The Sun.
London, England, 1853-01-11 00:00:00

i 267 1 75 68

TH/E DARIEN SHIP-CA NAL.

The attention of the leading merchants and capitalists
of Great Britain has been for some months turned
towards a scheme for the junction of the Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans, by means of a ship canal to be cut through
the Isthmus of Darien, between Port Escosses on the
Atlantic and San Miguel on the Pacific. The parties
who have accorded their support to the project include
many of the most well-known commercial, financigl, and
political names, and it appears that considerable progress
has been made in the requisite arrangements. A full
preliminary concession has already been obtained from
the republic of New Granada ; a report has been pre-
sented by Messrs. Gisborne and Henry C. Forde, civil
engineers, who were specially deputed to make a preli-
minary survey of the proposed route ; an extremely inte-
resting pamphlet upon the subject has just been pub-
lished, written by Dr. Edward Cullen ; and the whole of
the documents and plans have been privately circulated
amongst the most influential merchants of Great Bri-
tain. The route proposed is the shortest yet discovered,
being only 39 miles across. The concessionaires are
Sir Charles Fox, Messrs. John Henderson and Thomas
Brassey, and Dr. Cullen. In the report addressed to
these gentlemen by Messrs. Gisborne and Forde, three
modes of effecting the inter-oceanic communication are
presented, calculated to cost 12,000,0001., 7,000,0001.,
and 4,500,0001. respectively, but for the two last-named
sums only a very inefficient canal could be constructed,
involving the necessity of locks, and mechanical appli-
seescaatele. On the
whichother isha twelve
elv thee
mil-
lions deep
:11mthoeeunledtimd cost of
be no less than 30 feet deep at low
tide,lai cuttingneece appli-
ancesienocr
feet
would
broad at the bottom, and 160 feet at low
water's surface. Such a cutting, it is stated, carried
from sea to sea, is not larger than the trade of the world
requires, and would form a permanent, safe, and rapid
mode of transit. The material to be cnt through is de-
scribed as being chiefly rock—a stratified shale, with
thinnish beds—which, though easy to cut through, would
form an excellent side lining to the canal, and render the
cost of its maintenance merely nominal. This, accord-
ingly, is the description of canal which the engineers
state they can confidently recommend to their employers,
and it is to the furtherance of this project that so much at-
tention is being directed. By the route proposed great ad-
vantage is taken of the natural formation of the coast.
and the rivers Savannah and Caledonia will also be of
essential service. This portion of the Isthmus of Darien
is likewise stated to be in one of the most healthy dis-
tricts, owing to the absence of swamps or overflowings
of the river banks out of the range of the tide, and to
the generally dry character of the surrounding district.
Up to the present time it is somewhat remarkable that,
although so much attention and writing has been devoted
to this question of inter-oceanic communication, very
little progress has in reality been made towards carrying
it out. The agitation in favour of the Nicaragua canal
route was the most remarkable yet noticed, but the
scheme appears to have definitely fallen to the ground,
nor has any succeeding project as yet met with influen-
tial support. According to its charter the Nicaraguan
Canal] Company was bound to construct a canal suffi-
ciently large to accommodate vessels of all dimensions,
whereas the surveys and estimates that have met the
public eye are all framed for the construction of a canal
only 17 feet deep, 50 feet wide at the bottom, and 118
at the top. A work of this nature would be ludicrously
inadequate to meet the requirements of the very vessels
for the accommodation of which it is especially designed,
that is to say, those engaged in trade with the East and
the Pacific coast. As the cost of so inadequate a
canal by the Nicaraguan route would be considerably
upwards of six millions sterling, it is by no means sur-
prising that the capitalists of England and America have
refused to commit themselves to the undertaking. It is
obvious that no attempt must be made to corstruct 'so
gigantic a work as a canal of communication between the
Atlantic and Pacific unless there is every prospect of the
work being executed in a manner calculated to accom-
modate the commerce of the entire world. For a canal
of the large dimensions required it does not appear that
the Nicaraguan route affords any facilities, unless, in-
deed, the parties engaged were determined to vanquish
every obstacle regardless of cost, in which case the
capital sunk in the work would probably be so enormous
that the undertaking would at once be divested of all
pretensions to a remunerative character, the engineering
obstacle--including the construction of harbours at points
where nature presents no facilities for such works, and the
damming of the lake and river San Juan—being of the
most serious nature. In the facts that, out of the twelve
years within which the entire canal was to be completed,
according to the terms of the charter, there have already
elapsed without any commencement of operations, and
that the special protection accorded to the Canal Com-
pany by the instrument known as the Clayton and Bul-
wer treaty was forfeited in July, 1851, we have further
proof of the total failure of the Nicaraguan Canal scheme.
This isthmus of Darien ship canal is accordingly brought
forward, and the statements of its promoters are cer-
tainly of the most favourable character. By the pro-
posed deep canal, it is stated that the transit of the
largest vessels from sea to sea could be effected in five
hours instead of two days, as by the Nicaragua route.
The promoters enumerate the shortness of the route, the
excellence of its harbours, the low elevation of the land,
the absence of bars at the Savannah and Tuyra mouths,
the depth of water and great rise of tide in the former,
its directness of course and freedom from obstructions,
the healthiness of the adjacent country, the exemptions
of the coast from northers and hurricanes, the feasibility
of cutting a canal without locks, and the general absence
of engineering difficulties, as fully justifying them in
asserting that it is the shortest, the most direct, safe, and
expeditious, and in every way the most eligible route for
intermarine communication for large ships. One of the
not least important advantages possessed by this route,
it may be observed, is the entire absence of political diffi-
culties, the territory in question being universally recog-
nised as a part of the extensive Republic of New Granada.
As regards the benefits that would be derived from
the execution of a ship-canal on the scale proposed, very
little difference of opinion exists, the suffrages of the
entire mercantile world being in its favour. The vast
saving of t"ne that would be effected by the adoption of
such a passage would enable ships to make two voyages
where they now make one ; other great benefits, consist-
ing in the saving of expense in their navigation, of wear
and tear, of interest on the value of ship and cargo, of
insurance on ship, cargo, and freight, and in a great
diminution of shipwrecks and loss of life at sea. The
saving of time is not merely to be estimated from the
direct diminution of the distance to be traversed between
Europe and America and the east and west coasts of the
Pacific, and vice versa, but also from the avoidance of
the loss of time occasioned by calms in the low lati-
tudes, hard gales off the Capes, the very long tacks
to the eastward and westward, and beating against
the trade winds and monsoons. Another great bene-
fit to shipping would consist in the facility with
which they could re-victual, or take in water or coal
—an arrangement by which they would have a
much larger portion of their capacity available for
the stowage of merchandise. It is further expected
that the emigrants to Australia would take the
Isthmus route, as Sydney could be reached by steam
in from 50 to 55 days from Southampton, and that would
also accommodate the rapidly extending trade with that
important portion of the British empire. The prospec-
tive advantages to New Granada are so immense, that
not a doubt can be entertained of a continuance of the
cordial co-operation already accorded by the Government
to the ship canal project. The scheme indeed involves
the regeneration of that portion of the American con-
tinent, as the uncultivated and uninhabited tracts in the
vicinity of the canal territory would be quickly covered
with population, and the necessities of commerce would
soon establish large commercial cities at the termini of
the canal. New Granada would thus take much higher
ground in the family of nations, and in the increased
value of the lands and every description of security or
property connected with that republic, there is ample
room for speculation to reap a rich return.
This great undertaking, however, is not to be at once
definitively brought forward for public support. It ap-
pears that its promoters, duly impressed with the mag-
nitude of the enterprise, feel the necessity of proceeding
with every possible caution, and that we hear it has been
determined to have full corroboration of the surveys and
plans before any attempt is made to carry out the pro-
ject. In this sense, it is stated a preliminary association
will shortly be brought forward to raise 75,0001., which
sum will be applied to depositing the caution money
with the Government of New Granada, making a mule
road across the proposed route, and making a second
survey on the most detailed scale. The subscribers to
this fund, • it is stated, will have a prior claim to the
shares in the great ship canal ; and as, it is under-
stood, a great number of influential names has
already been placed on the subscription list, only a
small proportion of this 75,000/. will be raised from
the general public. It would appear that the cos-
mopolitan character of the work is to be fully recog-
nised, and that, conlsequently, the co-operation of the
chief commercial nations of the world will be enlisted In
its support. It is even stated that measures will be
adopted for obtaining direct assistance, probably in the
shape of a guarantee on a portion of the capital, or the
absorptiongreat favourableeoenmm ereia
l ettaetreme,sionfelaug portionm eorfe especially
Great from
Great Britain, France, and the United States. In ac-
cordance with the provisions of the Clayton and Bulwer
treaty, the Governments of Great Britain and the United
States will probably extend their joint protection to any
company undertaking the construction of a ship canal,
and Dr. Cullen states that the work will most likely be
a united British and American enterprise. For the pre-
sent, however, as already stated, only a preliminary sub-
scription
list is to be formed, to raise the comparatively
insignificant sum of 75,0001., of which a large portion
will be subscribed by the promoters, with a view to defi-
nitively maturing all the requisite arrangements for this
great commercial enterprise. It is also confidently ex-
pected that a more minute examination of the route will
show the formation of the country to be such that a
great reduction may be made from the estimates hitherto
formed as to the cost of the work.

SINGULAR CASE OF ROBBERY.—On Saturday, in-
formation was given, with a description of Joseph
Rogers, a miller, who had absconded from Whitehaven,
charged with stealing a cash-box containing upwards of
901. He is a native of Egremont, in Cumberland, and
on New Year's-eve was seen in a small plantation near
that place looking anxiously about him, but, finding
that he was observed, he made a precipitate retreat, and
the spot where he had been standing. being approached
and examined, it was discovered that in his haste he had
dropped between 501. and 601. in gold and silver.
ROYAL ASSENT, &C.—The last time the prerogative of
rejecting a bill, after passing both Houses of Parliament,
was exercised, in 1692, when William 111, refused his
assent to the bill for Triennial Parliaments. Two years
after, however, he was induced to allow the bill to be-
come the law of the land.—Notes and QuerieB.