notion of the unhealthiness of the Isthmus-which is local and endemic, or fixed, in a few distinct localities, and does not pervade the whole Isthmus, and the futile attempts to effect a north-west passage through the ice of the polar seas, on which so much treasure and so many lives have been wasted, have hitherto prevented any attempt to cut through that narrow neck of land, and thereby, as it were, approximate the two hemispheres. Certain am I, however, that an attentive examination of the subject will prove how small is the amount of work required to be done on this route; and that in cutting a canal in Darien, but little more difficulty exists than in the execution of a similar work in England. Considering the present resources of engineering science, I may venture to predict that ere long will be accomplished a work that has been talked of for three centuries, but never yet seriously or practically attempted, a work that will be the grandest effort of engineering science, and the surest basis on which to rest the hopes of the future establishment of universal peace and the brotherhood of nations, forming as it will, the neutral ground and place of congress, on which the nations of the earth will meet in peace.

As it may not be uninteresting to compare the opinions of the older writers on inter-oceanic communication, with those of the more modern, and to give a slight sketch of the history of the negociations on the subject, I may be per

2 The Forth and Clyde Canal, of thirty-five miles in length, with a summit level of 160 feet, which had to be carried through moss, quicksand, gravel, and rocks, over precipices, and across valleys; in the course of which, besides smaller ones, eighteen drawbridges and fifteen aqueducts, with several tunnels, had to be constructed, was commenced in 1768, by Mr. Smeaton, and completed in 1790, at a cost of £200,000. Compare this with the almost total absence of difficulties of the route proposed.

mitted to lay before the reader the following quotations and comments on them. A writer in the "Edinburgh Review," Jan. 1809, vol. xiii., p. 283, says

"We are tempted to dwell for a moment upon the prospects which the accomplishment of this splendid but not difficult enterprise opens to the nation. It is not merely the immense commerce of the western shores of America, extending almost from pole to pole, that is brought, as it were, to our door; it is not the intrinsically important, though comparatively moderate, branch of our commerce, that of the South Sea whalers, that will alone undergo a complete revolution, by saving the tedious and dangerous voyage round Cape Horn: the whole of those immense interests which we hold deposited in the regions of Asia, become augmented in value to a degree which, at present, it is not easy to conceive, by obtaining direct access to them across the Pacific ocean. It is the same thing as if, by some great revolution of the globe, our Eastern possessions were brought nearer to us. The voyage across the Pacific, the winds both for the Eastern and Western passage being fair and constant, is so expeditious and steady, that the arrival of the ships may be calculated almost with the accuracy of a mail coach.

"Immense would be the traffic which would immediately begin to cover that ocean, by denomination Pacific. All the riches of India and China would move towards America. The riches of Europe and America would move towards Asia. Vast depôts would be formed at the great commercial towns, which would immediately arise at the two extremities of the Central Canal. The goods would be in a course of perpetual passage from the one depôt to the other, and would be received by the ships, as they arrived, which were prepared to convey them to their ultimate destination."

Twenty years previous to this date, this same project of a Ship Canal formed one of the most earnest aspirations of the great mind of William Pitt, who received with empressement, in 1790, the proposals addressed to him on the subject by General Miranda, as a means to the emancipation of the Spanish colonies and a furtherance of British commerce in the Southern and Eastern seas. We are enabled also to trace, a few years later, in the archives of the Foreign Office, a proposition from the same party, that the United States should send a joint armament of 10,000 men, with a fleet from Great Britain, to take possession of the Isthmus of Darien, and open roads and canals through it for the united commerce of both nations, thus preluding the treaty of Nicaragua, of which the statesmen of our days are so justly proud.

A writer in the Edinburgh Review (vol. xvi., p. 96) speaking

of "the celebrated colony of New Caledonia, founded by our unfortunate countrymen in the latter part of the seventeenth century, and most scandalously sacrificed by their rulers to the jealousy of the Dutch and English," says, "It is singular enough that these adventurers should have happened to select for their settlement the only point where a communication between the two seas seems practicable. It is melancholy to reflect, and idle to enlarge, upon the perfidious and narrow policy to which this magnificent project was sacrificed. Had the settlement founded by our countrymen been maintained for a few years only, the Succession War, which almost immediately followed, would have secured to us the firm possession of the country, and opened to us an intercourse with the South Sea, which the House of Bourbon, our inveterate enemies, would never have been able to have shut against us."

The most ardent imagination," says Mr. William Davis Robinson, a United States merchant, writing in 1821, "would fail in an attempt to portray all the important and beneficial consequences that would result from the execution of this work, the magnitude and grandeur of which are worthy the profound attention of every commercial nation. It is indeed a subject so deeply and generally interesting, that the powerful nations of the old and those of the new world, should discard from its examination all selfish or ambitious considerations. Should the work be undertaken, let it be executed on a magnificent scale; and, when completed, let it become, like the ocean, a highway of nations, the enjoyment of which shall be guaranteed by them all and which shall be exempt from the caprice or regulations of any one kingdom or state."

I have inserted these opinions, to show that the advantages mentioned as likely to result from the construction of a Ship Canal are not put forth to aid a new speculation, but are the recorded convictions of all enlightened minds during the last half century.

In the appendix to Sir J. Dalrymple's memoirs, the following passage occurs in an "Account of an intended expedition into the South Seas, by private persons in the late war." Vessels meet with a southland wind from the southmost point of Chili, all the way to the Bay of Panama. This wind never varies, carries ships above a hundred miles a day, and the tract in which it runs reaches a hundred leagues off the coast to the west. From the Bay of Panama, ships are carried to the East Indies by the great trade wind, at above an hundred miles a day. This is the tract of Spanish ships, from their dominions on the South Seas, to their possessions in the Philippine Islands. From the East Indies to the South Seas there are two passages; one by the North, to sail to the latitude of 40° North, in order to get into the great west

wind, which about that latitude blows ten months in the year; and which, being strong, carries vessels with quickness to the Northern part of the Coast of Mexico. From the extreme point of Mexico, in the North, there is a land wind which blows all the way to the Bay of Panama, from the North to the South, precisely similar in all respects to the land wind which blows along the Coast of Chili to that Bay, from the South to the North. This first tract into the latitude 40° North, and then along the Coast of Mexico, is the route which the Acapulco ships take in coming from the Philippines to the South.

"The other route from the East Indies is by the South, to get into the latitude of 40° South, or New Holland, and from thence to take advantage of the great west wind, which, about that latitude, blows ten months of the year, in order to reach the Southern part of Chili, where the southland wind will be found. The facility of this last route was not known till the late discoveries of Captain Cook."

The voyage from Manilla to Acapulco has frequently been made by dull-sailing Spanish ships in seventy-five days, and at certain seasons of the year it has been performed by vessels whose top-gallant-sails were not once taken in during the voyage. Violent storms sre seldom experienced in the Pacific, excepting in the vicinity of Cape Horn, and in the high latitudes to the northwest.

In a letter from an experienced naval officer to the Times, dated November 28th, 1850, the following passages occur:-"The navigation from Suez to Ceylon is, of course, already well-known. That from Point de Galle to Swan River is open to this objection, viz., the frequency of hurricanes, which, at certain seasons sweep over the Indian Ocean, between the Isle of France and the west side of New South Wales, with frightful violence, and through which, as I can testify from experience, numbers of our finest ships have at various times suffered serious damage, while not a few have been totally lost.

From Swan River to King George's Sound, and Adelaide, and indeed along the whole southern coast of New South Wales, violent winds almost constantly prevail from the westward, causing a prodigious sea to arise, which nearly precludes any navigation in that direction; and which, I am of opinion, would be a cause not only of frequent irregularities in the arrivals and departures of the vessels between those ports, but of annoyance and discomfort of the passengers.

"That by the Cape of Good Hope, which at present forms the ordinary mode of transit.

"The principal, and indeed only, objections to it that I know of are the high seas and boisterous weather, which are the almost constant attendants upon those high latitudes, between the Cape

of Good Hope and Sydney. The gales of wind, nearly without any variation throughout the year, from N.W. to S.W., render the return passage between those two ports a matter of very great uncertainty, and prove a source of exceeding discomfort to everybody on board, while in spite of the finest vessels and best nautical skill, they further cause frequent delays and irregularities in the voyages.

"The last line to be examined is that by the Isthmus of Panama.

Throughout the entire range of this route across the vast Pacific Occan, both going and returning between Panama, New Zealand, and Sydney, fine weather, smooth seas, and a pleasant temperature almost every where prevail; and the trade-winds, generally speaking, blow with such gentle force and constant regularity that the seaman acquainted with them is enabled, even at the present time, to shape his course from port to port with certainty and confidence, thereby enabling him even without the advantage of steam, to calculate upon his arrival with accuracy and precision.

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In looking upon the advantages of establishing a line of steam communication to New South Wales by the Panama route, the important point must not be overlooked of its being a resource in the event of any interruption to our communication with India by the Isthmus of Suez; a point indeed, which I consider ought to form matter of the highest consideration. "The distance by this line is likewise a consideration. It is shorter than that by any of the others, being only 12,690 miles."

Extract from the Times, of Wednesday, December 11th, 1850:-"The letter in the Times to-day on various steam routes to Australia, has attracted attention from the practical nature of its statements. It tends to confirm all the arguments that have lately been put forward with regard to the complete superiority of the western line from Panama to Sydney, and has increased the unfavourable feeling with which the leading persons interested in the welfare of Anstralia have long regarded the strange want of decision shown by the government on this importaut question. While the attention of the whole world is turned to the Pacific Ocean, and to the vast commercial benefits that are destined to arise from the extension of enterprise in that direction, the sole object with our ministers seems to have been to carry the route through the Indian seas (where the development of our traffic calls for no extraneous aid), at an alleged additional cost, as compared with the Pacific route of at least twelve days in time, and 100 per cent. in the charges for freight and passage, besides unnecessary risk and inconvenience."

"During the administraton of William Pitt, various projects