been successfully overcome, such objections would be considered light indeed. Nearly 200 years have elapsed since Cavalier de la Sale conceived the project of opening a communication between the Atlantic and Pacific by a route across the continent, and in pursuit of this scheme, in 1731, the French Canadians were the first to reach the Rocky Mountains. Since then the subject has been repeatedly brought before the notice of the Government and the public. The dream of the old enthusiasts, of thus reaching China and Japan, is on the point of being realised--not by Frenchmen or Englishmen, but by Americans. They have already made the road across the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and as we write, the intelligence has arrived that a bill has passed the United States Congress, granting a subsidy for the establishment of a line of steamers between San Francisco and Hongkong. Victoria, with the magnificent harbour of Esquimalt, offers far superior advantages, for the coal-mines of Vancouver Island are the only ones on the Pacific coast of North America. Victoria is but 6,053 miles from Hongkong, or about twenty-one days’ steaming; and if a railway were constructed from Halifax to some point in British Columbia, the whole distance to Southampton would be accomplished in thirty-six days--from fifteen to twenty days less than by the Overland Route _viâ_ Suez.[22] At the present time this subject acquires additional interest from the projected Federation of the British North American Colonies, and the uncertain condition of our relations with the Northern States of America. The time seems to have come when the Hudson’s Bay Company, having done good service by a beneficent rule over the territories granted it, which contrasts strongly with that of the American Fur Companies, should share the fate of all the great monopolies which have fallen before it. Lord Wharncliffe has lately brought this question before the House of Lords, proposing the formation of the north-west territory into a separate colony, and inquiring whether any steps had been taken in the matter. But of course the Government had done nothing, and apparently has no intention of moving. Millions of money and hundreds of lives have been lost in the search for a North-West Passage by Sea. Discovered at last, it has proved useless. The North-West Passage by Land is the real highway to the Pacific; and let us hope that as our countrymen gained the glory of the former brilliant achievement, valueless to commerce, so they may be the first to establish a railway across the continent of America, and reap the solid advantages which the realisation of the old dream has failed to afford.