customs authorities will watch and prevent smuggling in accordance with the provisions of Article 32 [of the concession]. It is expressly understood that every vessel traversing the canal will, whenever the authorities desire it, receive on board a guard [customs officer] appointed by the government, who will, in case of discovering their violation, exercise his powers in accordance with the law." The articles of the concession also provide that the "two ports to be constructed and to serve for entrances to the canal on each ocean are declared to be free, and will be recognized as such from the beginning of the work to the end of this concession." While the administration and management of the Panama Canal, moreover, are placed in the hands of an independent company, deriving its powers from a foreign government, and organized on the plan adopted in the construction of the Suez Canal, the commerce availing itself of the benefits of the Nicaragua Canal is protected by the government of that country against all extortion. In Article 42, the concession provides that: "It is understood that the company, in the exercise of the powers here conferred, cannot make other regulations than such as are necessary for the administration and management of the canal, and before issuing these regulations will submit them to the government for its approval." In order to protect still further the interests of those using the canal, it is provided that all sums necessary to secure interest on the funded debts, obligations, and shares, not exceeding six per cent. for interest, and also a sinking fund, shall be reserved; and that "what remains shall form the net gains, of which at least eighty per cent. shall be divided amongst shareholders, it being understood, after ten years from the time the canal is completed, the company cannot divide amongst the shareholders, either by direct dividends, or indirectly, by issuing additional shares or otherwise, more than fifteen per cent. annually, or in this proportion, for dues collected from the canal; and when it is discovered that the charges in force produce a greater net gain, they will be reduced to the basis of fifteen per cent. per year." These provisions indicate not only the confidence of the projectors in their enterprise, but also the determination of the Nicaraguan government to guard against all possible injustice to the commerce finding a highway there.

That there are other advantages contained in the concession of the Nicaraguan government, and in the proposed administration and management of the Nicaragua Canal, there should be no

doubt in the mind of every American who believes in the power and supremacy of his government on this continent. The concession is made to Americans, the society is made up of Americans, the corporators are Americans, and the act of incorporation is asked of an American Congress. Every step of this project recognizes the right of the United States to guard with jealous care the American continent against the encroachment of foreign powers. To this policy no nation and no cluster of adjacent nations, watchful of their own individual or collective interests, should take exception. It is the foundation of national existence everywhere. An American man-of-war, having on board the greatest naval commander of modern times, pauses for forty-eight hours at the mouth of the Bosphorus to recognize the right of an European power to control the waters of the Dardanelles and the Black Sea. It cannot be supposed for a moment that an American company, incorporated by the American government, organized on American soil, would have been allowed to construct the Suez Canal, even if it had established a branch of its enterprise in France and placed it under the supervision of a distinguished and representative French official. And so it is with us. The policy laid down in the early days of the Republic, and accepted from that time to this by the American mind, by which the colonization of other nationalities on these shores was protested against, should never be forgotten. The violation of this policy has always roused the American people to a firm assertion of their rights, and cost one American statesman, at least, a large share of the laurels he had won by long and honorable service. The application of this principle even now secures safety and protection to a line of railway spanning the Isthmus, and connecting the eastern with the western waters. The assertion of this principle by a treaty made with Nicaragua in 1849 is accepted to-day by all Americans, people and officials, with entire satisfaction. The rejection of that treaty in order to prevent a collision between the United States and Great Britain, and to preserve unharmed the policy of an administration, is regarded as one of the most complicating and compromising acts of American diplomacy. The accepted and acceptable policy of the American government is contained in the doctrine announced more than half a century ago by President Monroe. It is to be found in the attitude assumed by our government in all the long diplomatic discussion which followed the ratification of the

Clayton-Bulwer treaty ;-a discussion in which General Cass, then Secretary of State, declared an analogous treaty as recognizing "principles of foreign intervention repugnant to the policy of the United States";-a discussion in which by negotiation Great Britain was compelled to recognize the "sovereignty of Honduras over the islands composing the so-called British Colony of the Bay Islands";-a discussion in which the President of the United States "denounced the Clayton-Bulwer treaty as one which had been fraught with misunderstanding and mischief from the beginning." "If the Senate," said the President to Lord Napier, "had imagined that the Clayton-Bulwer treaty could obtain the interpretation placed upon it by Great Britain, it would not have passed; and if I had been in the Senate at the time, it never would have passed." It is in obedience to this policy that the United States has protested against the establishment by Great Britain of a protectorate in Central America, either on the Mosquito coast or on the Bay Islands. And it is in accordance with this policy that President Hayes, in his message of March 8th, 1880, declared that:

"The policy of this country is a canal under American control. The United States cannot consent to the surrender of this control to any European power or to any combination of European powers. . . . The capital invested by corporations or citizens of other countries in such an enterprise must in a great degree look for protection to one or more of the great powers of the world. No European power can intervene for such protection without adopting measures on this continent which the United States would deem wholly inadmissible. If the protection of the United States is relied upon, the United States must exercise such control as will enable this country to protect its national interests and maintain the rights of those whose private capital is embarked in the work.

"An interoceanic canal across the American isthmus will essentially change the geographical relations between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States, and between the United States and the rest of the world. It will be the great ocean thoroughfare between our Atlantic and our Pacific shores, and virtually a part of the coast-line of the United States. Our merely commercial interest in it is greater than that of all other countries, while its relations to our power and prosperity as a nation, to our means of defense, our unity, peace, and safety, are matters of paramount concern to the people of the United States. No other great power would, under similar circumstances, fail to assert a rightful control over a work so closely and vitally affecting its interest and welfare."

In accordance with the early and later policy of the government, in obedience to the often-expressed will of the American

people, with a due regard to our national dignity and power, with a watchful care for the safety and prosperity of our interests and industries on this continent, and with a determination to guard against even the first approach of rival powers, whether friendly or hostile, on these shores, I commend an American canal, on American soil, to the American people, and congratulate myself on the fact that the most careful explorations have demonstrated that the route standing in this attitude before the world is the one which commends itself as a judicious, economical, and prosperous work.

I have formed the opinions expressed in this article, not from a hasty consideration of the subject, and not without personal observation. While commanding the army of the United States, my attention was drawn to the importance of the water communication I have here discussed. During my administration of the government, I endeavored to impress upon the country the views I then formed; and I shall feel that I have added one more act of my life to those I have already recorded, if I shall succeed in impressing upon Congress and the people the high value, as a commercial and industrial enterprise, of this great work, which, if not accomplished by Americans, will undoubtedly be accomplished by some one of our rivals in power and influence.

U. S. GRANT.

THE PULPIT AND THE PEW.

THE priest is dead for the Protestant world. Luther's inkstand did not kill the devil, but it killed him, at least for us. He is a loss in many respects to be regretted. He kept alive the spirit of reverence. He was looked up to as possessing qualities superhuman in their nature, and so was competent to be the stay of the weak and their defense against the strong. If one end of religion is to make men happier in this world as well as in the next, mankind lost a great source of happiness when the priest was reduced to the common level of humanity, and became only a minister. Priest, which was presbyter, corresponded to senator, and was a title to respect and honor. Minister is but the diminutive of magister, and implies an obligation to render ' service.

It was promised to the first preachers that in proof of their divine mission they should have the power of casting out devils and talking in strange tongues; that they should handle serpents and drink poisons with impunity; that they should lay hands on the sick and they should recover. The Roman Church claims some of these powers for its clergy and its sacred objects to this day. Miracles, it is professed, are wrought by them, or through them, as in the days of the apostles. Protestantism proclaims that the age of such occurrences as the apostles witnessed is past. What does it know about miracles? It knows a great many records of miracles, but this is a different kind of knowledge.

The minister may be revered for his character, followed for his eloquence, admired for his learning, loved for his amiable qualities, but he can never be what the priest was in past ages, and is still, in the Roman Church. Dr. Arnold's definition may be found fault with, but it has a very real meaning. "The essential point in the notion of a priest is this: that he is a person made necessary to our intercourse with God, without being