The owners of the Panama Canal, that is, of the
concession and of the works began on the Isthmus, have apparently not lost hope of selling their rights and plant to the United States. They at first destroyed their own chances by assuming that their route was the only practicable one, and by demand- ing an excessive compensation. To this the United States promptly replied by a treaty with Nicaragua, and a proposal to construct the canal on that route even if it should cost £40,000,000 sterling. The Panama shareholders then receded' acknowledged in their meeting of Saturday last that they were at the mercy of the Union, and authorised their representative to fix a price and ratify the bargain. As Mr. Hanna, Presi- dent of the American Canal Committee, has now stated that it might be well for the States to buy the Panama works and concession if the final price to cover everything were fixed at ten millions, it is probable that the bargain will be in the end concluded, and the Panama route finally adopted. As this route is much the better for the world at large, nothing will then remain except to lament the enormous waste of French money caused by M. de Lesseps's delusion that no expendi- ture could signify in such a project, and to observe the differ- ence between the energy of American and French engineers. The work if done by either route should greatly alleviate dis- tress in the West India islands, where the unemployed regard "Panama wages" as a kind of God-send.
