218 



PANAMA. 



The duty upon the transit of goods by these 

 communications would not equal the premiums 

 of insurance paid for the navigation round 

 Cape Horn. By such means an invariably easy 

 and certain passage would be effected, in some 

 instances in a third, and in others one-half 

 less time than is now employed in a circuitous 

 voyage to China, Japan, New South Wales, 

 and the islands of the Pacific. 



If my own, perhaps too superficial, views of 

 this matter do not deceive me, schemes of this 

 nature which have for their object the improved 

 facility of commerce and the common advan- 

 tage of every region in the globe, might be, at 

 least, as worthy of the ambition of British 

 statesmen as some of those topics, both foreign 

 and domestic, which have of late engaged the 

 attention of Parliament. 



May 20th. — H. M. sloop of war Gannet has 

 at last touched at Chagres, bringing letters and 

 papers from Europe. — According to an ar- 



