President Arthur has sent down to the Senate for ratification
a Treaty with Nicaragua, enabling the United States Govern- ment to cut a canal through that State from Greytown, through the great lake and the San Juan, to Brito. It is calculated that as the lake and the river will help the engineers over two- thirds of the way, the expense will not exceed twenty millions sterling. The Canal is to be open, so far as the ocean-trade is concerned, to ships of all nations ; but is to be reserved, so far as coasting-trade is concerned, to Nicaragua and the United States. Moreover, the right of "eminent domain," i.e., sovereignty, and the guardianship and taxation of the Canal, are to be shared between the Government of Washington and that of Nicaragua, which is like sharing the right to dinner between a man and a lap-clog. The Canal may be most useful to the world as well as to the Union ; but the Treaty violates the Clayton-Bulwer agreement between America and Great Britain, and should have been preceded by negotiations in London. Lord Granville has already protested; and it is doubtful whether ratification will be granted, Americans being indisposed to make all treaties worthless by violently tearing- up this one. If the statesmen of the Union would legislate against dynamitards, a compromise ought to be easy.
Previous page
