The American Senate, under pressure of public opinion, has ratified
the Panama Treaty, and the engineers of the United States can now proceed. to the completion of the canal. This is, in truth,' an event of the first magnitude, as the canal will affect all commerce, and enormously enhance the value both of British and Ameri- can possessions upon the Pacific. The speed of con- struction will probably be much greater than it was whet the canal was in French hands, but the actual rate will depend at least as much upon doctors as engineers. The sanitary conditions of the isthmus must be improved or the workers of all grades will die like flies. But be the climatic and engineering difficulties what they may, the canal will now be made, and the United States will thus perform a great piece of work for the world. We most heartily congratulate the President and Mr. Hay on the patience as well as determination with which they have overcome all obstacles, but it is not pleasant to think that their anxious labour was very nearly rendered of no avail through the perverseness and vanity of a single Senator. There must be something wrong in a system which allows such a possibility.
