The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-10 00:00:00

Lapis, and that the EMPEROR "is determined that
it shall take cognisance of other questions than

:coned. Is it always to be thus with the notion
of the Darien Canal, the Ship Canal across the
isthmus of Panama ? We cannot believe so. In
spite of so many failures, of so many futile efforts,
of so many egregious, and painful, and reiterated
disappointments, we cannot induce ourselves to
arrive at this monstrous conclusion. We cannot
believe that now, in the middle of this nineteenth
century, with the Giant Power of Steam .at our
command as entirely as over the Genii of the Ara-
bian Tales were at the mandate of the Eastern
Magicians—with Railways threading the earth,
and Screw-ships ploughing the ocean, and the
Sunbeam our portrait-painter, and the Lightning
our messenger, flying over mountains, to and fro
across seas and continents with the rapidity
of thought we cannot, in the midst of
the throng of these many wonders, conceive the
idea that human daring, and human genius, and
human skill can be baffled by thirty-five miles'

being cheaper than its rival to a large amount,
furnishing is better entrance, and removing a
fruitful source of disease and crime, have un-
doubtedly much weight. On the other hand,
double distance is likely to be a heavy drawback
with commercial men and others, pressed for time.
The narrowness of York-road goes for no more
than the narrowness of Stamford-street—both
can be widened—York-road very easily.

tho3e relating to the East." It would, then; seem
that the points relating to Bolgrad and the Isle
of Serpents are but specious pretexts to put the
machinery in motion, by which other important

results may be accomplished.
We confess that we cannot anticipate any bene- '
ficial consequences from the deliberations of the
Congress. We cannot forget that the liberty of
the Belgian Press was assailed by Count WALEWSKI
at the supplemental sittings in April, after the
tt:rms of the Treaty had been finally settled ; and,
considering the recent onslaught of the lifoniteur
on English journalism, it is by no means impos-

In balancing the claims of the two plans, the
points for cousidera.tion are which of them best
carries out tho main objects contemplated in the
construction of the new line of street, and which-
ever it is, does the rival plan offer advantages
which would warrant its being preferred, notwith-
standing its deviation from the original design.
There is still time for investigation, and it is to
be hoped it will be wisely employed, so that the
opposition to be made to the plan of the Metro-
politan Board may carry with it more weight
before a Committee of the House of Commons
than that brought before Sir BENJAMIN HALL.
For our own part, we are reluctant to commit our-
selves to a recommendation of the new
plan until we know more about it. And
this, notwithstanding, one or two of its dis-
tinguishing features have been recoil"-
mended, if available, for adoption in these
columns. One thing must be the subject of com-
mon agreement--the Metropolitan Board by its
trifling with the important business confided to
it has been the occasion of great risk to the suc-
cessful accomplishment of an important, long
needed, and universally called for improvement.

sible that the attack may be renewed, but that

this time, it will be directed against England. We

trust that this may not be the case—that Louis
NAPOLEON 16 too well acquainted with England

and the English to venture on so reckless a course.

engineering !
The subject of this Darien Canal has been recalled
V) the popular recollection, it will be remarked, by
a statement published in another part of The
San, of this evening—a statement as plain-spoken
and straightforward as statement could well be,
emanating from the hand of Dr. Wm. MAC-
DERMOT; recently acting as a Surgeon of the
Royal Navy on board her Majesty's ship Espiegle,
during the last Darien expedition. That expedi-
tion, it will be but too well remembered, was to
all intents and purposes a total failure. Nothing
came of it. It in fact " died without a sign"—
without the ghost of a Report from any
one of the Engineers engaged in the under-
taking. All that we know about it, indeed, is
through Captain PRETOST'S paper on the subject,
published in 1855 in the Journal of the Royal
Geographical Society ; and through a pamphlet
penned by Dr. CULLEN on the subject of what he
calls point blank, in the very title of his brochure,
" The Mismanaged Darien Expedition." Three
years have elapsed since this unfortunate Expedi-
tion was sent out by the combined authority of the
British, French, and American Governments.
And at length in the December of 1856 we learn,
thanks to Dr. WDERMOTT, what little good is
really after all derivable from the scheme sot on
foot in the December of 1453 ! Namely,
that the project is really and truly, in
spite of all that has been said about it,
just the reverse of an impossibility. Here,
briefly and simple, are the facts, the nine
solid and incontrovertible facts, established in
regard to the Plan of a Darien Ship Canal from
the Atlantic to the Pacific—the nine plain and
forcible facts thus sententiously enumerated by
the. Surgeon of H.M.S. the Espiegle ,
1. The harbours on both costs are admirably adapted
for termini of a grand ship canal.
2. The Savana, River is quite free from obstructions,
and is navigable to the mouth of the Lara.
3. From the junction of the Lara with the Savana to
the Chuquanaqua, opposite the mouth in the Sucubti,
distance of 12 miles, the country is of such a character
ai to present no engineering difficulties, nor, for that
distance, would any deep cutting be required in the con-
struction of a canal.
4. The next stage, from the Chuquanaqua to the
confluence of the rivers Asnati and Sucubti, a distance
of 9 miles, the country is of the same character.
5. From the confluence of the Asnati and Sucubti for
the next 6 miles, to the little Indian hamlet of SucuOti,
there is no difficulty to be surmounted.
For the next 3 miles the land gradually rises from
120 feet to an elevation of 420 feet.
7. In the next 3 miles, in the direction of the Atlantic,
the ground rises into a peak 930 feet high, so that here a
tunnel would be required.
8. From the foot of this peak to the Atlantic seaboard
—a distance of only two milea, the ground is very low,
and presents no difficulty whatever.
9. The whole length of the canal to be cut would be
35 miles.

Should he, however, be so greatly misled, it will
be the most impolitic act of his reign. Highly
as we prize the French alliance, we should not for
a moment dream of purchasing its continuance at
such a price. There is no English institution
more highly venerated by all classes of the people
than that of a free and unshackled Press. To
its vigorous and .independent action the nation is
indebted for the abatement of many social and
political nuisances, and the attainment of innu-
merable benefits. It is the great Reformer, in
whose columns grievances are unsparingly exposed,
and plans for amelioration indicated and freely
discussed. There may be differences of opinion
amongst its members, but, with few exceptions,
all endeavour to advance the public welfare to the
best of their ability. Indeed these very differ-
elates conduce more than anything to its para-
mount utility. Were it not for " her MAJESTY'S
Opposition" the debates in Parliament would
possess very little interest. A strong Opposition
is of essential service to the nation. In like manner
truth is elicited by the collision of journals of every
.._•hade and variety of political opinion, and the inte-
rests of the people' are vigilantly watched over, and
guaranteed by faithful and indefatigable formali-
ties. No matter, then, how distasteful their inde-
pendence may be to continental despots. The
English Government cannot, and the English
people will not, join in any crusade against the
privileges and independence of the Fourth Estate.
It was at these supplemental sittings also that
the rights which insured the maritime supremacy
of England, for which NELSON declared that
England would expend her last man and her last
shilling, were wantonly and gratuitously sur-
rendered. At the time that this most important
alteration was effected without the assent of Par-
liament) or even without the slightest hint being
given respecting the intention, we earnestly and
emphatically protested against it. Mature considera-
tion has confirmed our original views, and added in
no trifling degree to the objections which we con-
tcientiously entertain to the renewal of the Con-
gress, from which England may sustain serious
injury, but not the slightest advantage, present
)r prospective. We unhesitatingly declare that
no alterations of international law can be effected
in the name of Great Britain without the assent-
of its Parliament. The attempt may be made.
there aro powerful influences in operation that
may seek to frame our English institutions on
German models ; but any movement in that
direction will meet with the most strenuous and,
we hope and believe, successful opposition, both
in Parliament and throughout the length and
breadth of the land.

We rejoice to and that the public mind is
thoroughly excited respecting the iniquitous In-
come Tax, and that there is every prospect of a
vigorous and energetic agitation being inaugu-.
rated for its immediate reduction and more
equitable apportionment. A requisition has been
presented to the High. Bailiff of Southwark,
who has, in consequence, appointed a public
meeting of the inhabitants, to be held at the Town
Hall, at one o'clock to-morrow, for the purpose of
taking the important matter into consideration.
We trust that the attendance will be worthy of
the cause, and that the parties may display the
energy and determination that must insure a suc-
cessful termination to their labours. The inhabitants
of Wolverhampton, Brighton, and Reading, arc al-
ready in the field; and we hope the salutary example
may be followed in every district. Let every man
co-operate to the best of his abilities. Many
willing hearts make light work, and any man who
keeps aloof from the movement will only have
himself to blame for any annoyance or inconve-
nience to which he may hereafter be subjected.

Let no one for a moment suppose that he w
be permanently exempted from its operation
The area of taxation has already been extended
so as to bring persons earning 1001. per annum,
or 11. 18s. 6d., within the charmed circle, and they
may rest assured that unless timely efforts be made
to avert the danger, operatives receiving a single
sovereign per week will be rendered liable.
Ominous and significant hints have already been
heard respecting the propriety of abolishing all
exemptions, and the same principle that charges
at the same rate all moneys, without reference to
the sources from whence they may be derived,
would not merely justify the change,
but render it imperative that every
man not in the receipt of parochial relief should
contribute, not according to his ability—to that
there could be no reasonable objection—but ac-
cording to his gross receipts.
It is not, then, a, matter which affects the
middle classes merely. Every man who earns
his daily bread by his daily labour is, or will
speedily, be interested in the question. During
the wars at the beginning of the century
the recipients of 601. per annum were charged,
and it is by no means improbable that an effort will
ere long be made to restore, perhaps to extend,
the old system. As we have 'already said we
can never hope to get rid of the impost. The
strongest efforts should therefore be made to
render it equitable. Accumulated and realised
property is fairly liable, and any man who has
even a single 1001. iu the 3 per Cents., an acre
of land, or a house of his own, could not complain
at contributing his quota. Nor should unproduc-
tive property escape. If a man chooses to indulge
in articles of luxury, rich furniture, rare
pietures, or valuable bijouterie, he should
pay fur their enjoyment ; but industry should
go free, and those who are now crippled by
the charge might speedily set aside something as
a beginning that would lay the foundation of
future prosperity. It is absurd to say that a
man would sooner squander than save his earn-
ings in order to avoid the liability. Any person
that would put forward such an excuse would
expend his money on selfish enjoyments, no
matter how great might be the inducement to act
otherwise. Let the impost be equitably appor-
tioned, and it will be fairly and honestly re-
sponded to. That which leads to so much de-
moralisation, and what is called " dishonesty,"
would be avoided. It is a natural result that
those who consider themselves unfairly treated
will endeavour to evade a law that consecrates
injustice and sanctions a virtual robbery by its
authority.

- So—after all—about the only single diffi-
eu4y required to be vanquished by the united
skill of the Engineers of England, France,
and. the United States is the excava-
tion of a tunnel of three miles ! As Bailie
NICOL JARVIE quoth in Rob Roy—" Ma con-
science !" As Dominie SAMPSON bath it in Guy
Mannering—" Pro-digious !" Three miles ? Ono
would think it must at least be a difficulty
of three thousand, when the English, French,
and American engineers of the nineteenth
century thus fling down in despair their pencils,
papers, chains, compasses, and theodolites !
Three miles baffle the genius and the ingenuity
which have hitherto set at defiance almost every
obstacle presented to them in the construction of
railways and canals in the four continents ? Three
miles? Why, even the " seven miles" Slough of
Despond between Balaklava and Sebastopol were
nothing to these " three miles" of Panama Tun-
nelling. The thing must be done ! Nay—it \nu.
be done, as assuredly as ever COLUMBUS made the
egg stand upright, to the chagrin and the absolute
shame of his Deriders !

We scarcely anticipate any benefit, even so far 1
is the affairs of Italy, and more especially of
Naples, are concerned. It is for the Western
!owers to act rather than to discuss these matters.
They have already taken a decided step, and it is
lnly to be regretted that it has not been more
;netptically followed up. There has been an
tmentc in Sicily, but there is no authentic infor-
mation as to the particulars, and it is by no
means improbable that its origin may even-
tually be traced to the Police. There has also
been an alleged attempt to assassinate the
The accounts differ ; some declaring that a soldier
tired at and wounded him, and others that he re-
leivecl a trifling bayonet wound. Whatever may
be the real facts of the case, we are convinced
that the matter had no political signification.
Crue patriots would not damage their causti by
;uch a proceeding, which must be condemned by
vdry, right-minded man, no matter how great
might have been the provocation.

The engineering genius of one of the grand old
1-reek Sculptors—don't we all of us remember
,hat beautiful fAiry-legend of antiquity ?—seri-

;iusly entertained th© notion of carving Mount

The plan for the new street through Southwark
adopted by the Metropolitan Board, and good-
naturedly sanctioned by Sir BENJAMIN HALL,
would appear to be in perfect keeping with the

Athos into a Statue of ALEXANDER the GREAT—a
Colossus bearing tip in one hand a Glorious City,
►nd in the other a Mighty Urn, out of the mouth
of which a River was to pour forth its tributary
tlood into the waters of the Archipelago. A mag-
aificent day-dream of artistic skill never of course
realised. Only suggested—but still suggested, as
the classic annals relate, and as we have already ,
observed, seriously and deliberately ! Standing
as we do, so to speak, in the visible and tangible
presence of the many Wonders not merely talked
about, but actually and literally accomplished by
Antiquity—there is, we maintain, no room left
for Modern Times to sneer a superficial and in-
credulous
sneer of derision even at such a propo-
position as this one of carving out of the dcedal
rock a positive Man-Mountain ! The Pyramids
alone tend to impart a certain reasonableness to
such an otherwise preposterously extravagant
Conception. To say nothing of such superb
realities as Ta.dmor and Palmyra, and the Colossus
at Rhodes, and the Hanging Gardens at Babylon,
and the like astonishing achievements. Accepting

Board itself—in other words, by no means the
best to be had. The deputation who waited yes-
terday on the Chief Commissioner of Works, on
behalf of a meeting of the ratepayers of the
borough of Southwark, not only objected to it,
but offered a plan of their own, the superiority of
which, in some particulars, according to their
statement, is obvious. In the first place, it is
described as more direct. In the second, as
1 costing 57,0001. less than the plan of the Metro-

..., _
politan Board. In the third, as necessitating the
removal of property which, so far from being
valuable, is a burden on the ratepayers, being a
hotbed of disease, pauperism, and crime ; in proof

of the first of which allegations, the fact of its
having been the first place where cholera broke
out is adduced. In the fourth place, a more
noble and convenient entrance into the High-
street can bo provided by it, whereby the 'danger
of stoppages to traffic incident to the rival plan
would be obviated. Fifthly, it would be a suc-
cess in the particular of being of uniform width,
while the plan adopted by the Board would prove
a failure, owing to its continuance through Stam-
ford street, which is only 30 feet in width from
kerb to kerb.

the notion about Mount Athos, however, simply
as a Proposition--still thero it is, upon record,
that the Proposition was made to A_LEXANDER, the
GREAT some three centuries before the beginning
of the epoch of Christianity.
Yet nearly two thousand years after the com-
mencement of the Christian era—in an age of

How are these allegations supported ? During
the interview it was elicited or represented by
Sir BENJA3IIN HALL that the plan thus recom-
mended by the deputation involved a line of
street of double the length of that contemplated
by the Metropolitan Board, the inference
being it could not cost less. The difference in
the value of the property ou the two lines must,
however, be taken into account, so that of two
of the allegations one only is seriously invali-
dated. The pestilent character of the property--1
moral and physical—was not disputed ; neither
was the superiority of the rate-payers' plan in re-
lation to the entrance in Southwark, which it
proposes ; while as to the last allegation we have
0.% a set off, the admission that the plan offered
by the Deputation is open to a similar Nobjection,
tb ie line of street being continued through the
na ,rrow York-road !
Before proceeding to a verdict on the merits of
the se rival plans the reader will be disposed to
i nq. uirfa—ls there no alternative ? Cannot a
1 peticer than either be provided ? We are not at
t his moment in a position to say positively there
c an ; but we hope so. The temptations offered
b, 5, the plan submitted by the ratepayers, viz.,

scientific marvels, of the like of which the earth 11
had never had any previous record whatever—
can it be supposed that it will really have to be
related that the Engineering Genius of the most
civilised races upon the surface of the globe con-
fessed. itself baffled by the notion of cutting et
mid thirty.five
miles in length ? A canal long
looked for, often suggested, almost despaired of
nowadays !
A ship canal connecting the Atlantic
with the Pacific, by spanning
the narrow isthmus
variously known as the isthmus of Darien or
Panama ! Judging from our experience--Yes.
Judging from our aspirations—No. The former
would almost lead us to suppose that the idea is
simply ridiculous. The latter induces us, on the
contrary, to cherish a more earnest conviction
than ever that the thing is indeed after all quite

practicable.'
This favourite day-dream of ours, has, been
__a
hobby with Jolot Btu, ever since the days of
WILLIAM PATTERSON, the Founder of the Bank
of England. It has been mooted again and again,
but each time, as yet, unfortunately, it has been
examined into and pondered over anew only to
be once more perversely and provokingly aban-

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY _EVENING, DEC M 41 O, 1856

the Minister of Foreign Affairs, under date of Sept. 19,
an official note, reiterating a request for the convocation
of a Conference, consisting of the representatives of all,
the contracting Powers.
" Agreeing to this request the Minister of Foreign
Affairs inthe name of liia Government, has invited the
other Cabinets to decide by common accord all the
points which have hitherto remained in suspense.
" So as to give to this diplomatic meeting the cha-
racter and the merit of a final solution of all the questions
in dispute, Count Walewski asked_ Baron Brunow
whether the Court of Russia, participating in this deli-
beration, was decided to abide by a majority of ectes.
"To this question, transmitted by telegraph to St.
Petersburg, the Imperial Cabinet sent back an imme-
diate reply in the affirmative."
The Memorandum concludes by expressing the
hope that these two points of minor importance of
detail will be satisfactorily settled.