Page 103 - The interest of America in sea power, present and future

84 The Isthmus and Sea Power.

naval positions unequalled, though not wholly
unrivalled, in that sea. And since, as the great
sea carrier, Great Britain has a preponderating
natural interest in every new route open to
commerce, it is inevitable that she should scru-
tinize jealously every proposition for the modi-
fication of existing arrangements, conscious as
she is of power to assert her claims, in case
the question should be submitted to the last
appeal.
Nevertheless, although from the nature of
the occupations which constitute the welfare
of her people, as well as from the character-
istics of her power, Great Britain seemingly
has the larger immediate stake in a prospective
interoce'anic canal, it has been recognized
tacitly on her part, as on our side openly as-
serted, that the bearing of all questions of
Isthmian transit upon our national progress,
safety, and honor, is more direct and more
urgent than upon hers. That she has felt so
is plain from the manner in which she has
yielded before our tenacious remonstrances, in
cases where the control of the Isthmus was
evidently the object of her action, — as in the
matters of the tenure of the Bay Islands and