i8o RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



tariff which it would be desirable to charge, having 

 regard to the probable earnings of the canal and the 

 capital employed in making and working it. 



The main object which we kept in view when 

 forming these commissions was to draft as far as pos- 

 sible the most competent men into each of them. 

 Thus the economists and geographers were placed in 

 the two first sections, the naval men in the third, the 

 engineers in the fourth, and the financiers in the fifth. 

 They were all requested to be very reserved in their 

 appreciations, and only to offer an opinion after the 

 most careful scrutiny, so that the public might rest 

 assured that there had not been the slightest tendency 

 to take too optimist or enthusiastic a view of the under- 

 taking. 



The general results of the discussion are preserved 

 in the reports of the public sittings, and more espe- 

 cially in the striking reports of the various commis- 

 sions, which will remain an imperishable record of 

 the history of the American Canal, and which must 

 be read in detail in order to appreciate the lucid and 

 learned information which they placed before the 

 Congress. The most prejudiced will be constrained 

 to admire the laborious efforts which enabled a hun- 

 dred men, ardent in the pursuit of science, to place 

 such a mass of evidence before the Congress during 

 its brief session. 



I propose to briefly review their labours, first of 

 all examining the general considerations which were 



