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" eight hundred thousand dollars annually. But in order to 
" present sufficient inducement to advance the capital re- 
" quired, and suitably to reward contributors to an object so 
" beneficial to the world, a higher compensation ought to be 
" allowed, and, as far as possible, to be guaranteed ; limited, 
" however, from considerations of general equity and policy, 
" to a rate that would not be extravagant. Without assigning, 
" at present, more particular reasons, it will be assumed that 
" the rate of interest should be about double the usual value 
" of money ; that is, about eight per cent, per annum on the 
" capital invested, and never allowed to exceed that rate ; 
" payable half yearly from the period when the income of the 
" canal shall be sufficient to meet it, %\dth an accumulation 
" on the advances of four per cent, per annum until that 
" period arrives. This would require a revenue from the canal 
" of one million six hundred thousand dollars annually. 
" It is easy to show liow that amount, and a great deal more, 
" would be produced, or rather would be saved, by means of 
" the canal, upon the present commerce of the world that 
" would flow through it,, whenever opened, without calculating 
" its certain and almost unlimited increase, and consequent 
" larger savings in time. 
" The mere difference in the amount of insurance paid, the 
" interest of money invested, and the expenses of navigating 
*' vessels employed between voyages from the United States 
" and Europe to the Pacific Ocean, and all the countries 
*' bordering on it, by way of the canal, or by Cape Horn and 
" the Cape of Good Hope, would far exceed annually the one 
" million six hundi'ed thousand dollars required for interest on 
" the cost of the canal. But it is impossible to make esti- 
" mates, from present information, more precise or accurate 
" than as approximations towards correctness, of which the 
*' follo%^dng is a specimen ; viz., 
" The average length of voyages from the United States 
" round Cape Horn to the principal ports on the west side 
" of America, and to the whaling districts of the Pacific is 
" above four months ; while, by way of the canal, it would not 
" exceeed one month, making a difference of three months 
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