EDITOR'S TABLE. 



273 



ment of now life to that community, and 

 will be to it even a greater source of 

 wealth and advantage than to the specu- 

 lators who carried out the work. Sor- 

 did commerce creates manufactures, 

 advances agriculture, and, by increas- 

 ing the occupations and remunerations 

 of industry, increases all the benefits of 

 civilization. Locomotives are mission- 

 aries without moral intentions. There 

 was no patriotism, no philanthropy, no 

 public spirit at the bottom of this move- 

 ment, yet it will promote all these ends. 

 Millions of Northern capital were poured 

 out solely that they might be augment- 

 ed, but in doing this they will develop 

 a vast productive region, and aid in giv- 

 ing Virginia a new start in a new direc- 

 tion ; and not the least advantage will 

 be to compel the adoption of a new or- 

 der of ideas. 



OUR POLICY RESPECTING THE PANAMA 

 CANAL. 



The letter of Secretary Blaine to 

 Minister Lowell, of London, as to the 

 policy of the United States in regard 

 to the neutrality of the Panama Canal, 

 deserves attention. Being a diplomatic 

 document, it may not be easy to say 

 what or how much meaning there is in 

 it ; but, as read by common-sense, it is 

 a missive of intimidation, and contains 

 a virtual threat of war. Mr. Blaine is, 

 at any rate, playing with fire, and it is 

 therefore well to watch him. 



The canal, which opens a ship com- 

 munication between the Atlantic and 

 Pacific Oceans, being of vital moment 

 to the commerce of the world, it is of 

 the first importance to all nations that 

 its neutrality be preserved inviolate; 

 but as, in the rivalries and hostilities 

 of nations, there would be danger that 

 this neutrality might be violated, there 

 arises the need of some strong arrange- 

 ment to secure it. The United States 

 of Colombia, across whose territory the 

 canal passes, and which is therefore the 

 rightful controller of it, is a weak pow- 

 er, and unable to protect the property 

 vol. xx. 18 



from foreign interference. She conse- 

 quently meets the necessity of the case 

 and the requirements of nations by en- 

 tering into treaty stipulations for guar- 

 anteeing the neutrality of the canal, or 

 securing its equal benefits for all coun- 

 tries and at all times. 



Mow, Mr. Blaine informs whomso- 

 ever it may concern that this country 

 has already attended to all this. He 

 says, " The United States recognizes a 

 proper guarantee of neutrality as essen- 

 tial to the construction and successful 

 operation of any highway across the 

 Isthmus of Panama," and that in 1846 

 it entered into a treaty with Colombia 

 for that purpose. 



But that treaty was made under no 

 immediate expectation of the construc- 

 tion of a canal: it was shaped in the 

 light of history by which this country 

 was on record as friendly to the project. 

 Yet, when the undertaking begins first 

 to take practical shape, and the desid- 

 eratum of centuries promises to be 

 realized, it turns out that the United 

 States is no longer anxious about it. 

 In fact, there was recently developed 

 throughout the country an unmistakable 

 hostility to it. We would neither build 

 it ourselves nor help others to build it, 

 and did all we could to discourage the 

 work by trying to alarm foreign capi- 

 talists and prevent them from furnish- 

 ing the funds for its construction. 

 In this state of things this sudden 

 abandonment of a clearly defined his- 

 toric policy Colombia very naturally 

 began to query as to the satisfactori- 

 ness of the guarantee of a power that 

 had ceased to care about the legitimate 

 objects of the work, and had, in fact, de- 

 veloped a feeliug inimical to it. They, 

 therefore, began to raise the question 

 of securing the neutrality of the canal 

 by treaty with European powers; and 

 these, it is apprehended, entertain the 

 idea of re-enforcing the American guar- 

 antee. Mr. Blaine says, in behalf of 

 this Government, that such a course is 

 inadmissible; and he instructs Mr. Low- 



