178 RECOLLECTIONS Of FORTY YEARS. 



we had to discuss, and it is these commissions which 

 we have to thank for enabling us, by their scientific 

 labours and lucid discussions, to come to a speedy 

 conclusion. 



The first, presided over by M. Levasseur, was 

 a statistical one, its task being to estimate the 

 probable traffic of the canal that is to say, to go 

 through the customs' returns of all the ports of Europe 

 and America, and see what tonnage would in ail pro- 

 bability pass through the canal. I had had an oppor- 

 tunity of saying that the best course for the Panama, 

 as it had been for the Suez Canal, would be to prose- 

 cute the work by means of public money, and ask for 

 nothing from any of the governments, leaving the 

 enterprise its purely industrial character, and avoiding 

 anything like dabbling in politics. The question, 

 therefore, was to know whether the capital invested 

 would obtain a sufficient return by the traffic passing 

 through the canal. This was what the first commis- 

 sion had to calculate. 



The second commission supplemented the work of 

 the first, and was called the Economic Commission. 

 After having calculated how many tons of merchan- 

 dise would pass through the interoceanic canal, it 

 remained to be seen what income the traffic would 

 yield, and calculate, therefore, what tariff could be 

 charged vessels passing through. Then it was neces- 

 sary to estimate what would be the consequence of 

 the cutting of the American isthmus, what influence 



