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Manawatu Herald, Volume II, Issue 38, 6 January 1880, Page 2

M. LBSSEPb' SCHEMES. M. de Lesseps (says the Leader) having ma<le a failure of his crusade in favor of the Panama oannl, and having returned the money he had collected, is now devoting all his attention to the promotion of a railway across the Sahara, frcm somewhere in Algeria to anywhere in the interior of Africa. This, like all the rest of his recent schemes, is met at the outset with the previous question — will it pay? It is true that tj^i*^should be answered in a liberal spirit and, that all advantages, of which the pecuniary is only one, should be taken into consideration. M. de | Lesseps should stick to ctnals, and if he could carry one across the desett, he would be a benefactor indeed. If he could turn the ; Niger or Joliba northward, he might make the scheme appear feasible. Now he has thrown up the Panama scheme, there is a chance of the Nicaraguan canal being taken up earnestly by practical men. M. de Lesseps is an energetic agitator, but even his own countrymen have lust faith in him a? a guide. Commander Lull, of the United States Navy, recently read, a paper before the American Science Association, ia which he gives his preference to the Nicaragua- route, and expresses his opinion that even tin he Panama scheme, locks would be found to he indispensable. The Paris convention never had any but self-assumed powers, and its decision was that of a packed jury, or perhaps it would be more polite to say that it was that of a grand jury, which goes upon exparte evidence, previous to the full tiial before an impartial jury possessed of full powers to sift .. the evidence on all sides. 4