As at the beginning of the world's history.so in these latter days the prominent figure seems destined to be the engineer. In China we can never forget that almost the earliest hero is the energetic sovereign who " by pradence and labours moved the spirits," and who found, as the celebrated inscription says, "the mountains Hwa, Yoh, Tai and Hing to be the beginning and end of his enterprise." What Vu was to this land in the dim ages of hoar antiquity, Lesseps is to the world in the present day. The attention of the public is now being called to the second great enterprise of the proposer and executor of the Suez Canal. A very important letter in the Times, from a special correspondent in South America, tells how the case stands with regard to this new undertaking. It is now admitted that a canal answering all the purposes of inter-oceanic navigation without locks and without tunnel is practicable, It will take ten years to cut, and the cost will not be less than £40,000,000 sterling. It will probably be much more. A cutting through hard solid rock at a point on the crest of the Isthmus 180 ft. above the level of the sea, and two breakwaters in the Bay of Colon and in that of Panama, will swell the engineers' bill to considerable extent. The difficulties in fact are enormous, but as the necessity of the work is admitted, and as the opposition from the Isthmus Railway Company will, it seems probable, diminish as they see their way to an identification of their interests with those of the Canal Company, Lesseps may yet carry out his project. The only drawback seems to be the age of the engineer. He is now in his seventy-fourth year, and it seems hardly possible that he will be able to bring such an arduous undertaking to a conclusion even if his life were spared for ten or a dozen more years, The wear and tear of mind on the master spirit who has the responsibility of such an undertaking must be stupendous and overwhelming, and a man in the prime of life might be pardoned for pausing before embarking in such a gigantic task. But the man who in 1856 sketched the plan for piercing the Isthmus of Suez in all its details, and who lived to carry it out in spite of the sinister prophecies of some of the ablest of his professional rivale, may at least make a beginning, if ho does not survive, "to complete the work of Columbus." "It is true," we are reminded, "that Lesseps is no longer backed by the power of his Imperial relative and by his influence on the aspiring influence of the French people; but an appeal of Lesseps cannot fail to stir up the energies and call forth the resources of all nations and of their Governments; and one would indeed have to despair of the influence of diplomacy and of the Press through. out the world were want of funds to stand inthe way of an achievement by which man would make the most decisive and the last step towards the assertion of his power over the earth, his appointed abode."
There is a preliminary question of considerable importance, and one which has naturally in these days of delicate and vigilant international relations been discussed and weighed. To whom will the control of the Canal belong when it is made? It is ruled distinctly at Washington that it will fall instantly and of course under the control of the United States. This doctrine cannot of course be entertained for a moment if foreign capital is embarked in the enterprise; if the American people will pay the money they will obtain a right to watch over the inter-oceanic channel just as by buying tae shares Great Britain obtained a preponderating influence over the Suez Canal. Such an influence is legitimate and we hope it may be obtained, but the European Powers must have definite and not impossible claims brought forward by the United States. There are many reasons why we hope Ametica may find the funds, for we cannot help feeling some apprehension lest English capitalists and investors should tarn their attention to the scheme propounded with so much plausibility and magnificence of language, and neglect an enterprise which seems to us to lie more within the limits of practical achievement—we mean the Euphrates Valley Railway. OF course there is no reason why money should not be found for both schemes, but to us the importance of the railway appears enormous. That Ur of the Chaldees, the old route which the Phosnicians travelled is, we conceive, destined to be the channel of commerce between England and India, and we should like to see money, enterprise and ardour devoted to this scheme. It 8 perhaps idle to utter the reflection, but we cannot help making it, that if the money wasted on armaments, or as Lord Derby calls it, "on keeping up our insurances," were employed in a sensible direction the Canal and the Railway would both be very soon accomplished facts.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.