ent, at the close of the war, endeavouring to have
conceded to them by the Spanish court, and in virtue of the memorable
Aziento contract of 1713, those very same advantages which the "Scots
Company" sought to secure, by their own private efforts, and almost in
defiance of a most powerful interest. And when our prospects in the same
quarter have been enlarged, to an extent far beyond the most sanguine
expectations of our forefathers--when, through the independence of South
America, we have had the fairest opportunities of entering into
combinations with the natives for the accomplishment of the
grand design--is it yet to be said that spirited and enlightened
Englishmen are not to be found, ready and willing enough to support a
scheme advantageous to the whole commercial community of Europe? It is
confidently understood that the best information on the subject has been
submitted to her Majesty's government, even recently. If so, is it then a
fact that no one member of the Cabinet has shown a disposition to lend a
helping hand?

But what have the South Americans done in furtherance of the scheme in
question? Among the projects contemplated by Bolivar, the Liberator, for
the improvement of his native land, as soon as its independence should
have been consolidated, was one to form a junction between the
neighbouring oceans, so far as nature and the circumstances of the country
would allow. In November 1827, he accordingly commissioned Mr John
Augustus Lloyd, an Englishman, to make a survey of the isthmus of Panama,
"in order to ascertain," as that gentleman himself tells us, "the best and
most eligible line of communication, whether by road or canal, between the
two seas." In March 1828 the commissioner arrived at Panama, where he was
joined by a Swedish officer of engineers in the Colombian service, and,
provided with suitable instruments, they proceeded to perform the task
assigned to them.[24] Their first care was to determine the relative height
of the two oceans, when, from their observations, it appeared that the
tides are regular on both sides of the isthmus, and the time of high water
nearly the same at Panama and Chagre. The rise in the Pacific is, however,
the greatest, the mean height at Panama being rather more than three feet
above that of the Atlantic at Chagre; but, as in every twelve hours the
Pacific falls six feet more than the Atlantic, it is in that same
proportion lower; yet, as soon as the tide has flow