a traveller is subject to great exposure and
consequent illness; but if the railroad was roofed this objection
might be removed. It is on all hands agreed, that the climate of
the isthmus would be greatly improved by drainage, and clearing
the country of the immense quantities of vegetable matter left
rotting on the ground. The beds of seaweed, in a constant state of
decomposition on the Pacific shore, create miasmata unquestionably
injurious to health.

It has generally been thought that the long-neglected isthmus of Suez is
the shortest road to India, but besides being precarious, and suited only
for the conveyance of light weights, that line only embraces one object;
whereas the establishment of a communication across that of Panama, would
be like the creation of a new geographical and commercial world--it would
bring two extremities of the earth closer together, and, besides, connect
many intermediate points. It would open to European nations the portals to
a new field of enterprise, and complete the series of combinations forming
to develop the riches with which the Pacific abounds, by presenting to
European industry a new group of producers and consumers. The remotest
regions of the East would thus come more under the influence of European
civilization; while, by a quicker and safer intercourse, our Indian
possessions would be rendered more secure, and our new connexion with
China strengthened. Besides the wealth arriving from Asia and the islands
in the wide Pacific, the produce of Acapulco, San Blas, California, Nootka
Sound, and the Columbia river, on the one side, and of Guayaquil, Peru,
and Chili, on the other, would come to the Atlantic by a shorter route, at
the same time that we might receive advices from New Holland and New
Zealand with only half the delay we now do.

The mere recurrence to a map will at once show, that the isthmus of Panama
is destined to become a great commercial thoroughfare, and, at a moderate
expense, might be made the seat of an extensive trade. By the facilities
of communication across, new wants would be created; and, as fresh markets
open to European enterprise, a proportionate share of the supplies would
fall to our lot. In the present depressed state of our commercial
relations, some effort must be made to apply the industry of the country
to a larger range of objects. A century of experiments and labour has
changed the face of nature in our own coun