Professor MacCunn believes, and I humbly subscribe to his opinion, that the prospects of humanity under Democracy are unlimited and, on the whole, happy. This is philosophy. It is the philosophy of History to hope much from change. It is the philosophy of Politics to make changes wisely. For my own part I hold it rational to look forward, for example, to such changes as the abolition of war; the recognition of how much may be done for society by spending on amelioration the vast sums which till now have been spent on defence and readiness for warfare; the regeneration and training and placing of waifs and strays by the State, acting in loco parentis; the almost total abolition of alcoholic intemperance; a great dimunition of the vicissitudes of labour; a minimisation of preventible disease; and the virtual extension to the poorest of all the intellectual opportunities of the rich. These are great aims. Some of them may come to be realised with unexpected rapidity. Come they quickly, or come they slowly, they will come on the lines of Professor MacCunn's Optimism.

87

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE SEA APPROACHES TO THE MERSEY.

BY LIEUTENANT MARK SWENY, I.N.

In preparing a paper on the estuary of the Mersey, I have thought it well to give you a rapid sketch of Liverpool Bay from the earliest existing records.

The first known survey was executed in 1689, by Captain Grenville Collins, R.N., hydrographer to His Majesty King William III, and published in 1693. On this chart two channels are shown, viz., the Formby and the Horse Channel. The former with eighteen feet at low water, and the latter also with eighteen feet at the entrance from sea leading to the present Rock Channel, which then dried at low water. On this chart a perch is shown at the extreme point of the Black Rock, near the site of the present Rock Lighthouse. At this period Hoylake was a recognised anchorage, having depths varying from fifteen feet to thirty feet at low water of spring tides, where "great ships put out part of their lading to lighten them for sailing over the flats into Liverpool." From this Hoylake anchorage William III embarked for Ireland in 1690, hence the King's Gap Road now leading to the shore at Hoylake.

It may be interesting to note that the old Liverpool Dock was opened in 1700, and finally closed in 1826, when its site was filled up and the present Custom House erected thereon.

In 1708 power to levy dues on shipping for the purpose