Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1857-03-28
CANAL ACROSS THE rsrHMus or DAa1EN.
70 IL. Editors Of The Nationas Iniszlsqsne.z.

graph OF your valuable paper calculated though vel
know designed, with your consent to mslead the
reader.
In article entitled "Ocean routes between the At
lantic and Pacific ports of the United States compar
son is instituted between several routes ending in pre-
ference very decided of that of Tehuantepec
If this comparison be confined to the relative distances
by the various routes that have been completed from
the port of New York, of New Orleans and San Fran
cisco, the above preference is wellounded but if
commercial intercourse between the Atlantic and Pacific
ports of the United States be properly regarded the
ducons of the author of this article in your paper of
the 28th ultimo are far from being well-founded
No Improvement of the present century, fruitful it
has been of wonderful inventions and discoveries would
rebound the interest of the United States or the
commercial world in general than the union Of the At
lantc and Pacifc-than canal permitting vessels of
the largest dimensions and the greatest draught of water
to pass from to without interruption delay
and while two distinct and detached propositions this
effect duly considered by the Royal Geographical
Society of London and there made the grave subject of
debate, is somewhat remarkable that they both pass
unnoticed by the author of the above essay.
Mr.. KELLEY, of New York, has, at his own expense,
established the practicaby of opening canal nayga
ton of the required dimensions for the of the
across the Isthmus of Daren and committee of the
House of Representatives manifested, far back
1888, the practcabiy founded on unquesioned
yey of the Government of Guatemala that such canal
of but 199 miles length may be made to connect Lake
Nicaragua with San Juan del Sud- port ascer-
tanned by daily be but twelve miles ro Lake Nj
caragua Both those routes estimated by your
thor in relation to their distance from New York and
San Francisco.
Permit me, therefore, to extend very briefly the inqui
ry which your author has instituted.
Mr. Kelley whose maps and report were long since pub
shed and laid before the Geographical Society of Great
Britain proposes by of the river Atrato afford
ing for sxtyhve miles channel of forty feet depth of
water and canal already partly supplied by nature of
but sixty miles, without Intervening lock, to furnish
transit from the Atlantic to the Pacific for vessels of any
burden whatever Such the interest felt in this pro-
position by the British Government that Lord Clarendon
assured Mr. Kelley he would Immediately order survey
corroborate that of Mr. Kelley but for the then unset
tied controversy between his Government and that of
the United States.
The cross section and estimate of the Nicaragua route
from the Lake to the Pacific formed upon the facts
founded the work of British Consul long resident
in Guatemala who with the levels taken by order of the
Spanish authorities at every hundred yards of distance
very little exceeding seventeen miles, established the
practicaby of uniting the waters of the two by
route ia miles short of the distance between New
York and San Francisco the present Panama railroad
1t is presumed that engineer will question the pos
sibiity of constructing canal from Lake Nicaragua to
the Atlantic in which the river San JUAN issuing from
the lake, now disembogues its waters Nor it be
commended upon the authority of any evidence be-
fore the public that such canal cannot be extended
the dimensions proposed by the United States engineers
through the office of Col Albert their chief for the nine
teen miles of canal from the Lake to the Pacific.
1t is due to the subject which prompts the writer of
this commentary the essay in the Integencer to adj
NIT that writer in Philadelphia has made it objec
ton the Atrato route proposed by Mr. Kelley that the
i'll health of the country through which the south
ern canal would pass would its construction i'm
practicable This must of course be subject of con-
lecture rather than of actual proof and the construction
of canal of such magnitude destined for objects of
such Importance, and exposed to accident delay
from the necessity of passing series of locks should
not be lightly rejected.
But in favor of the Nicaragua route it may be plead
that it will afford shorter line of communication by
water between the Atlantic and Pacific States of our
Union by least six hundred miles, and that the incon
venisnce of eight locks each descent from the summit
multiplication the line already secured from the lake
to the Pacific while no want of water need be appre-
hended when the lake, covering two thousand square
miles of water, is regarded as their feeder.
By constructing basins of considerable extent at the
head of every descent either direction the
be united the locks may be doubled or quadrupled, if
that be found necessary, and their daily would not
reduce the levels of the feeder half inch
bash aen To he
of the lines of canal from the lake the Pacific in
estimate of the quantity of the materials to be removed
if tunnel be dispensed with the of open cut
and twenty millions of dollars may be assumed to be
that of such an excavation through limestone rock for
nine miles of the nineteen The ground is favorable
for the construction of canal extended to the harbor of
San Juan del Sud could be desired.
The passage through or by the southern extreme of
the lake is to be provided of sufficient Depth which is
proposed to be thirty feet and the valley of the river
San Juan remains be surveyed While 10 18th miles
is the measured distance of the contemplated line of
yigation from the lake to the Pacific it is proper to
mark that the road now travelled by the passengers from
the harbor of San Juan del Sud to the lake, their
way to and from San Francisco is but twelve miles
That England France and the United States could
yenieny supply funds for such work. to pr
yate capitalists sufficient motive to undertake les
strucon; cannot be doubted To all eonstitu-
tonal objections on the part of Executive it
might be called military canal, appropriately as
the contemplated railroad from the Pacific to the Mis-
sissppi has been styled military road.
BRINDLEY.
THE LAW OF NEGOTIABLE PAPER.-The New York
Evening Post refers important point in commercial
law now under discussion in that city, and says:
Al. - ND