A Trip to the Panama Canal. 27 



and more friendly touch with each other, and the extension of all 

 the benefits of civilisation to what were now the remoter parts of 

 the earth. When the time came he was sure there would be 

 no nation more ready or proud than Great Britain to congratulate 

 the United States on this monument to the ability of her doctors 

 and engineers. 



Sir Robert J. Kennedy, K.C.M.G., D.L., in moving a vote 

 of thanks to Mr. Barbour, said South America had been well des- 

 cribed as the great continent of opportunity. While their attention 

 was drawn to the East, and while they were watching five or six 

 nations destroying each other and shedding their blood in order 

 to get pieces of territory which in South America would only be 

 looked upon as in the possession of private individuals — while this 

 was being done, they had this great continent of opportunity 

 offering itself for their commercial development. The lecturer 

 had given them a most comprehensive survey of the whole Panama 

 question, and had_ very rightly pointed out that the great success 

 of the American engineers in carrying out the enormous work 

 almost to completion was due to the fact that they recognised that 

 the cause of the chief difficulty was the illness produced by the 

 yellow fever mosquitoes. And while they congratulated them- 

 selves upon the fact that their cousins of North America had 

 succeeded in carrying out the work, he (Sir Robert) thought they 

 ought to extend a feeling of sympathy to the French, and especially 

 to that great engineer De Lesseps, who constructed the Suez Canal, 

 only to see it a few years later fall into English hands, and who 

 turned his attention to the work of constructing the Panama 

 Canal, and had to give it up. In the name of the audience he 

 (the speaker) offered to Mr. Barbour their heartiest thanks upon 

 his most interesting and comprehensive lecture, and he congratu- 

 lated him most sincerely on the industry and patience with which 

 he had collected information in regard to the subject, and 

 especially upon the ability he had displayed in bringing it before 

 them in such a lucid manner. 



