We are delighted to think that the Times has not
only ceased to oppose the only rational solution of the canal problem, but is evidently going to throw its great inftu• ence on the side' of a sensible solution. When once the canal is made by the United States, opened to the whole world on equal terms, and held so strongly that no Power at war with Great Britain will be able to violate its neutrality, the nation will realise that instead of the abrogation of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty proving an injury, it is a great benefit. The notion that America, though she will make, work, and hold the canal, should bind herself to preserve its neutrality as regards a Power. with which she is at war is absurd. Such a stipulation Would not, and could not, be observed for ten minutes after war had been declared. An American Isthmian Canal, like everything else American, will be used against America's enemies in case of war. Whatever the jurists may say, we should do the same in the case of the Suez Canal.
