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r ^ : > ::- ^ u , { , ; v ^ ^ ^ m ^^^ m ^ - im ^^ ^ ^ . n ^ - . ..,,. . :.,- .. 7 % e -Oeo < 2 S ^ a New RoiUe 0 India : w ^ h otHen Froffment 3 and Gleanings in the JEast ¦ ; T i ^ ypaiM ^^;^ 1 ^! i ^?^ . AMtlvHr . q ^ The N * wat ^ of ; 1 ft * l « ger Expedi T lotion . ' * ; ^; . - " / % .- '; ; ' ¦¦¦ ¦ ¦¦ ¦ . ¦ . . : ¦>' _•; ' ' ,--fh :- 'i : . < ' '¦¦ ¦ -. " . ¦ ¦ - ¦ ¦ ' : *¦ -: , ' Longmana ? 4 Cto Thbhb , or four ; years ago * a . railway , was : . < projected direct from- Calais ; tc CS ^^ i ^/> aTbe ; entufe :. route ;; was- traced , and a period of fourteen years was fixed , as necessary to the completion of the works . From that date , it was calculated # » e i ourneT f rom ¦ kpttdou to the Indian ; metropolis would occupy in'b / -Abxe ! . t ^ n' ! a . !^ brt '| iii ^ i | t «' . ' Aii airy . cbpapiication of chains and tubes -would . ^ a ^"'" tIie''iiP ' aTOaneiie 0 i , The ' authors of the , prospectus dilated upon the yejjbicity ^ yijth wliichj a train , with : passengers and luggage , might rush ' ^^] aj ^^ & [ f , iiXieyr' of ^ ihe Euphrates ^ where there Is a natural ; level , several hundred & $ & r M "' -: lefl"gtfci . ., - Tlie Beluchis , in anticipation , gazed ' on the engine as it panted with red breath along their coasts . The shifting Indus ^^ J ^ Xiyi ^ siiyevk ^ d' py : an ideal bridge . The projectors of this scheme did xi 0 tL r ^ dcpn . Indeed ^ ^ I » pn < the Assistance of the French engineer who has dSe ^ ot tb construct a subaqueous railroad from D over to Boulogne . They fixed their European terminus at Calais , without explaining how England could use their line during * a general war , or how hostile nations were to be prevented from using it ; ir ^ SiinilarlyTjold fe Gaptain' Allen ' s proposal to change the configuration of the ' earth , by literally drowning the Dead Sea . That body-of water , of ten libelledy is now 1 to be abolished for ever . At one time it has been traduced as the fit receptacle of Sodom and Gomorrah ; at another it has been reported : to emit vapours so fatal that birds cannot flyover its blasted surface . At last , Captain Allen , of the British navy , asks the English , the Turks * and the Jews , to sink the Dead Sea , that the ships of Europe may sail triumphantly" above its obliterated area , into the Indian Ocean . Captain Allen ' s idea is based on more than one peculiar hypothesis . On the . formation and natural qualities of the Dead Sea itself his opinions are at variance with" those of many geographers . Moreover , he assumes the existence , at one end of this extraordinary lake , of an old strait , blocked up fey thewaecumulation of ages , while , at the other , " the alluvial plahvol Esdraelon , already deeply furrowed by the brook Kishon , " might be " £ h " rough at very little expense , the required length of the cutting being about twenty-five miles only . " Between these artificial channels " Nature has ^ in fac t , performed for us the greater part of the work , in a stupendous cuttingrof some two hundred miles in length . " Among mechanical facilities the following is suggested : — ' The 'operation might be very much facilitated by making use _ of the immense weighi and force 'of'back-water 6 f the two oceans ; if not as a cutting power , at all events tc carry into the abyss or depression , the ear t h , &c ., which could be loosened by tht liberal : use . , of ; gunpowder , saving thereby nearly the whole trouble of digging and carrying away . Communication being thus established by canals sufficiently broad and deep , the rushing in of the two seas would restore the now Dead Sea to its ancient level , and convert it into the active channel of intercourse between Europe and Asia ; the whole bulky commerce of which might then pass through this canal instead of taking the circuitous route of the Cape of Good Hope , shortening the voyage between England and India to the time in which it is performed by the overland route . The canal route is indeed a little longer ; but they would be equalised by the time taken by the transit through Egypt . y As an engineering work , we hesitate to regard any sane man ' s project as impossible ., Almost every undertaking is a question of means and objects . The Great Pacific Railway from Vancouver to Montreal was laughed at long after Dr . Lai'dner renounced his scepticism concerning ocean steamers . The Alpine highways are wonders of our generation , as the Thames Tunnel is , and as . the Channel Tunnel maybe . Besides , if the Nicaragua Isthmus , with its auxiliary lakes , be not impenetrable by steam dredges , and if the Isthmus of Suez , which is ninety miles wide , be regarded as only a moderate obstacle ,. there is no reason why the difficulties of the Dead Sea route should be accounted insuperable . We do not mean that there is no limit to human or mechanical powers . But the barrier must be a natural law , before it should be regarded as unassailable . When it was proposed to Burke to unite the representation of the colonies and of the mother country , he exclaimed , " Opposuit Natural Between us and them there is fixed an eternal and impassable gulf "—tha dreary voyage of a time when steamers and great circle sailing were unknown . Ifet were a man to propose a tunnel through the centre of the earth , from England to the Antipodes , his insanity would be apparent to every temperate mind . In the first place , he would immeasurably exaggerate the capacities of human art and human power ; and , next , he voiud incite myriads of men to labour for ages in an enterprise in which the highest success would boar no proportion to the cost , or to the risk of failure . However , Mr . Adcock has taught us how to fuse volcanic rocks , so that it is dangerous to define the limits of possibility . ; We are forced to admire the fluency with which Captain Allen disposes of principalitfea and powers . There must be some sacrifices , he admits , should his project be consummated ; " but these would be trifling . " For example , a territory of some two thousand square miles , belonging to the Sultan of Tujrkey , " wilj . be submerged . " Secondly , the ancient city of Tiberias , inhabited by some thousands of innocent Jews and Christians , must go where Sodom and Gomorrah went , down among the waters of the Dead Sea , which is itself , in turn , to be lost in . the mingling floods of the Mediterranean and Indian Seas . In addition to this havoc , which the simple people of the province might , mistake for a visitation of Divine anger , a number of Arab ' villages areto be plunged into the depths of Captain Allen ' s jointstock deluge . , And here his reasoning glidos to its ultimate point with such imperiftFeaso thi » t we must borrow it : —• The city of Tiberias . ia a filthy heap of ruined buildings , hemmed in between the lake and atqep , barren mountains , from which a forced removal to a fertile and adjacent neighbourhood would be a blessing to the debased , apathetic , and wretched inhabitants . Ttio villages consist of mud-huts , temporary by their nature , or of tents , which arc intentionally so . From all thoso the occupants derive little advantage , and ) xia Highness less revenue . Their condition , besides , might be Immensely improved ' by the activity and trade which would be stimulated through tho navigation , of the canal by ships of all nations ; and tho Sultan would draw great revenues by transit
- :. ; dueslwljere he . how receives nothing- ^ 7 * nd ; eg ^ remmierat ^ ojn , fo £ |^ e , 4 os »; . o ^ vth ^ s uni profitable territb ^ -swniei ^ , iEhe ; niw £ t : counties of ; ^<» -vrogft , $ hj | ejffly s > aj ( g otpo ^ ii * 1 la ^ ion—namely , those of the Eephaim , the Zuzfm , and ^ e Emiin ^ the tranjB-JoT < janie ''¦¦ provinces , so judicioualy chosen by some tribes of"the Je \^—wbuW be i ^ nSejced ' easy * ' of access by means of the proposed canaL The Jews would 1 ppiaibly ob ^ etstrqrigly ) : to the loss of Tiberias , which is one of the four holy cities ; but" they are'strangers > from Russia , Poland , &c ., who have no property in it , and come therecin the"ibiJ 6-6 f ! seeing the Messiah rise out of the lake , which is a general expectatiottoamong ttein , though on what authority it is not known . I sketched one old man , who Jwas [ anxiously watching on the shore where the spray was dashing up , in the eyident f hope , of seeing ' Him rise . If such is really the general belief of the Jews , they pcaustjeonr sider it as a miracle , and of course it could not be impeded , by a few fathoms more or less in the depth of the sea ; consequently , they cannot urge . any , vajid objection to this result , though they may not like to see the filthy city , which they hold to he sacred , submerged and lost for ever . ' ... ' . ' , ' . ' The Deftedar Bey of Egypt , or the protected Prince of Kashmir , could not have settled this matter with more supreme celerity-. But would his Highness the Sultan , or the Jews , be convinced so speedily as Captain Allen ? Would not the " strangers" from all parts of the Mohammedan world , who reverently come to Meccano violently resist its destruction , although " they have no property in it ? " The political securities sug-. gested by Captain Allen are based on calculations quite as superficial . ' At the two extremities of the canal—namely , Kaiffa on tlie Mediterranean , and at Akabah , where it communicates with the Red Sea—very strong fortifications should be erected , which might be defended by mixed garrisons ; that is , Frertch and Turks at one end , English and Turks at the other . I have been informed that there are strong political objections to the construction of a canal which might he considered as another Dardanelles , the custody of which has been a source of so much uneasiness to the Turks ,, that they are not desirous of having another such charge ; nevertheless , ' it appears by the public prints , both the Pacha of Egypt and the Sultan have granted concessions to French projectors for the long-proposed plan of a canal through , the Isthmus of Suez . In the event of a war between Finance and England , or in the event of Turkey bringing upon itself the thunderbolts of another . Navarino , where : would these " mixed garrisons" be ? There would probably be a portjat i each end , but there might also be places of embarkation along the sides of ; the channel , so that the master of the neighbouring country would share the » government of the canal . But , in this point of view * the Dead Sea route ( is identical with that of Suez , so that we need not here discuss it . s In our opinion , Captain Allen understates all the difficulties of his scheme , overstates the facilities , and has been carried away by his own idea . The t " long-proposed plan of & canal through the Isthmus of Suez" has under-» gone much discussion . Captain Allen , however , though , in his own case , he » sweeps away miles of earth and rock with the energy of a hundredi-armed I Hercules , finds more than one " fatal obstacle" to the accomplishment ? of the rival scheme . . Among fatal circumstances , he reckons one which does ! not , in reality , exist—namely , he imputes it to M . Linant and M . de Les-¦ seps , that they count upon natural facts in connexion with the Isthmus of ! Suez which have long been disproved . It is right to state , however , that he hands over the Dead Sea to the surveyors , that they may decide whether gunpowder and pickaxes could admit the Mediterranean on one side , and \ the waters of the Gulf of Akabah on the other , into a navigable chanuel between the seas of Europe and India . , With Biblical traditions , as we have seen , Captain Allen deals courageously . Elliot Warburton ' s Arab guides maintained , and their assertion has . been repeated by imaginative Europeans , that in certain states of the water , of this sea , and of the atmosphere , the cities of the plain may be seen just peering over the water's edge . Upon this theory we might be induced to pause befbrefsending a vessel where it might haul up Lot ' s house with the bower anchor . But to Captain Allen it appears altogether incredible that | four or five cities could have been grouped in a confined swampy plain , [ 1300 feet below the level of the ocean , shut in on three sides by high moun-L tains or perpendicular cliffs , an ^ on the fourth by " the disagreeable salt ; lake . " M . de Saulcy . pretends , Jat all events , to have demonstrated that the [ condemned cities are not under the Dead Sea , by discovering them elsewhere . M . de Van der Welde satirises this assumption , without proving his own capacity to judge ; but Captain Allen goes beyond both , and even surj passes Osboraeand Forster in the self-accommodating facility of his deductions . He not only disputes the locality of Sodom and Gomorrah , but denies the current theories of their destruction . One hypothesis is that they were overwhelmed by an inundation ; another , that they perished in a volcanic fire . The advocates of both suppositions Appear to me to be in error ; since the express declaration of Holy Writ is , that this destruction was the direct visitation of the wrath of God , who sent Are front heaven to consummate their doom . " Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire , from tho Lord out of heaven . " ([ Gen . xix . 24 . ) In . this visitation , therefore , we should not look for the ordinary operations of natural causes , which run the course He has appointed for' them , and which , possibly , had their commencement in ages long anterior to that awful punishment of the sins of nations ; and the appearance of the Dead Sea , which we witness at the present day , may have been familiar to the eyes of the inhabitants of the Pontapolis . This reasonings resembles the geometrical idea of a surface : it is length and breadth without depth . What did the flying inhabitants of Pompeii , as represented by the younger Pliny , say of the burning storm , which - desolated their homes P They said that " fire from heaven , " sent by the gods , consumed them . Of course , Captain Allen has a perfect right to " imitate the bishops , and to smite every adversary as dumb as a dead drummer with a literal , mattor-of-fiict , prosaic interpretation of a text of Scripture . Only , ho must be consistent . He must not be " orthodox" to the full perfection of pulpit and pow , and drop thence to doubts of tho received translation . Verbal bigotry in one page does not well prepare us for critical license in another : •—I am aware that against these arguments , which I have ventured to advance , I nave a very strong current of popular belief against me ; which has its source in tho moat remote antiquity , and Is at the same time tho most venerated . Tho authority for this popular belief is no less than a passage in the Holy Bible , which wo are all taught to look upon job unquestionable . But when , in the historical part of that book , wo find a passage not only difficult to
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 22, 1855, page 920, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2107/page/20/
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