The Sun.
London, England, 1869-11-08 00:00:00

TILE ISTinars CANAL.

News from Panama to the 15th of October states that
the friends of the Isthmus Canal scheme are growing
sanguine. The Legislative Assembly of the State is now in
session, and it is believed that they will instruct their
Senators and representatives at the Congress at Bogota to
vote in favour of any reasonable concessions being granted
to its projectors. The President is very anxious to have
the scheme carried out, and all who are interested in the
prosperity of the State share in his wishes.

ANOTHER POPULAR ERROR.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)

Europeans who do not understand the object the
Americans have in view in their United States of
America attribute to them a greed for territory,
such as European Powers display when they endea-
vour to annex the adjoining districts. This mistake
furnished the groundwork of a late article in the
Liverpool Albion " On the Effects of Annexations
on the United States." The Republic is there
likened to the greedy boy, who, obtaining access to
a jar of sweetmeats, grasped so large a quantity
that be could not withdraw his hand, yet would
not let go any part. The writer dwells on this greed
as surprising, considering the magnificent territory
of the Union.

" More than she can either use or properly govern, the
cry is still for more. With hundreds of miles of excellent
land still unsettled, having within her boundaries produc-
tive mines and noble rivers, convenient harbours, and
bounded in great part by that universal highway, the
ocean, giving
convenient facility for access and departure ;
yet cursed by the immoral craving to remove her neigh-
bours' landmarks."
Then he weeps, and raising his voice in sorrow, warns
the Republic against violating the moral law in
"following a course which must of necessity bring
her to the ground, and that, as she metes now to
others, even so will it be meted unto her." All
this is the expression of the error to which we allude.
Instead of craving for more territory, the United
States rather incline to regret the burden of earth
which has fallen to their lot. Instead of hundreds
of miles the writer should have said millions of
square miles of unoccupied land, embracing every
description of soil, scenery, and climate. When the
United States are represented as desirous of annex-
ing neighbouring territory, Europeans suppose they
covet it as Prussia does a slice of Denmark, or Rus-
sia to push her frontier to the Bosphorus, or France
to the Rhine ; that is, to strengthen the Treasury
by a revenue-paying soil, and increase the levy for
military purposes through an enlarged population.
This is the source of the error ; greediness being the
incentive in the European
Powers, hence it is sup-
posed that greediness is the spring which moves
the Republic. Yet there is a wide difference; for the
United States, instead of wanting more land, would
not accept such an increase as a gift; bat what they
do want, in consideration of coming generations, is to
knit the whole Continent into a link of States, hav-
ing one Federal Government, with all the blessings
and advantages flowing therefrom. The writer
of the article in the Albion is determined that it
shall not be overlooked, so he has printed it on slips,
one of which he has transmitted to us. But we
would not have noticed it, so accustomed are we to