The Sun.
London, England, 1869-05-17 00:00:00

LONDOW, MONDAY, MAY 17, 1869.

Another grand engineering exploit has just been
accomplished. The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad,
through the territory of the United States, has very
recently been completed. Linking the two oceans
together, this enormous trunk line may take rank
with the tunnelling through Mount Cenis, with M.
LESSEPS' canal across the Isthmus of Suez, and even
it may be said, in one sense, with the submarine
cable, trailed along the bed of the Atlantic, and
bringing into instantaneous communication the New
World and the Old. While we have been talking
about a trunk line across the North American Con-
tinent, as a public work in every way most desirable,
the go-a-head Republic of the United States has
gone in and anticipated us, by doing the thing
themselves. Years ago, nearly a quarter of a
century since, we earnestly advocated, in these same
columns of 7he Sun, the project of a direct trunk
line of railway communication between ocean and
ocean, between the Atlantic and the Pacific, across
our own North American territories, across Canada
and the Red River Settlement, westwards through
the Hudson's Bay Territory to what is now known
as British Columbia, from the mouth of the
St. Lawrence to the western borders of the
mainland immediately confronting Vancouver's
Island. Subsequently to the period we are just now
alluding to, after this magnificent scheme had been
explained, and as the phrase h ventilated by the pub-
lication of a series of pamphlets, addressed by their
writer, Major ROBERT CAR3IICHAEL SMYTH, to his
friend the late Mr. Justice HALIBURTON , better known
to us all under his nom de plume of " Sam Slick"—
subsequent to the publication of Dlajor SMYTH'S
pamphlets setting forth this most alluring and cer-
tainly imperial design, a substantial volume was
issued from the press by one of the first of our
London publishing houses, a work in which the same
idea was more elaborately propounded, namely, the
construction of a direct line of railroad running east
and west through our North American provinces.
Naturally enough, the notion of a grand trunk
railway like that, uniting ocean with ocean,
bringing the European commerce, brought westward
to the Atlantic seaboard, and the Asiatic commerce,
brought eastwards to the Pacific seaboard of the
North American Continent into direct communica-
tion with each other : while it may have seemed wild,
while 'it unquestionably did seem wild to the majo-
rity of the steady-going people of this country, it
caught the fancy, it captivated the imagination of the
more enterprising, or at any rate the more daringly
enterprising people of the United States. The sug-
gestion hardly found two or three advocates here
among our London journalists—but it was caught up
with a sort of enthusiasm by the earnest politicians of
the United States. Quickly enough after the publication
of the pamphlets of Major Smv•rn and of the book of
Colonel RICHARDS, one of the Senators of the United
States, by name Mr ASA WHITNEY [it is now nearly
tent y years ago] came over amongst us to see for
himself how the idea was taking—if it was taking at
all—here in England. We remember perfectly well
discussing the matter with him almost immediately
after he arrived in London. We recollect the eager-
ness of his -demonstration of the fact of one route