast facility for improvement and the valuable consequences of an extended system of improvement the basis of which were the extension of the Inland Navigation of Ireland upon a grand scale. And again in 1817 in the house of commons I did the same. Then finding myself discouraged I compressed my suggestions, and confined them to the improvement of the port of Galway, and the Canal communication of Galway with the Lakes, and after ten years constant, and unremitting and urgent importunity (in which I was ably supported by the late Mr. Richard Martin, who published and paid for the insertion of many advertisements on the subject with my name affixed), the matter attracted the attention of others, and the result was, the enactment of the "Galway Harbour Bill", by which bill this Grand Jury, and the Grand Jury of the Town, are empowered to present sums in aid of these proposed improvements. Then followed the visit of Lord Anglesey to Galway, his personal view of the place, and his reception by the people, having confirmed his former impression, and hence has followed the allocation of a grant of money for the execution of the proposed work — namely, the improvement of the docks and quays, the other branch of the improvement, namely, the connection of the lake with the sea, being postponed to another and a better opportunity. To provide for the interest of this money to be advanced, it is required that two grand juries shall subscribe, and the object of the present appeal from the grand jury of the town to this grand jury, is to request its concurrence in a grant for this most useful and vital purpose. Under these circumstances it will become the grand jury of the county of Galway to do that which on due deliberation of the matter may seem most fit and proper, and I have no doubt of their concurrence on the present occasion. But in the mean time I am exceedingly happy to see Mr. Bermingham here, nothing daunted by the sneers of less intelligent minds — no man is more ready to admit the great merit due to Mr. Bermingham for his extraordinary perseverance than I am, and no man is more capable of estimating the value of this qualification, than one who has himself, by a similar quality, surmounted difficulties which were pronounced insurmountable, in pursuits calculated to advance the public interest. I differ with Mr. Bermingham in many of his details, as for instance, New Harbour being the point instead of Galway.

When before the Town grand jury, Mr. Blake stated, after he read Mr. Killally's Report, that he differed with Mr. Killally so far as his Survey recommended a new line instead of following the old line of the grand canal.

To this Mr. Bermingham answered, that the execution of a Ship Canal upon the same line of the grand canal, would be impracticable.

Mr. Blake replied that he did not suppose that any difference of opinion could exist as to the propriety of selecting Galway Town as the point of communication instead of New Harbour. It will be found that the grand canal may be said to have already traversed three fourths on the intended line, and so far as the grand canal has proceeded, or so far as it is practical to extend it, Mr. Blake stated that he had the authority of Mr. Nimmo, that the practicability of a ship canal on the same line would be admitted by any civil engineer to be indisputable. And Mr. Blake further stated, that he also had the authority of Mr. Nimmo, that the advantages in the execution attendant upon the enlargement or extension of an old canal are too important to be omitted in the consideration of this subject, and that the advantages arising from a new line, as compared with the extension of an old line, are infinitely too valuable to be overlooked. Another inducement would be the desire not to injure the proprietors of the grand canal, which the execution of a ship canal in a parallel line would have the effect of doing — and this Mr. Blake proposed to avoid by purchasing up the interest of the proprietors in the whole of the grand canal, or a communication for ??? in the proposed Ship canal, or in money, for such as would object to such communication.

Mr. Bermingham was still unconvinced as to the practicality of procuring a sufficiency of water for a ship canal on the same line with the grand :
To which Mr. Blake answered, that the practicability was already demonstrated, by the fact of an abundant supply of water for Canal boats on the summit level — and as a ship canal would necessarily lower the summit level of the boat canal about 20 feet, the effect obviously must be to increase the supply of water, so as to make it superabundant. Some gentlemen ask where are we to get the funds to execute a ship canal — To this I answer that the government must supply the funds, and the ?? line of undertaking suggested by me will have the ??? effect of producing peace and in due observance of the laws, without ultimately increasing the public debt ; on the contrary, the consequence of it will be to produce an opposite effect, and the extended system of employment when duly regulated, will establish a permanent demand for produce and consequently for labour in Ireland.