The American Senate has agreed to the Hay-Panncefote Treaty, subject
to an amendment by Senator Davis, which virtually insists that the United States shall have military control of the canal and a right of fortifying it. That is supposed to be directed against England, but as at present advised we fail to see that it is of much importance. In the unhappy event of a quarrel between the United States and Great Britain the battle would be fought out at sea, and the victor would undoubtedly dictate his own terms as to the canal. The vote must be most annoying to the American Government, more especially as the struggle over it showed that the owners ot the railways running to the Pacific are determined to wreck any canal project. They think it will interfere with their monopoly. In the end, however, the traders with the Far East will insist on the canal.
