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fortifications for the Pacific sun shines every day of the

end of the Canal, and on two other islands which lie in the bay the Leper Colony and Fever Hospital are installed. A considerable quantity of dredging still remains to be done, as the bay is quite shallow and unsuitable for vessels with a deep draught of water.

The two Canal approaches call for particular notice. Colon stands in the Bay of Limon. In the Bay of Limon jetties are being run out from each side of the Bay to protect shipping from the severe northerly winds that blow at certain seasons of the year, and on Point Toro a large battery will be constructed for the defence of the Canal. The buoys in the Canal and inland lake will be acetylene, and as the

year advantage of this has been taken to control automatically the lighting and dousing of these burners-i.e., as soon as the sun rises the lamps in the buoys go out; when the sun goes down they relight themselves. An island a few miles away forms a quarantine station. At Colon a hotel is being constructed holding 300 beds. Steam fire-engines, horse ladders, &c., are constantly ready, as nearly all the houses are built of wood. The towns of Panama and Colon are under the direct control of the Panama Government, but the United States keep a very watchful and energetic eye over the sanitation and police arrangements of the two towns.

The following table shows the General Canal Statistics :

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In conclusion, prominence this country during the past must be given to the enormous amount of concrete and reinforced concrete which is being used in this gigantic work. The available figures show that some four million cubic yards of concrete are being used in the construction of the huge locks and spillway. It may be the naturally conservative policy of our British engineers not to commit themselves too deeply without long and prolonged trials, and the late Sir Benjamin Baker, the greatest civil engineer we have had in

fifty years, was always somewhat timid about the use of concrete in foundations subjected to large variations of temperature. In buried foundations there has never been the slightest hesitation in adopting this form of construction, but where considerable variations of temperature obtain, from extreme cold to great heat, so far our leading engineers have refrained from committing themselves to any large extent to the use of reinforced concrete in their designs.

vide for a range of temperature varying from zero to 120°,

The reason is that simple iron or steel is extremely susceptible to variations of temperature: or over twice as much, so it stone and cement are not. The is difficult for a British enrelative degrees of expansion gineer to express an actual and are not nearly alike. We have, reliable opinion derived from therefore, the following condi- authentic experience over a tions: The iron will expand, period of years as to the wiswhile the concrete is unable dom of the course pursued at to move in the same ratio; Panama. But it is to be sintherefore the initial stresses cerely hoped that the courage that are set up cause the and enterprise that have caused two materials to dissociate this particular form of conthemselves. The iron can ex- struction to be adopted in pand and contract an in- preference to our old and definite number of times; not proved practice may result in so concrete, the consequence success. It certainly has the being a crack which grows great advantage of doing away bigger and bigger year by with all masons and bricklayers, The walls of the Canal with their attendant satellites, locks are considerably cut away as concrete mixing and placing for the accommodation of in position can be done by the necessary machinery for unskilled labour with the manipulating the gates and minimum of supervision and valves, and in the event of the direction. wall cracking or the foundations sinking, most serious trouble might result. It must be remembered that the lock walls extend over 3000 feet, the locks being 1000 feet long, and provision is being made for the reception of two other boats, 1000 feet long, to await an entrance and departure. Those responsible for the general design are to be commended for the conviction of their opinions on such a gigantic scale. Concrete is universally employed on the Canal works no masonry or brickwork is to be found anywhere. It must, however, be borne in mind that the thermometer never goes below 85° Fahr., whilst at day it may go up as high in the sun as 140°, a total of 55 degrees variation. In this country we have to pro

The total of concrete to be used represents a wall 2000 yards long, 50 yards wide, and 40 yards high-truly a stupendous work.

Any sketch of this great undertaking is necessarily incomplete, and the economic and political consequences which must result from the opening of the Canal to the world's traffic are weighty questions which lie beyond the scope of these pages. But British engineers can only look on with sympathy and goodwill at the great task accomplished by their American kinsmen at Panama in the teeth of almost superhuman difficulty, and feel that the successful completion of the Canal will be yet another triumph won by Anglo-Saxon skill, grit, and perseverance.

THE CONSTITUTION UNDER CROMWELL AND UNDER

ASQUITH.

"I tell you that unless you have some such thing as a balance, we cannot be safe. By the proceedings of this Parliament, you see they stand in need of a check or balancing power. . . This instrument of government will not do your work."-OLIVER CROMWELL.

THE Complacency with which Englishmen have allowed themselves to be saddled during the last six years with ever-increasing burdens and disabilities must fill all reflective students of politics with amazement and misgiving. It is sometimes asserted that Englishmen take their pleasures sadly. Whether that be so or not, it cannot be denied that nowadays they take their politics lightly. Energy, it is true, they possess in abundance. Much solid work, too, is no doubt got through; but Englishmen more often than not devote their time and labour to a business or profession, not that they may excel in their life's work, but that they may the sooner retire and be at rest. The same spirit permeates all classes of the community, and from every side the cry goes up for shorter hours and higher pay. It is not to be expected, in such circumstances, that much attention will be paid to the fundamentals of business or politics, and so it happens that the better educated Englishman usually takes more interest in the vicissitudes of a Test Match than in the progress of a Bill through Parliament, and political opinions are, for the most part, adopted as they appear ready-made in the

public press, and are seldom the outcome of individual analysis and judgment.

The Proletariat, on the other hand, always sensitive to the currents of thought which stir the hearts and minds of an intellectual order external and superior to itself, and now at length awakening to a realisation of its possibilities and of its power, is found to be peculiarly receptive of the new moral and political theories which are being so sedulously propagated. Moreover, Democracies, like armies, are strangely influenced by the example of their leaders, and throughout the ages the spirit of patriotism has been kindled and kept aglow by the devoted efforts of individual enthusiasts. A nation is not more patriotic than its leaders, and, as Lord Morley has recently pointed out at Manchester, "The star of strength and greatness rises or sinks in a State according to the proportion in its numbers of men and women with courage, energy, will, and open, supple, teachable intelligence, and possessing the power of making their qualities effectively felt."

The Roman Empire crumbled away because the people became indifferent to Imperial ideals.

The Roman people in the end refused even to fight their own battles, and gave their whole minds to attain 66 panem et circenses."

Upon what are the hearts of many Englishmen set to-day? Is it the maintenance of the Constitution and of the Empire, or cheap food and a pass for the next week's football match? "Crop," says Lord Morley, "depends on soil as well as seed." In our beloved country the soil is prepared and seed will be sown. But what kind of seed will it be, and who will sow it? Let those who can influence their countrymen pause on their way, and consider the signs of the times, lest calamity befall them and their children.

The Parliament Act 1911 has become the law of the land. It is impossible in this article to subject to analytical criticism its many anomalies, -for instance, that under its provisions the House of Commons cannot amend Bills which have been once rejected by the House of Lords; and that Bills may for that reason become law which are not approved by either House of Parliament. But that the Parliament Act violates the fundamentals of the British Constitution no one can doubt, for, since its enactment, the people are no longer in a position to control their own destinies, and the Crown, for the first time in English history, is involved in the vortex of party politics. "Nobody supposed," Mr Asquith has said, "that the Parliament

Bill was anything but a means to an end it is not an end in itself. The machine is there to do work."

If Parliament should enjoy the maximum lease of life under the Parliament Act (ie., five years), financial legislation, by means of Money Bills, throughout the whole of this period, is placed under the unfettered control of the House of Commons, and so far as legislation in respect of other matters is concerned, the House of Commons is endowed with such supreme authority that Bills passed by the House of Commons during the first three years of its existence will be placed on the Statute Book whether the House of Lords has given its consent to such legislation or not. It is not over-stating the position to assert that, during these periods, the government of the United Kingdom is handed over to the tender mercies of a single single autocratic Chamber. Further, the authority of the House of Commons is as wide as it is uncontrolled. No legislation is excluded from the ambit of its jurisdiction, except Bills to extend the maximum duration of Parliament. Nothing is sacrosanct. A House of Commons, elected for example upon the issue of Free Trade or Tariff Reform, is at liberty to use its unfettered powers to abolish the House of Lords, to disintegrate the United Kingdom, or even to convert the Constitution of the country from a Limited Monarchy into a Republic. Do the people realise that a

Radical Administration has made it possible for legislation to be passed without the consent and, it may be, against the expressed will of the electors? If not, who is responsible for its failure to appreciate the position? No sooner had the House of Commons obtained its unfettered powers than it proceeded to vote to each of its members a salary of £400 a-year; and Bills to establish Irish Home Rule, to disestablish the Welsh Dioceses, and to lower the franchise immediately followed the passing of the Act. Can nothing be done to prevent the passage of such Bills as these until the wishes of the electors have been ascertained? If a refusal by the Upper House to pass the Army Bill or the Expiry Laws Continuance Bill be excepted, so long as the Parliament Act remains in force, the dissolution of Parliament by the Sovereign is the only means by which the opinion of the electors can be taken in respect of legislation passed by the Single Chamber of the House of Commons. But the exercise of the Prerogative for such a purpose is fraught with the utmost danger to the Monarchy and to the Empire, the constituent parts of which are bound together by a deep sense of loyalty to the Crown. The abolition of the power of the House of Lords to prevent the passage of Bills sent up from the House of Commons has laid a heavy and invidious responsibility upon the Sovereign. It is no longer the

privilege and the duty of the House of Lords to reject legislation which, in its opinion, is opposed to the wishes of the people; for the difficult task of interpreting public opinion is, by the Parliament Act, shifted from the House of Lords on to the shoulders of the King. Sometimes, indeed, it is easy to gauge the wishes of the electors-for instance, in the case of the Home Rule Bill in 1893 and the Licensing Bill in 1908. Nevertheless, the position in which the Crown is placed by reason of the provisions of the Parliament Act is one beset with pitfalls; and if the King were to dissolve Parliament, in the mistaken belief that the policy of the House of Commons would not be confirmed by the electors, the result would be a collision -not between the House of Lords and the House of Commons, but between the Sovereign and his people. Who can contemplate without misgiving the outcome of such a crisis?

By the Parliament Act the Monarchy is threatened and the electorate defrauded of its rights. Every amendment suggested by Unionists to safeguard the rights of the people was contemptuously rejected by those who reiterate that they are the representatives of the people. It used to be the boast of Liberals in the past that they put their trust in the people; it is very clear that in the future they intend to legislate without consulting them.

While the Parliament Act

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