The Sun.
London, England, 1849-02-19 00:00:00

, card, and telling her to come to hlf
it she required assistance. Great wag
when she read on the card, "The Pres
public." She burst into tears and ran
~he house porter to communicate her de-
light. " What!" said he, " that gentlenaai so ' simply
attired was the nephew of the Emperor ! . Ah, 'bid 'I
known him, I would hare asked permissioh to Vshbrace
him." The entire neighbourhood was soon informed of
the visit of Louis Napoleon Bnaparte. " It is like the
period of the empire," said one; when speaking the fol.
lowing day of the President's noble action," - . -.
Such a little transaction as this is surely better worth
our attention and that of our readers than many ii, roil)
showy occurrence [that claims our time and space, and
extorts public notoriety. The President's act is not only
of a kind to afford useful example to some persons and
pleasure to all, but is the more respectable for its off.
handedness, its unstudied spontaneity. It Wu
not one of your well-planned and
'nothing
snares for applause. There was nothing
and could be nothing, premeditated in the matter. LORIS
Napoleon sees lying at the bottom of his carriage &scrap
of paper, which he little guesses at first to be the laet
hope and the last chance of an entire starving family.
He picks up the letter of the poor widow, written, as *0
have seen, with a mixture of confidence and anxiety.
He immediately promises hiinself—we purposely 'sup-
pose the least noble motives that the case could argue—it
very great pleasure; for Louis Napoleon has heart in
two senses--he has eart in dealing with danger, and-he
has heart ulso in dealing with misfortune; and accord.,
lingly he promises himself a treat, knowing well bow
very little may be a great deal in such matters; for it is
noticeable that while his donation is perfectly ample,
and even munificent, it is, at the same time, such
may be consistent with a wide area of relief, tither
than such as curtails the means of future or collateral
beneficence. His zeal is " a zeal according'to- know-
; ledge;" and singularly enough; the manner in: Which
! his generosity became public, instead of destroying (as
I such publications—because they are glorifications—
( generally do), the merit of his act, enhanced that meet.
In order that the poor woman might not want in fethlw,
t but might know where to apply for relief ifiAter
necessities, he left her his card; and the latter, intended
' to be the means of future charities, was turned into the
1 means of immediate fame, by the gratitude of the enrap-
' ture and astounded widow. When Louis Napoleon was
' a prisoner at Ham, be busied himself in devising !Mine
great, effective, and comprehensive system for the 'relief
of the poor. This was the though that troubled his heart
1 and racked his brain. He did not (like Silvibirlrteo)
employ himself in inditing an ingenious and•el*ant
cemplaint destined to perpetuate the memory of,his Own
misfortunes, but he elaborated a project (successful or
not, it is foreign from our argument; tho effect of such
things, rests with God; the wish and the desire are 'all
that can be expected from man)—a !Project for the elle.
viation of the miseries of others. It was not "imiei
t prigioni," but Pea-tine/ion du paupers:erne" that Issued from
1 the prison ot Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. Now, we say
I that this plainly betokened the instinct of some great
destiny. We call that a great destiny which largely ie-
fluences the position of your fellow-creatures, and which
is bound up with the history of millions of human
beings. Of such a destiny, therefore, that man shown
an instinctive presentiment whose mind is, even,in
the most distracting personal misfortunes, incessantly
turned to the condition of others, to the condition of
a whole people in its largest and most suffering
classes. This is not only a gentle feeling, in Oise
sense of the word ".gentle" which probably originated
the name of gentleman, but it is a feeling even
princely. Nations want not and need not'those who are
absorbed in themselves to govern the state; nations
need those who care for nations, and those who 10 care
are not inappropriately placed when they are raised to
the most exalted situations. We aro glad that the Ane
qualities which Louis Napoleon exhibited in adversity
have stood the far harder test of dazzling success. We
are glad that, even in the snsallest and most unpremedi-
tated acts, he has evinced an undepraved, unperverted,
and unlost consistency. We are glad that he displayed
such fortitude and bearing in misfortune ; we ate still
more glad that he shows such moderation, firmness, and
gentleness in power. We are glad of this for the sake
of France, and indeed for the sake of the world. We
now feel confident that, whatever fortune betides him' he
will act a dignified, a true, an honourable part. He has
been tried by the two great ordeals, and has passed them
both unscathed. Had he been cowardly, we should hays
seen it long ago ; were he insolent, we should see it now,
Music and the sun bring out the cobra.
TlMES.—Civilisation has taken a bold flight since
the day it was declared that its development was
bounded by the shores of the Mediterranean. The
whole surface of the globe is the heritage of man, and
he will no longer be excluded from the full fruition of
his birthright. Yet by what slow degrees hare we ar•
rived at this point. For how many ages were not the
sages of antiquity content to acquiesce in the arbitrary
decision of geographers, which remain as monuments
of the ignorance of their epoch. An uncouth figure of
a panther or crocodile was the best make-shift by which
they could distinguish the vast regions that lay out of
the immediate boundaries of their little world. The
existence of the two Americas was voted the hallucina-
tion of diseased brains. The pillars of Hercules were
the limit beyond which there was nothing bat a
stormy sea, or at best some Fortunate Islands,
the destined abode of the blest when the spirit
had been dislodged from its mortal tenement.
The speculations of the ancients on the destinies
of their race are a melancholy example of the infirmity
of human judgment. They would have laughed to scorn
the idea that from a little island in the far north-west,
, where dwelt a few savages, segregated by a belt of
1 wintry sea from the whole world, there should issue a
race destined to subdue countries more vast and more
1 important than all which then owed allegiance to the
Rowan name. They would have been slow to admit as
a possibility that the little insular province which was
first thrown over when their empire was shaken by die.
cord within and warfare from without would one day
exercise an influence second to that of no other Power, in
European affairs; bring into subjection the regions of
legend—for such was Hindostaa to them; and colts.
nise and occupy vast countries, regions of fable, the
very existence of which it would have been deemed pre-
posterous to maintain. All this, however, has come to
pa's. The inhabitants, or descendants of the inhabitants
of the despised and rejected Britain, divide with four
other States the chief power ot Europe; by their counsel
and their arms they have subjected the most important
part of Asia to their control; in what little of civilisation
exists in Africa they have their full share; Australasia
is their own; North America they have occupied, and
are at this moment busy grouping themselves on its
western coasts, to work out a destiny which will, no
doubt, be in harmony with their previous career.
Many of us here in the British islands, and our
, contemporaries in the United States, will, if life be
I spared us for a quarter of a century, see great changes
`on the shores and in the islands of the Pacific, and iu
these changes those who use the English speech are
fated to play no unimportant part. For many years
there have been symptoms and tokens of the coming
events : _ the full colonization of Australia and New
Zealand; the occupation of various important ports in
the waters of the Pacific by the United States; our-own
war with China; the opening of Borneo by Sit. JAMS.
Brooke, and his yet greater achievement of iniateßing
the mind of Europe in the condition of the Indian Ar-
chipelago; the Oregon discussion; the war between the
United States and Mexico, which led to the cession of
California, and the almost fabulous discovery of gold in
that neglected region—all these facts are suggestive of
what is to follow. Add to them all the velocity attained
in travelling by sea or land, the glut of popula-
tion here at home, and the redundancy of capital
(the British isles contain about twenty-eight
millions of inhabitants, and discount on good
.paper
might on Thursday have been obtained in the City
at 2 per cent.), and who can doubt what must happiti
when a way is discovered to give employment to thi suf.
plus population and vent to the uneasy capital of the old
country? With regard to the United States, from
other reasons, which it would be here beside our purpose
to set out, the case is stronger than with ourselves. In
the States legions of colonists, incited by avarice or in-
stinct, are already on their way, and have deserted the
Atlantic for the Pacific Ocean. There remains but one
obstacle to keep back the current; a little strip of land
twenty miles broad—the isthmus of Panama—stands as
a dyke or barrier to this stream of enterprise. The tidte,
however, has set in, and will soon sweep awn?' ".1.111;
a hindrance as this. Projects for 'cutting through'
neck of land hare, as is well known, been afloat for
years past. The time had not come osr
wcassrryninags
them out. The passage by tie
felt to be a matter of prime necessity.
the
garret
of
now changed. The scheme has passed f
of the speculator,
the projector to the counting-house
carriedis-Ithum Tinsel are
aa
bn
Ide
an will,d
effect to the design. First*
attempt--but
there a mountain ridge
have been proposed fbsr giving
ilisthmus directly; not at the
necessary edsosua doubt,
'
pointl:o o o fee t where
highilt johhsfuingtrlii
dd
ths
the
it is proposed to crrrosowtest_
enterprise.erelone
Thresporiuntsiaspais
neleethasooden.
thepisroiheeerte tahtirttyhisthproeienmt
hillemse. Pro-
posals by a line which
es on the Atlantic with Panama on
should unite C
the Pacific'
t owing to the ridiculous requirements of
oePu:tts.eari tsAationn:cdtah'rerbrYuroute should be mentionede,rwbheicoharriheads
y could never
pointed out nearly at this point by Salomon
a French house at Panama. The rivers
th© Grenadian Government'the
'and Trinidad on the Atlantic side were to be
cabnehdeangrecos.
united by a canal of 25 miles With the river
Farfin, which flows into the Pacific—the 'total
length this way would be 50 miles, and ; the
highest point of land 33 feet. The canal was to be 160
feetinwidth, and 22 feetdeep, and to admit vessels °Mont
1,200 to 1,400 tons. There are, hoWever, different es of
opinion as to the facilities of this route, and the climate
is said to be in the highest degree prejudicial to health.
The second great route proposed is through the isthmus
of Tehuantepec, a province of Mexico. If our readers
will take a map, they will see marked on the Atlantic
side the river Coatzacoalcos. This river, which, as re-
presented on the map, pursues a course as devious as our
own Wye, is stated to be navigable in some degree for
160 miles. Where the river ceased to be navigable a
_canal SO miles in length was to be constructed,- sur-
mounting in its progress a table-laud at a place called
Tarifa. 525 feet high, and falling from Tarifa to the l'ls-
cific 660 feet. The canal was to be 20 feet deep and 122
feet wide, and required 150 locks. The cost of the scheme
was set at about three millions and a half sterling. The
third project is represented as the most feasible.
Times of Tuesday last there appeared a detailed
This lake is
of the route by the Lake of Nicaragua.the San Juan,
connected with the Atlantic by a river, 0
t 200 yards in
seclnouthnet
about a hundred miles in length, looDand a half to nine
onerapids and
and some shal- •
breadth, and with a depth of fre:romone
fathoms. The obstacles are four ,
"of fleePanyinlocg.ks,Tthhee:Laha;
lows. The rapids are to be
i lows
Nicaragua
rtaligeu
aordinaryi i
es methodlong and presents every .facility
ke is =UMW with the .calksfor navigation. This bs

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