Cost and Revenue.
| Revenue 410,000 tons yearly, at 10s. | £205,000 | |
| ——— | ||
| Capital 1,000,000l. interest 5 per cent | £50,000 | |
| Dividend in Stock 10 per cent | 100,000 | |
| Expenses, management, and repairs | 20,000 | |
| Surplus fund | 35,000 | |
| ——— | £205,000 | |
| ——— | ||
Thus affording from the outset a fair and profitable return, and which may reasonably be expected to be doubled in a very few years afterwards.
Conveyance Mails and Passengers.
Hitherto the matter has been considered entirely as relates to the practicability and probable expenditure to be incurred in carrying the Plan into effect, and the remuneration to be obtained from the Plan when completed. It yet remains to show the advantages which will be obtained in the courses and distances by this route, as compared with other routes, and also with the route by the North Pole—even were this latter practicable throughout the year, but which it almost certainly is not. It has elsewhere been shown how a communication across any part of this Isthmus, even by an ordinary road, can be made to extend, and to accelerate the mail communications between Great Britain and all the western coasts of America, and more especially with the most eastern parts of the eastern world, and her own rising empire in New Holland. Nothing calls forth the enterprize and the energies of mankind, equal to the rapidity and regularity of correspondence: and without this, no country can either improve or advance in cultivation or civilization.
The comparative distances by the several lines of communication will stand as follow:—
Thus it is evident, that were the passage over the North Pole open and practicable at all seasons, but which it is not, the route by it would be so much shorter for every part from Europe to the ports in Asia and in America, situated on the Northern Pacific, as to be vastly preferable; but when it is recollected that this passage can only be open for a very few months in the course of the year—and also considering the winds and the weather which, during that brief space of time, would certainly be met with in the northern route, and the utter impossibility that there would be of procuring any assistance in that route, should accidents occur,—it is clear, that vessels would almost as speedily, and certainly much more safely, run over the distances by the western route, even to the places more near; while, as regards those which are more distant, there can and need be no comparison drawn.
It will also from these references be observed, that the distances to all the eastern parts of Asia, and the north-west coast of America, are, with a very few exceptions (in these, too, the distances are nearly equal), nearer than the distances would be, either taken by the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn, the only routes always open; while, considering the winds and the seas which are met with in either of these routes, it is plain that ships would run over the distance by the western route through central America, even to the most distant parts in eastern Asia that have been adverted to, sooner and much easier than they could do by either of the former. The saving of insurance alone in the route by the mild tropical climates, and also of wear and tear in ships by the same channel, compared to what all these would amount to in the navigation by the other routes, to say nothing of the saving of time in voyages, would be objects of great importance to commercial and nautical men.