THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 681, 11 February 1852, Page 4

THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA.

[From the Times, August 29, 1851.] A very astonishing announcement appeared in our columns yesterday. It is gravely proposed to unite the capital of the British empire by an iron band with Calcutta, in order that the distance between the two places may be accomplished within the week. On Monday morning a man may shave in the midst of a London fog, with the quicksilver in the thermometer nowhere. On the following Monday night he may be languidly stripping for a cold bath in Calcutta, his limbs relaxed with beat, and with the quicksil er where you will. To-day we would call attention, not to the promise, but to the accomplishment, of another task somewhat similar in character, which has been discussed, taken up, and abandoned over and over again any time during the last two centuries. Who has not heard of project after project for joining the two great oceans of the world by cutting through the Isthmus of Panama ? The distance to be accomplished was realiv >;> trill, i'\ the advantages to commerce s > e.iu.mou , tae territory through which the path must be cut in the hands of so power!, ss a people, that nothing but natural obstacles of the nmst impracticable character should have arrested the progress of so important a project. Accordingly, we heard of vast blocks of rock, of rapid torrents rather than rivers, descending suddenly into absolute cascades—of a tract of country so dangerous to life that no man attempted to make it bis permitt int baiia. tion, and even passing truveileis were struck down by the unseen influences of the pestilential air. Any calm spectator cf the earth and its concerns would have said a priori, that it was more important to the human race to have an accurate survey of that narrow neck of land which parts the Pacific from the Atlantic Ocean than any other given spot upon the surface of the globe. This was no mere national concern. The element of locality did not enter into the calculation. It was a problem, the solution of which was as important to the Chinaman as to the Sheffield dealer in hardware; and yet, until the last few months, what has been accomplished ? The few projectors who have directed their attention to the question have done little more than present us with an exaggerated statement of fanciful difficulties which had no existence but in their own apprehensions. We have bad from time to time laid before us elaborate comparisons of the advantages and disadvantages of rival schemes. They all came recommended by pretensions to accurate research, and to a careful estimate of the practical difficulties of the case. The projectors, however, were good at nothing but projects, and those who should have carried their plans into effect offered objections, and withheld their aid. The most visionary of these propositions would have afforded reasons for triumph as compared with absolute neglect, and yet nothing was done. Who could have supposed that the difficulty to be overcome resolved itself into a pleasant steam trip through a lovely country, which may be accomplished in about twenty-four hours when the machinery shall have been set fully in motion ? Such, however, is the simple truth.

It is by the way of Lake Nicaragua task has at length been accomplished, p us follow the passengers by the steam-' 1 • the Pacific— on their way from San Frantf" to New Y'otk, and we shall see what wild' 8 ' 0 aggeration there has been in all the st?' nients relative to the transit of passett across the Isthmus of Panama. On the Ut of July, the steam-ship Pacific l e f t g' Francisco; on the 12th of August pas' gers who had quitted California by that b were landed in New York ; another stea ° at left New York on the 16th, and brought 111 ” on the night of Tuesday last intelligence the passage of the Isthmus had been sucess fully accomplished. Thus the communication between San Francisco and London occuni from July 14 to August 26, inclusive of four days’delay at New York, and of still mote considerable delays on the Isthmus. T| le time table for the Isthmus stands thus;—q q the 29th of July the steamer from San F ra ,,. cisco reached San Juan del Sud, on the? cific. “ I took a mule,” writes the correspondent of the New York Journal, “androdj a distance of 18 miles to the city of Revoej iu three hours and a half; stopped three days and four hours, left in the steamer Director and passed through Lake Nicaragua to the Rapids, where we arrived in twenty-one hours at which place we slopped 18 hours; th er g took the beautiful iron steamer Sir H. £ Bulwer, and passed down the most romantic and most beautiful river I have ever seen in about ten hours, to the splendid steam-ship Prometheus, at San Juan, of the Atlantic." Thus the time actually employed between the rival towns of San Juan, on either ocean was between 34 and 35 hours. We regret that our limits will not permit us to insert here once more the account of the trial trip up the river Sanjuan. This appears to hare been successfully accomplished in sixteen hours from the river’s mouth tip to the Castillo Rapids—the great obstacle to steam navigation. Such is a brief summary of results. We should not forget to mention that the reports are unanimous as to the salubrity of the climate for all purposes cl transit, and the picturesque character of the scenery through which the little steamer wound her way.

This is of course but a first practical experiment. The transit across the Isthmus is susceptible of indefinite improvement. When we remember the “fatal” objections that were offered whenever the project for creasin’ the Isthmus by the way of Nicaragua wis named, it is not unreasonable to suppose that the difficulties of other routes may also hare taken a lively colour in the heated imaginations of the projectors. The proved exaggeration in the one case makes one anticipate possible exaggerations in o'l>er«. But, even admitting that, on mature consideration, the rou'e by way o L-ke Nicaragua m>y l-e adopted as lite most a :vi-ot.ie at the present point of our engineering knowledge, slid, in the face of these reports, it is evident that, beyond exploding an illusion, nothing ta* b-’en accomplished or attempted. We would not lor a moment undervalue the spirit and energy ol the gallant little band which has successfully carried through this remarkable enterprise. They have fairly put us to shame. It will remain an enduring blot in the history of English adventure that s> noble a feat as this has been accomplished without our aid, alalthough aid was asked frem us in the most pressing terms. In a question such as this, ho - 1 ever, it j s necessary to discard a'l gusts ol sentiment, and to consider the question from a more practical point of view. It i-S comparatively speaking, of little importance whether a company of United States or of British merchants were the first to send a steamer up the river San Juan. Free access from ocean to ocean is of the last imparlance lo the interest of all commercial nations, h is clear that, whatever arrangements may finally be decided upon, the key of the P a ‘ cific cannot be intrusted to the keeping of aoy single power. In point of fact, negotiations have been long a-foot at Washington anti is London to bring about so desirable a resultIhe energy and capital of the two nations could not be directed to a nobler object than the union of the two seas by the most rapid and direct channel of which circum* stances will admit. The glory of having practically proved the possibility of success will remain for ever an honourable distinction of a private company in the Unil e States. '