There must be somebody in power in Honduras who under-
stands Englishmen. The Government of that State has actually asked for £12,000,000 of English money on the security of its word. Of course it would not get it, but with really admirable tact it has appealed to a special English weakness,—the perfervid imagination of this country about engineering possibilities. The- money is to be employed in building a railway, which will carry steamers of 1,200 tons' burden bodily across from ocean to ocean, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. An engineer, Mr. Brunlees, says he can do it with six lines of rail, and half-a-dozen engines tugging at each steamer, which will have been lifted on to some sort of monster truck by hydraulic lifts. Given the money and the time, and a discovery or two as to the best method of sup- porting rails under heavy weights, we dare say he can do it; but we would venture to suggest that the scheme is one for capitalists, contractors, and banks with a taste for large enterprises. Widows, country clergymen, and people of that sort had better devote their- cash to humbler undertakings.
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