The Sun.
London, England, 1853-03-07 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, MARCH 7, 1853.

WILLIAM PATERSON-the Founder of the
Bank of England—was the originator of one of
most magnificent enterprizes ever projected in the
shape of a colonial speculation. Hitherto its
splendour has failed to be correctly recognised.
Its glory was overshadowed by misfortune almost
from the moment of its commencement. Its me-
mory has only been preserved to us in the melan-
choly narrative of the ill-fated Darien expedition.
Never, we may safely aver, was any adventure,
ancient or modern, opened up to the energies of a
civilised people under circumstances more pro-
pitious. Yet never were the golden day-dreams
of a philanthropist more speedily or more de-
plorably dissipated. PATERSON proposed •to
found a colony on the narrow isthmus connecting
the two American continents. He proposed to
unite by this means the commerce of the Pacific
and the Atlantic. He proposed to render the
scene of his extraordinary undertaking the channel
through which should pass to and fro the mer-
chandise of the Asiatics and the Europeans. All
this he projected, and, in doing so, he proferred
to the English Cabinet then presiding over the
destinies of the Anglo-Saxons, an opportunity
for good such as was, perhaps, never before
submitted for the acceptance of any Government.
The
annals of that time inform us in what man-
ner the scheme of this remarkable man was re-
sponded to by the •
British Administration. We
learn from their sorrowful records how grievously
all his majestio aspirations were doomed to disap-
pointment. The colonists sent out under his com-
mand were dispatched those tropical regions
only to be abandoned there to destruction. To
the eternal infamy of the statesmen then in po Arer
in the United Kingdom, be it
said—the com-
panions of the neglected
_ Scotchra an were allowed
to perish under the combined influA
mere handful alone escaped
ence of famine
and pestilence.
from those crowds of ardent speculators
Who had
left the shores of their native country under cir-
cumstances so promising but so illusory. A
mere
handful returned to tell the narrative of their
sufferings, and to leave the remains of the
beloved and lamented mouldering in what proved
to be not simply their own grave, but the grave of
their unparalleled enterprise.
It was left for another and a wiser age to realist=
the beautiful vision of PATERSON. The glory of
carrying out one of the principal objects of his
design appears to have been reserved for our own
generation. There has, within the last few
days, been presented to the public in these
islands the prospectus of a Company, which,
if properly carried out, must effect- in a
different manner, it is true, from what he
could ever have anticipated, but, for that very
reason, the more completely and immediately, the
.theme projected a couple of centuries ago by the
depreciated and
Caledonia. almost forgotten dreamer of
This Company,
already provisionally
registered, it is ;reposed shall be ultimately in-
corporated by
Charter or Act of Parlia-
ment AccordingAccordin
a Royal
toa t
re-
ferred to, it would se the prospectus above
era that the
arrangements have been so far completed, preliminary
different officers required in the earlier that the
stages of