The New York herald., 1870-03-20
The Tehuantcpcc Canal scheme w. the
Darion and Nicaragua Routes.

which awaits the action of that body
Whereas the commerce or the world. and more
especially that Of the Western hemisphere, renders
across the American isthmus; aud whereas the gov
eriint9t q tPe republic Of Mexico has corcs dsd TO
interoceanic communication BY means Of railway
across the Isthmus OF Tehuantepec. ana now pro-
poses to add thereto concession lor snip cauai,
Resolved. That II the President Of the United
States shall obtain the assent OF the government
authorized to detail corps OF engineers to make
survey OF the summit or tine Isthmus OF Ienuange.
summit Of said isthmus for ship canal; ana, II IT.
should 90 found on examination that there Is SUM-
clent water then survey OF the istnmus ior snip
canal shall DO made, from the Gulf OF Mexico o ne
Pacific Ocean, together with the complete plans,
proaes and estimates for the same under such regu
latl0ns and with such provisions ~ the Committee
on Foreign Relations may recommend
This resolution, we presume, has been
offered on the application Of the company con-
cerned. We apprehend, however, that no
corps Of engineers will be necessary to estab-
lsh these two points-frst, that on the summit
level Of the Tehuantepec route there is not
sufficient water to supply ship canal, and
second, that, even with sufficient water, the
length-nearly two hundred miles-of said
canal and the costs of construction and the
lockages of the route, would render the scheme
mpracticable. IF we are not mistaken these
conclusions were reached by President Bu-
chanan after o careful examination of the diff
culties Of the route for the purposes of canal.
For our part, of all the proposed American
isthmus routes for ship canal this Of Tehuan-
tepec we regard as the most impracticable and
visionary.
We entertain hope that the United States
surveying expedition recently sent out from
this port to explore the Isthmus of Darien, in
order to find out whether in that quarter there
is or is not short and feasible route for q
ship canal between the two oceans, will dis
cover the very route desired Should the
explorations of this expedition, however,
result in establishing the fact that there is no
practicable route across the Darien isthmus
for ship canal without expensive locks or
tunnels, then the favorite route of Louis
Napoleon-the Nicaragua route-will, we
have no doubt, be the route adopted.
We have before us handsomely printed
and illustrated London book, issued in 1868,
and entitled ''The Gate Of the Pacific" by
Commander Bedford Pym, R. N, in which we
find very interesting chapter devoted to the
project of a Nicaragua ship canal. Com
mander Pym prefers this route at the Pacific
gate for railroad, but he also makes strong
case for it in favor Of a canal. The reader, in
turning to the map of Nicaragua, will observe
that the continent here in direct line is not
much over hundred miles wide, but that
by the line proposed the canal will be
nearly two hundred miles in length from SEQ
to sea. He will observe, however, that the
proposed line is that of the San Juan river
Ia navigable stream for small steamboats, most
of the way), and through Lake Nicaragua
fully half the size of Lake Ontario) and
thence by q canal of some fifteen or eighteen
miles to San Juan del Sur, on the Pacific, or
the canal from Lake Nicaragua may be con-
tinued northward up the connecting river to
Lake Managua (another fine body of fresh
water) and thence across to Port Realejo, on
the Pacific. In pamphlet written in 1847
Louis Napolean says of a ship canal by this
route, and referring to Massaya, thrifty
town between Lakes Nicaragua and Managua,
that s'as Constantinople is the centre of the
ancient world, 80 is the town of Leon, or
rather Massaya, the centre of the new, and
if the tongue Of land which separates its two
lakes from the Pacific Ocean (ifteen miles)
were cut through she would command, by her
central position, the entire coasts of North and
South America. The State of Mica
ragua can become, better than Constantinople,
the necessary route for the great commerce Of
the world for it is to the United States the
shortest route to China, and for England and
the rest of Europe to New Holland, Austria
tralia, Polynesia and the whole western coast
of America"
This is Louis Napoleon's opinion. This
Nicaragua can be made by dams and locks in
the San Juan river. Commander Pym esti-
mates the cost of the canal from sea to sea, in
cluding regular canal along the bank Of the
San Juan up to the lake, at four million five
hundred thousand pounds, or say twenty-five
million FIVE hundred thousand dollars. Com
mander Vanderbilt has proved on this Nicara-
qua route that with only the fifteen miles from
Lake Nicaragua or Managua to the Pacific cut
through with ship canal Louis Napoleon's
opinion of this route would soon be confirmed.
We say, then, that should it appear that
there is across the Darien isthmus no availa-
BILE route for ship canal the Nicaragua
route will be the route adopted, and in the
saving Of six or seven hundred piles both
ways over the Darien route this shorter line,
in any event, will perhaps be the ultimate
route for the United States.
PRINCE PIERRE BoNAPARTE's TRIAL.-Prince
Pierre Bonaparte will be placed on trial to-mor-
row, before the High Court of Justice Of
France, under indictment charging him with
the homicide of the late M. Victor Noir. By