tting the project of a law to the
Chamber of Deputies for a grant of money to cover the expenses of a
government establishment in the new settlements, Admiral Roussin expressed
himself thus:--"The advantages of our new establishments, incontestable as
they are even at present, will assume a far greater importance hereafter.
They will become of great value, should a plan which, at the present
moment, fixes the attention of all maritime nations, be realized, namely,
to open, through the isthmus of Panama, a passage between Europe and the
Pacific, instead of going round by Cape Horn. When this great event, alike
interesting to all naval powers, shall have been effected, the Society and
Marquesas islands, by being brought so much nearer to France, will take a
prominent place among the most important stations of the world. The
facility of this communication will necessarily give a new activity to the
navigation of the Pacific ocean; since this way will be, if not the
shortest to the Indian and Chinese seas, certainly the safest, and, in a
commercial point of view, unquestionably the most important."

In his speech in support of the grant, M. Gaizot, in the sitting of the
10th inst., asserted that the project of piercing the isthmus of Panama
was not a chimerical one, and proceeded to read a letter from Professor
Humbolt, dated Angust 1842, in which that learned gentleman observed, that
"it was twenty-five years since a project for a communication between the
two oceans, either by the isthmus of Panama, the lake of Nicaragua, or by
the isthmus of Capica, had been proposed and topographically discussed; and
yet nothing had been yet commenced." The French minister also read
extracts from a paper addressed to the Academy of Sciences, by an American
gentleman named Warren, advocating the practicability of a canal, by means
of the rivers Vinotinto, Beverardino, and Farren, after which he
enthusiastically exclaimed, that should this great work ever be
accomplished--and in his own mind he had no doubt that some day or other
it would--then the value of Oceana would be greatly increased, and France
would have many reasons to congratulate herself on the possession of them.
This has thus become one of the most popular topics in France, where the
views of the minister are no longer concealed, and in England are we
slumbering upon it? Certainly we have as great an interest in the
accomplishment of the grand design as the French, and possibl