Erour years is not a very long time to look forward, yet that is the time within which responsible contractors undertake to construct a canal across the Isthrous of Panama. Tt is all very well for people to sneer at those who advocate such undertakings, and to say that if there had been natural canal the very people who now wish to make one would wish to fill it up. There is a certain grain of truth in the statement, inasmuch as they would probably have wished to make a bridge or " tunnel, but even the authors of the remarks know that it is nob merely a wish to change the existing state of things, but a wish to give greater facilities for commerce that actuated promoters, It would be absurd to deny that the hope of gain and of renown are most powerfal factors in inducing men to devote, time and energy to such matters, but it has never been the rule with the Anglo-Saxon race to look upon either. motive as essentially bad; it is only when sordid greed or insatiable ambition make man forgetful of his duties to others that the world at large is prepared to condemn his motives. But it may be doubted if the moti to which we have alluded play as impor-tonto part assume people would have us suppose. It seems to us that it would be scarcely more absurd to ask the world to cease revolving on its axis, or to ask the tide to cense to ebb and flow, as to ask M. Ferdinand de Lesseps to rest in quietude and leave active work to younger mon. But there is no reason why we should on that account refuse him the due reward of his labours, We do not hesitate to applaud the singer because we know he has been incited to study his art by an inborn love of music, and we need not grudge renown to M. de Lesseps because we feel sure that the love of being engaged on gigantic undertakings is innate and cun only cense with his life. M, do Lesseps is not the first man who has interested himself in the Panama Canal scheme. If the Canal is ever made, there may well be scores of men who can say with some trath, had it not been for my share of the work success could never have been achieved. The old adage for the want of a until the shoe was lost; for the want of a eboe the horse was lost, for the want of a horse the rider was lost, may be founded on true principles, but no one therefore places the nail ov an equality with the rider. It is the fashion in this world to single out one man end to bestow all the honour on him. The world may not be always quite correct in ite selection. The man with the most profound belief in his own powers, and with the greatest ability in the matter of blowing his own trumpet, may sometimes rob the real worker of his prize, but this is, we believe, less the case than many people would have us imagine. The man who constantly keeps his connection with some scheme before the public is at all events familinrising them with the scheme itself, and is not unlikely fostering that public interest in the matter without which funds would be lacking and work impossible. In this part of the world, where we are accustomed to speak of the very large proportion of commerce which falls to the share of the British nation, and where it is a habit to take for granted that British interests are paramount, it is well to call to mind that the great constructor of the Suez
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.