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LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAY. CXI
Bernard de Goinme's map, this was certainly a bold under-
taking. The river was to be made to flow in one straight
channel to Ringseud.
Their first work was to stake out this channel, and then
by piling and wattling in the sand on each side, to confine
the river current to that new channel. On this foundation
quay-walls were afterwards raised.
THE BALLAST BOARD AND THE NEW CHANNEL.
The two operations of making a new channel for the
river and the walling-in of the river were distinct works,
and done by different agencies the first being done
directly by the Corporation through the Ballast Board, for
this Board was only a branch of the Corporation ; whilst
the walling-in of the river was done by the Corporation for
the most part, indirectly, by making grants and leases to
persons on conditions of building the walls.
It will be found convenient to consider the making of the
new channel first.
As this was done by the Ballast Board, the following short Origin of the
summary of the origin and creation of that Board is given.
In 1676, Henry Howard having petitioned the Lord
Lieutenant for a patent for a Ballast Office in all the ports
of Ireland, pursuant to the King's warrant under privy seal,
made five years before, the Corporation interposed to pre-
vent it.
By their charter they were owners, they said, of the
waters and strand within their bounds, and had lately revived
their ancient right to ballast, and by a by-law laid down
rules for ballasting, and hoped to have a ballast office them-
selves, the profits of which were intended for the King's
Hospital. 1 And their opposition was so effectual, that in
1682, Howard offered to take a lease of the port of Dublin,
of the City at fifty pounds a year, and to surrender this
1
Appendix, p. 244, n. 1.