The Sun.
London, England, 1855-04-05 00:00:00

THE PANAMA FAIL WAY.

(Flom the Journal des Debuts.)
Of the two isthmuses, Suez and Panama, which
have hitherto been the obstacles to a great mari-
_

time circulation, the first will shortly I.)e cut by a
canal ; the negotiations are at least actively prose-
cuted to this end ; the second, at this present time,
so to speak, exists no more. On the 28th of Ja-
nuary, 1855, the population of Panama awoke in
agitation : an extraordinary, unaccustomed uproar
was 'heard, and the inhabitants, by nature so calm
and indolent, were all at once possessed with an
ardent curiosity. It was the hissing of the first
locomotive, and the hoarse growling of the first
train, which, at full steam, had come for the first
time hardily to cross the distance which separates
the two oceans. Thanks to this double line of iron

which American industry has managed to extend

from the vicinity of Chaires, on the -great ocean to
the shores of the Pacific, the isthmus was at length
cut ; the genius of iron railways entered into
possession and operated the approximation of two
worlds. The Panama railway, which crosses the
Cordillera by a double inclined plane, whose cul-
minating point is two hundred and fifty feet above
the level of the sea, measures about eighty kilo-
metres, and will have cost more than thirty-five
millions and five years of labour—and what labour !
Nothing but the perseverance and the dauntless
tenacity of Americans could surmount the unheard-
of difficulties which beset such an enterprise. Not
that the numerous andconsiderable inequalities of

the ground have been precisely overcome. On the I
contrary, they have been complacently enough
submitted to in the generality of cases, and the de-
clivities in consequence are often of an exceptional
rapidity, which, it may be said in passing, does
not count safety as the first virtue of the railway
(the Americafis, as is known, do not look so closely
as that). But it has been necessary to reconnect
between themselves, by causeways of 12 to 1G
metres on many points, the intervals which inter-

vene between the thousand, mountains with which

tho .oil of tho isthmus is encuraboi.od, nand that
under a sun to produce tetanus, under torrential
rains, and across shifting grounds and marshy plains
the deleterious vapours of which devoured brigades
of workmen every week. For the rest, the railway
when scarcely commenced had already changed
considerably the face of things ; the bay of Limon, ,
for example, at the base of one of the inclined
planes, has its pestiferous marches replaced by a
pleasant city, all of wood, it is true, which already
possesses nearly 3,000 residents, and bears the
name of the enterprising constructor of the railway,
Aspinwall city. To subserve the movements of
commerce, a railway is doubtless far from being so
valuable as a way of communication as a canal,
like that projected from Alexandria to Suez, which
cannot fail to carry away from the Cape a large
portion of its old maritime clientcy of India ; for
the matter of importance for shipping is still less
the shortness of voyages than the possibility of not
breaking bulk, and not to lose time and money in
transshipments ; but by Panama a canal would have
encountered difficulties, which, it is said, there was
no certainty of being able to surmount, and, more
still, capitalists ordinarily so audacious with Ame-
ricans, have, on this occasion, recoiled before an
expenditure estimated at not less than 150 millions.
Perhaps, in respect of the great maritime commerce,
this is to be regretted, perhaps a prejudice. How-
ever that be, here at length one grave obstacle to.
the relations of humanity has been overcome ; ib
is possible now to make commodiously a passage
which, though not more than from 18 to 20 leagues,
did not the less require from two to three days of
the most fatiguing traverse, whether in pirogas
or on the back of a mule across the abysses of
which Spanish listlessness could accustom itself so
well. Panama, at length, the route of the Eldo-
rado, the way of transit for the two worlds, opens
henceforth a direct and relatively short passage for
the flood of travellers and emigrants, and to the
mass of valuable merchandise which, from New
York and the ports of Europe, are sent to be dis-
persed in Peru, Bolivia, Chili, and California, with
which Panama is in correspondence by regular
steam vessels, and even in various archipelagos
with which the Pacific Ocean is strewed, to the
Phillipines and China. In this point of view, we
conceive that a great future lies before the Panama
railway. The port of this city on the Pacific is
already in possession of a certain commercial im-
portance. In 1852, for example, it received 312
vessels, sailing and steaming as well, measuring
144,000 tons, and carrying 303 million tons
of merchandise. With respect to the transit
over the isthmus, it amounted for the precious
metals to 281 millions of francs, and for pas-
sengers to 28,690. Perhaps it is not rash to
predict that in a few more years the railway will
have increased this movement of men and
goods tenfold ; on one condition, however, and
that is, that the company which has the concession
shall lower its tariffs, which, according to the de-
tails recently published by the Journal du Havre,
appear to us exorbitant. 25 dollars (125 f.) for the
passage of the isthraus, that is, for a course of 80
kilometres, is, it must be agreed, of an exceptional
dearness, and, a more serious consideration, the
transport of merchandise is still more costly ; ac-
cording to the classification it is 1,2, 3 cents per
English pound—that is to say, 11, 23, and 33 or
34 centimes per kilogramme, so that a metrical ton
of objects of value, such as wines, cigars, tissues,
must pay the railway 330 francs. So to burdon
merchandise is assuredly not the way to draw a
great commercial current.

geatn-zhip
THE MAILS.—SOUTHAMPTON, WEDNESDAY, April 4.-_
The Peninsular and Oriental Company B
Tagus, Captain T. K. Joy, took her departure th's
India,
out 64 passenger., Chii.a, and Mediter-
ranean afternoon for Gibraltar, Ma,!ta, and Alexandria, with the
lriaenaevaynpomrtaionns. of
The
ee
TEagasuts
among whom are Commander Fortescue for Hongkong,
the Count van Linnden, the Baron von Heidenbrook,
and Captain Fabius, for Singapore • Major Powys, fur
Madras ; the Hon. Miss Abercrombie and Capt. Coch-
rane for Malta ; Captain Keats, for Gibraltar, &c. On
freight the Tagus takes specie value 157,8921. 16s. 4d.
sterling, of which 153,3101. Os. 4d. is for India and
China, and 4,5821. 10s, for Alexandria.
The Moniteur of yesterday has the following : "At
the request of his Imperial Highness Prince Napoleon,
and conformably to the instructions of the Government
of the Emperor, the Minister of France placed on the
22d of last month in the hands of the Minister of Fo-
reign Affairs of Belgium an official complaint against
the editor of the pamphlet published at Brussels on the
expedition to the Crimea, and .calumniously entitled
Meneoire adreme au Gouvernement de Sa Majeste L'Em-
pereur Napoleon 111., par un Ofilcier General. This
complaint was immediately brought before'the judicial
authorities."