Morning journal and courier., 1880-01-15
Thursday Morning, Jan. 15, 1880.
THE FRENCH CANAL SCHEME.


 The delay of the Government in taking action concerning the canal which M. de Les seps proposes to construct across the Isthmas of Panama seems very unwise. From the first no disposition to give the United States their proper share in the affair has been shown. Indeed, the wishes and interests of the people of this country have been set at defiance, and De Lesseps has proceeded in his scheme in manner which has shown pretty plainly that he knows he can rely upon the French Gov ernment for support. As our interests in this canal are greater than those of any European country, it would seem that some decisive move for their protection should be made, and that, too, soon.
 Mir. Dichman, the United States minister to Colombia, has sent some dispatches to the State department in which he shows how the interests of the United States are menaced by De Lesseps' scheme, as it is now being carried out. Mr. Dichman urges that the canal, al- though styled international, will be French in all essentials save the contribution of mon ey, and that the company must have domi- cile somewhere, and must be subject to the jurisdiction of some government. He also suggests that apart from the political ques- hons involved, the commerce of the United States must needs be put at disadvantage if the management of an inter-oceanic canal is in the hands of European company. Diff ferences that should arise between such company and the shipping using the canal would have to be adjusted, as things stand, either at Bogota or by European courts, and in either case the difficulties arising from dis tance would amount to a practical denial of justice for American shipowners or masters. Our minister ends his last dispatch by saying | that t'the more this subject of the construc- ton of an inter-oceanic canal is examined the more it becomes apparent that the Govern ment of the United States cannot view with indifference the construction and management thereof by European government or by 8 company subject to the jurisdiction of such government"
 The New York Evening Post in powerful article stating the situation and the need for immediate and decisive action by our Gov ernment, takes look ahead and sees very grave danger involved in inaction at this time. It says: ''The meaning of the Cana of Ohagres' is simply the secession, sooner or later, of the State of Panama from the United States of Colombia, and the establishment of French protecorate over what will speedily become in substance a French colony. The French, in that case, by holding Chagres and Panama, each of which would be more i'm portant to the two contiguous oceans than Gibraltar is to the Mediterranean, would hold the keys of half the commerce of the world, and would speedily assume position of mari time influence that must overshadow that of either of the present great commercial pow CTS. By this means the exploded dream of Napoleon III. for the re- establishment on this continent in Mexico of the French power ! that was expelled from North America hun- dred years ago might be realized, and another Maximilian be set up to lord it in time and for the aggrandizement of France from the Cor dilleras to the Antilles" Stranger things than this would be have happened, and it behooves 1 the people of the United States to make it impossible.