, 1882-10-14

hands, and the Canal itself in their posses
sion, may we'll afford to forgive what, af-
ter all, are explosions of the dominant tenn
per, inpatient Of every obstacle, which
enables NJ de LessepS to carry through his
vast undertakings. He has now betaken
himself to the Panama enterprise, and he
Is just the man to carry it through He
has the energy, the experience. the com
mand of recources, and the Indifference to
life when the end is adequate to its expen-
dlture, which are essential to such a work.
Ills reported threats of " avenging himself
on the English in Panama." even If they
are more than expressions of annoyance
matter nothing at all. He has always been
loyal to his work, and he can do nothing to
hurt us, which would not also hurt the Pa
mama Canal. No individual, whatever his
genius, can seriously impede that general
tendency Of circumstances which makes one
nation or another supreme in commerce.,
and the monopoly which NJ. de LeSseps
could not secure for France with Napoleon
Ill. at his back, he certainly will not Sc
cure without him.
For the rest, NJ. de Lesseps is simply
promoting British interests, without ask
ing Great Britain to bear any portion of
the risk. If he fails, we are not hurt, for
British capital is not going in any mass
into the undertaking, and Il million or two
matters nothing while if he succeeds, our
trade will have a shorter route to the Pa
CitiC and the rich western coasts of both
Americas, and an alternative route to the
Far East, to China, Indo-China, and Aus,
tralia. 1t is most probable he will succeed.
After all it is but a ditch which must be
cut, and NJ. de LesSeps has cut an equal
one already. The accumulation Of labOur
at Panama is a matter of money, for the
1900 s.A- ~-1 IA -- -
who will do the work are not frightened
by malaria, which, again, can be allevia-
ted by precautions well understood in such
districts, and especially by the construc-
ton of sleeping barracks on the Burmese
plan, with a clear air-way beneath them.
The Panama Railway was built, and men
survive in AspinWall. Much of the work
is blasting through rock, for which the
new explosives and boring machines give
new facilities; sand as for earthquakes,
they affect the designs of men wonderfully
little. House property is not cheap in
Lisbon because Lisbon was once chucked
into the river; Lima is still a capital,
though it has so often been shattered;
and it may be "a century before an earth
quake even INJURIES the great dam, the
rupture of which would, it is said, drown
the Canal. Long before that, the Chagres
will have been turned or banked out by
works as solid as the hills, and as little
likely to be destroyed. The Canal will,
we believe, be cut; and its profit will, as
usual, go to Britain and America. 1t is
we who will provide the rapid steamers
in which the European trade with the
wealthy cities which must rise on the
Pacific shores Of the two Americas
must be conducted, we who will
develop the new trade with China, we
who will m%OnOpolise the growing com
merce with the Australian Colonies.
The Americans may be jealous, but they
do not stop trade; and even if they claim
ed and enforced the able guardianship Of
the Canal, its existence must be all gain
to Great Britain. The Canal cannot be
more American than the Mississippi, and
we do not lose, but profit by the fact that
the Mississippi exists and that cotton
can CON down it. a m0dNS UiUend5 with
the Union III regard to the watching of
the Canal will, undoubtedly, be arranged;
and there is no other foreign complica-
ton to dread, for if the Englishspeaking
peoples agree to an arrangement, all
Europe may protest without affecting the
result. What can anybody, save England
and the Union, do in Panama? That the
English may be wise in not taking shares
i'll the Canal is possible, though they lost
muchby their disbelief in the Suez scheme,
for the Union is wealthy enough to do
anything, and may, as it threatens, cut a
canal of it's own and, at all events, the
loss of possible profit is a matter of no i'm
Oortanoa Rut wa chOuIA raUrot tn 500