19 SEPTEMBER 1846, Page 13

THE PANAMA CANAL

THB feasibility of cutting through the neck of land that unites the two continents of America, has been affirmed, well nigh, till all men doubt it. A project so long talked of, and only talked of, has come at last to be generally regarded in the light of an idle speculation not worth the notice of practical men. This scepticism is very natural, but it is certainly erroneous. The thing will be done, and done probably at no distant day. Why should we doubt this when we have seen achievements of greater apparent difficulty accomplished within the last quarter of a century I Our age, of which it has been said and sung in jeremiades without number, that it is prosaic, material, unimaginative, and so forth, is at least remarkable for the boldness with which it subdues the unem bodied imaginings of its predecessors to the domain of palpable reality. To wage obstinate war against all obstacles of time and space appears to be the peculiar bent of our generation ; and instead of supposing that human enterprise will submit, as it has done for the last three hundred years, to be thwarted by the narrow barrier that separates the Atlantic from the Pacific, we should rather see in the long past duration of the evil so much the more reason for its speedy extinction. It is a thousand years since Charlemagne planned a line of canal between the Main and the Danube, so as to effect a continuous inland navigation through the heart of Europe from the German Ocean to the Black Sea. That work was finished a few months ago : it had been talked about for a thousand years ; often sneered at as a visionary scheme; nay, proved by learned arguments in our day to be im- practicable: twelve years sufficed for its completion.

Last week, the Monitcur announced the success of a Com- missioner who had been deputed by "The French and English Com- pany of the Isthmus of Panama" to treat with the Government of New Grenada for the construction of a railway across the isthmus. The conditions of the contract hive been discussed between the company's agent and a Commissioner ad hoc appointed by the President of the Republic ; and a preliminary agreement duly sinned by the Grenadan Commissioner has been officially commu- nicated to the company.

A railroad, or even a good common road, across the Isthmus of Panama would be a valuable boon to the country through which it passed, and would not be devoid of utility to commerce; but it would be immeasurably inferior in importance to a ship-canal between the two oceans, and would by no means supersede the necessity for that grand highway for the navigation of the world. It is another question, whether a railway in Panama would pay ; and th;s, we think, may at least be doubted. It would be chiefly useful in expediting the transit of mails and passengers ; but so limited a traffic, taking place only once a month, would surely not suffice to defray the cost of maintaining the railway all the year round. What is wanted is a maritime channel, which should enable merchant-vessels of the largest class to avoid the expense, danger, and loss of time, incident to doubling Cape Horn, and to pass from ocean to ocean without discharging their cargoes, or being delayed more than two or three days in the isthmus. Anything short of this—any means of communication which should render transshipments necessary—would be quite nugatory as regards the main interests of commerce, whatever might be the secondary advantages resulting from it. It would be fortunate if such a canal as we have described could be cut through the Isthmus of Panama (proper), which is but forty-one miles wide; but the impossibility of doing this has been fully proved by M. Garella, an engineer who surveyed the isthmus by order of the French Government, and the result of whose investigations was published in the Journal des Dhbats on the 15th of January 1840. To say nothing of the want of suffi- cient harbours at either end of the canal in this locality, a tunnel would be requisite, capable of giving passage to ships of 1,200 tons burden with their lower masts standing. It would have to be cut through a solid porphyry rock ; its dimensions would be about eight times those of the Box tunnel ; and the cost of exca- vating it, estimated by M. Garella at two millions sterling, would probably not fall far short of five times that amount. Scarcely a doubt remains that the most eligible locality for the proposed work is in the isthmus of Tehuantepec, in the Mexican territory. It is true the land is much wider here than at points farther South, but it presents, in the tableland of Tarifa, the only gap as yet discovered in the granite chain that extends from Behring's Straits to Tierra del Fuego. The total breadth of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec is 140 miles ; but the greater part of this space is occupied on the South by lagoons, which could easily be converted into a commodious harbour, and on the North by the Coatzacoalcos, a river of great volume, admitting the largest vessels at all seasons to a distance of thirty-five miles from its mouth, (lat. 18° 8' N.,) and capable of being made navigable twenty-live miles further. The canal to be excavated would therefore be but fifty miles long. The highest point to be surmounted is 200 metres (218 yards) above the level of the Pacific, and 100 metres above the Atlantic ; the ascent and descent would be effected by means' of 150 locks. Water for feeding the canal can be had in abun- dance at the summit level. The Mexican Government has as- signed to the projector of the canal, Don Jose de Garay, the fee- simple of nearly five millions of acres in the isthmus, together with the privilege of establishing colonies over a breadth of fifty leagues on either side of the canal.* The foreign colonists are to enjoy all requisite immunities, and even the right of working the virgin mines which are known to exist beneath the surface. The isthmus possesses a fine salubrious climate, and in many places a most fruitful soil. Timber for ship.building, dyewood, mahogany, and other tine-grained trees, are to be had in profusion in the fa rests of the Coatzacoalcos. The supply of animal food is inex- haustible; and nature has neglected nothing that could mark out this region as one of the most eligible for colonization on the face of the globe. Hence arises one of the most striking advantages which the scheme we have been considering possesses over all its rivals. It would not be necessary to encounter at once the risk and cost of excavating the canal. All that is requisite in the first instance is to transport to the spot an industrious and well-dis- ciplined population, who, after completing a temporary com- munication between the two oceans, would develop the immense resources of the country, and draw from them the means of com- pleting the grand design. There are political circumstances, to which we cannot for the present do more than allude, but which call for the establishment in Tehuantepec of a well-organized colony under the protection of England and France, as a matter of vital importance to Mexico, and of proportionate interest to her allies.

• See "An Account of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, in the Republic of Mexico; with Proposals fir e,tablishing a Communication between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, based upon the Survey and Reports of a Scientific Commission appointed by the Projector, Dun JoA de Garay." London: 1846.