THE ORIENTAL HERALD.

No. 16.-APRIL 1825.-VOL. 5.

SPEEDY COMMUNICATION WITH INDIA-CANALS ACROSS THE

ISTHMUS OF SUEZ.

A Bill is now passing through the House of Commons, for the incorporation of a Company, whose purpose is to make a passage for ships from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, through the narrow country which connects North with South America. The immense advantage arising from such an undertaking, must be apparent to every one who looks at a map of the world. *** There only wants now a canal through the Isthmus of Suez, and then the two great desiderata for which all geographers have sighed, would be accomplished, and little of circuitous navigation left in the world.-EXAMINER, March 13, 1825.

THE readers of our earliest Numbers will remember, that about twelve months ago, March 1814, we devoted an article to the subject of uniting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and after a full development of all the details that could be given in illustration, concluded with venturing to predict that this important undertaking would, ere long, receive that serious consideration to which it is so justly entitled. We are gratified at seeing that the expectation was well-founded, and to learn that it is thus already fulfilled. From the consideration of this subject, the mind is naturally impelled towards an inquiry into the practicability of a similar union between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean; the Isthmus of Suez and that of Darien being constantly associated, in our recollection, from their similarity in size and position, and the impediment which each offers to a more speedy communication between distant quarters of the globe. In the very first Number of The Oriental Herald, we drew the public attention to the difficulties of steam navigation by that route to India, a project which was then seriously entertained, but which has since been judiciously abandoned. The same objections do not apply, however, to the hope of shortening the route of navigation for sailing vessels, such as are now in use, between Great Britain and her Indian empire; but more especially for vessels of a smaller kind, which would then maintain a speedy and uninterrupted intercourse between all the European, Asiatic, and African ports of the Mediterranean, and those of Arabia and Abyssinia in the Red Sea.

At the present moment, when capital is so superabundant as to be seeking channels of profitable employment in every country under the sun, we shall perhaps render an acceptable service to merchants and capitalists, as well as to our literary and geographical readers, and, above all, to the cause of humanity,te best interests of which are most effectually promoted by undertakings that unite hostile nations in the bonds of reciprocal interest,-by devoting a portion of our work to the consideration of Oriental Herald, Vol, 5.

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