This
New Line Is A Work Of Above 2,300 Miles, And Would Cost Probably
20,000,000l., If Not 25,000,000l., Sterling.
"The sum, though so large, is still little more than we voluntarily
paid to extinguish slavery in our West Indian dominions; it does not
much exceed the amount which a Royal Commission, some little time ago,
proposed to expend in erecting fortifications and sea-works to defend
our shores.
It is but six per cent, of the amount we have laid out on
completing our own railway system in this little country at home. It is
equal to but two and a-half per cent. of our National Debt, and the
annual interest upon it is much less than the British Pension List.
"We say, then, 'Establish an unbroken line of road and railway from the
Atlantic to the Pacific through British territory.'
"Such a great highway would give shorter distances by both sea and
land, with an immense saving of time.
"As regards the great bugbear of the general traveller - sea distance -
it would, to and from Liverpool, save, as compared with the Panama
route, a tossing, wearying navigation of 6,000 miles to Japan, of 5,000
miles to Canton, and of 3,000 miles to Sydney. For Japan, for China,
for the whole Asiatic Archipelago, and for Australia, such a route must
become the great highway to and from Europe; and whatever nation
possesses that highway, must wield of necessity the commercial sceptre
of the world.
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