The _naval_ and _political_ advantage of the Canal is a technical question regarding which my opinion is given with deference. But I find that its opponents are not found in the Government service. Military and Naval officers discuss the _advisability of fortifying_ the canal _never doubting its great importance to our country_. Quotations are available to prove that many of our greatest statesmen have been its ardent advocates, but space forbids. I may mention among these Grant, Harrison, Hayes, McKinley and Bryan as well as a nearly unanimous Senate and House are recorded in its favor. Are all these great minds dullards on the Canal question? Are they not the men who _ought to understand_ the great interests of our country, _impartially_ considered? As my advocacy for this beneficent work for a quarter of a century may be regarded as warping my judgment in its favor, I will end this already too extended reply by quoting _Archibald Ross Colquhoun_, an eminent English Engineer and Government Administrator, who, having personally examined the Nicaragua Canal route and the plans adopted for its construction, wrote a standard work _The Key of the Pacific_ (Longhams, London, 1895) which ends with the following conclusions (page 335): 1. It will render greater service to the New World than the Suez Canal does to the Old. 2. It will bring Japan, Northern China, Australasia and part of Malaysia nearer the Atlantic cities of the United States than they are now to England. 3. It will benefit America in an infinitely greater degree than it will Europe, which will only use the Canal in trading with the Pacific littoral of the two Americas, the South Sea Islands and possibly New Zealand. 4. It will divert little or no European traffic from the Suez Canal. 5. It will give an immense impulse to United States manufactures, especially cotton and iron, and will greatly stimulate the shipbuilding industry and development of the naval power of the United States. 6. It will cost more than the estimates show ($80,084,176.00 at that time) but it will have a traffic greater than is usually admitted. 7. In the interest of the world it must be neutralized, and the true policy of the United States is to forward that end and thus make this international highway a powerful factor for the preservation of peace. To the eminently conservative and disinterested conclusions of this patriotic English expert, I may be permitted to give my adherence no less than to the publicly expressed opinions of the great American statesmen whose names I have mentioned and to the practically unanimous approval of the Congress of the United States, after having actively discussed the Canal question for twenty years. With assurances of my highest esteem I beg to remain, Sir: Your most obedient servant, WILLIAM LAWRENCE MERRY. NICARAGUA CANAL DISTANCES.