The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-10-30 00:00:00

tantarbo

These unhappy men, we are informed, were
only had recourse to after all other resources had
failed, and in their miseries we may trace a picture,
gloomy enough, though not exaggerated, of the
sad condition and fatal sufferings which beset and
struck down the other labourers who had been
employed and had perished on the work. Under
the pressure of such difficulties, it is matter for
surprise that the undertaking was completed at
all, and its completion must be regarded as highly
complimentary to the genius and enterprise of
America. That it is not likely to prove suffi-
ciently remunerative for the outlay incurred in
making, and the heavy cost of working and
management, is a matter which all must learn
with regret, although scarcely with surprise.
The cost of shipping and unshipping at each side
of the isthmus goods which are necessarily, in
the first instance, carried a long distance from
their place of export, is so great as to seriously
interfere with the value of the route as a means
of commercial enterprise. In such a situation,
the true mode of transit is one which was first
suggested at the end of the seventeenth century,
and has within the last few years been again
brought earnestly into public notice. That is a
ship-canal of sufficient width and depth to allow
vessels of the first-class free navigation across the
isthmus. This great project was first suggested
in 1694, by the celebrated Paterson, an eminent
Scotch merchant, who formed the bold project of
cutting a canal through the isthmus at Darien.
In 1697, he had so far succeeded in his scheme
that the Darien Company, as it was called, was
bfuelel
ny
settledorganised, and
ont h a e
spot,
ot, colony o
still
known
nSo cwont chm
asEe nc 0 had
ses,
or Scotch Town. So sanguine of success was
Paterson in this great undertaking, and so fully
was he satisfied of its importance, that he called
Darien " the door of the seas and the keys of the
universe." His company was for the purpose of
carrying on trade between the two hemispheres,
and so great was its success in three years as to
excite the jealousy and provoke the most power-
ful opposition from English companies trading to
America. Yielding to the representations of the
latter, King 'William 111. threw every obstacle in
the way of the Scottish company, and under the
joint influence of the government and the English
mercantile world, the Spaniards and Dutch were
stimulated to expel the Scotch settlers from the
land which they had purchased from the abo-
rigines on the pretence that it was Dutch and
Spanish property. The result was utter ruin to
the Scotch company, and an entire abandonment
of the projected canal. That it would have been
eminently useful, if carried into effect, is now
conceded on all bands ; and, singular enough, the
project has been again revived, and once more by
a Scotchman. Dr. Cullen, who has resided many
years in the country, and explored the whole of
the territory between sea and sea, revisited this
country about two years ago for the purpose 'of
forming a company to have the canal exe-
cuted. In this project he has been cor-
dially seconded by Sir Charles Fox, of Fox,
Henderson and Co., and at this moment parties
are actually engaged in making a survey of the
proposed canal ; a partial survey having been
previously made by Mr. Lionel Gisborne, C.E.,
of Derbyshire, whose preliminary report recom-

154

[OOTo