own expense, of the railway from Alexandria to the Red Sea; and he has proposed to Europe to cut through the Isthmus of Suez. Results such as these may defy the attacks of censoriousness or of ill-humour.

To hinder is the strength and resource of vulgar natures; to advance and to give assistance to well-disposed persons is the instinct of noble and generous minds.

I owe, sir, a public acknowledgment to your highly esteemed journal for having been the first to aid, by its sympathy and its approbation, an enterprise which will be one of the grandest claims of our age upon posterity, and the eternal glory of the prince who conceived it and is about to carry out its execution.

The opinion of all Europe is now in favour of the success of this work; it will certainly honour you for the impartiality and intelligence displayed by you in seconding it, and I know that this will be your best recompense.

Accept Mr. Editor, &c.

LXXIII.

TO MADAME DELAMALLE, PARIS.

(Continuation of the Journal.)

MALTA, November 13, 1855.

WE embarked at Marseilles, in the Osiris, a name of good omen in Egypt, for in old times it represented the prosperity and fecundity of the land, through the regular inundations of the Nile.

The following are the members of the party: .

Messrs. MacClean, Conrad, Renaud, Lieussou, Larousse, Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire, Linant and Mougel, my son Charles Aimé, M. and Madame Lafosse, Mr. Senior (a friend of the Mr. Ellice who received me so kindly in London), Mrs. Senior, and MM. Jobez and Jacquesson, friends of Saint-Hilaire.

I have received the following letter from M. Ruys

senaers:

As soon as you arrive in the harbour of Alexandria, Hafouz Pacha, Minister of Marine, Koenig Bey, Private Secretary to his Highness,

INTERVIEW WITH THE VICEROY.

195

and I, will come alongside with Government boats to receive and escort the commissioners, your travelling companions, to land. On the quay you will find his Highness's carriages to take you all to the hotel, where apartments have been prepared by order of the Viceroy. Preparations are being made at Cairo and Suez for your reception, and everything is being arranged for your journey into Upper Egypt and the desert. Lastly, orders have been given that a special train should be prepared for you on the day of your arrival, as the Viceroy wishes to see you first in private, probably that he may come to an understanding with you before receiving the commissioners.

ON THE NILE, DAMIETTA BRANCH, November 19, 1855. (My Fiftieth Birthday.)

Ar three o'clock yesterday I left Alexandria by railway and at seven arrived at Kaferleïs, where I found a steamboat waiting to take me to the barrage.

This morning I met the Viceroy, who was coming to welcome me with his little squadron of steamers. He stopped them, sent his boat for me, and when I went on board threw himself into my arms and embraced me cordially. He was visibly affected, and spoke to me most affectionately.

I breakfasted with him, and we remained four hours in conversation. The whole plan of our future operations was arranged exactly according to my wishes. He is anxious for my companions, the members of the commission, to be his guests, and he will give them a hearty welcome and splendid hospitality.

During our excursions he will send a confidential agent to Constantinople to press for the ratification. He approves of my plan as to contracts and bye-laws. In short, he is very much pleased with all that has been done. All is, therefore, going on well.

LXXIV.

To M. THOUVENEL, FRENCH AMBASSADOR AT

CONSTANTINOPLE.

CAIRO, November 22, 1855.

I SEND you a memorandum of the proceedings of the international commission since its arrival in Egypt. We

set off to-morrow in a steamer to ascend the Nile as far as the first cataract.

The Viceroy has informed me that as soon as the commissioners have brought their investigations to a close, and are in a position to lay before him their final opinion as to the possibility of the junction of the two seas, (reserving to themselves the power of drawing out a complete plan of the works in Europe), he intends to send Edhem Pacha, Minister of Foreign. Affairs, to Constantinople, whom he proposes including amongst the international commissioners, and who will watch all their operations. Edhem Pacha is not unacquainted with the art of engineering, which he studied in England and France. For the last thirty years he has been successively at the head of the management of Public Instruction and of Public Works in Egypt. His mission to the Porte will be to hasten the Sultan's ratification of the grant in favour of the Suez Canal, which is to be executed by a company of capitalists of all nations.

The Viceroy has already given verbal instructions to Edhem Pacha, in my presence, in the following terms:

When you have presented my official letters to the Porte you will state how important it is for the dignity of the Empire, and as a proof of its resolution to maintain its internal independence, that I should receive the authorisation I have now been soliciting for a year, and which has been agreed to in theory by the Divan. This just desire of displaying internal independence cannot reasonably meet with any serious obstacle from the Powers which have combined to defend the exterior independence of the Empire. I do not ask that the approbation I seek should be sent me clandestinely. I am but a simple Pacha, but for all that, after having publicly announced my plan to the Representatives of all the foreign Powers, no one has raised any objections; on the contrary, I have nothing but congratulations. Let the same line of conduct be pursued at Constantinople; and if, by chance, any opposition should be raised, let the Government ask to have the reasons for such opposition formally expressed in writing. We must have done with delays; and when once European science has proved the possibility of the enterprise we must not wait until the opinion of Europe rises up against unjustifiable resistance, or against a passive attitude calculated to justify those who refuse to believe in the existence amongst us, either now or in the future, of elements of national progress and vitality.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMMISSIONERS.

197

You will, doubtless, think it wise to inform the Emperor's Government (at the same time stating your own opinion) of the new phase about to be entered into by the Suez Canal affair. For my part, I shall acquaint Count Walewski with it through our friend M. Sabatier.

MEMORANDUM JOINED TO THE ABOVE LETTER. THE international commissioners for surveying the Isthmus of Suez left Marseilles on the 8th of November. Having reached Alexandria on the 18th, and spent three days in that town, they made excursions to the east and west, to study the nature of the rocks, as well as of the sands which stretch along the whole shore as far as the mouths of the Nile. The commissioners have chosen M. Conrad, a Dutch engineer, as their president. On the 23rd they were received with distinction and cordiality by his Highness the Viceroy of Egypt at the camp near the barrage, where the Egyptian troops (whose manœuvres were excellent) are trained under the personal direction of the prince. Having been consulted by him respecting various works which he is executing or planning for the internal canalisation of the country, the commissioners must first proceed to Upper Egypt, and ascend the Nile as far as the First Cataract. They will then descend as far as Cairo, and go from thence to Suez, in order to commence the scientific exploration of the isthmus as far as Pelusium. In the meantime special agents are continuing the necessary taking of levels along the line of the maritime canal, the placing of stakes and borings, which are already completed in the greater part of the route, and of which the present results are most satisfactory. Other agents are working at the hydrographic exploration of the Gulf of Pelusium, into which the Canal is to flow. In a word, the international commission, aided by the munificence of Mohammed Said Pacha, who has spared no expense to facilitate their surveys, are working as earnestly as could be desired, and the time is not far off when they will be in a position to pronounce their final decision with regard to the undertaking which has so justly excited the interest of Europe.

LXXV.

TO MADAME DELAMALLE, PARIS. CAIRO, November 27, 1855. AFTER I had written to you on the 19th, and had told you about my first interview with the Viceroy, we went together to his country residence near the barrage. He has had two rooms prepared for me in his own apartments. We were together three days from morning till night. You will believe that the time was usefully employed, and that we had leisure to pass and repass in review all questions concerning the present and the future of the Canal. This excellent prince, whose knowledge is most varied and who has a wonderful memory, has also said a great deal to me about the details of his Government and all that he has done for the benefit of the country since my departure, of his personal administration and the difficulties he meets with from those who serve him, most of whom, instead of doing their duty, seek only to enrich themselves. He confessed to me that he has often been overwhelmed by discouragement, and had thought of giving up his power. "Think how grievous it is," said he, "to be in the position of a man who wishes to do right, but yet, from actions of the subordinates he is obliged to employ, is aware that history may one day justly accuse him of having done wrong. It is of no use to lecture my Turkish functionaries: very few of them believe that they ought to identify themselves with the country to the prosperity of which they owe their own well-being. They still want to milk the cow without taking care of her, and without being willing to give her anything to eat. Nothing is ever too good for them; but when some poor Fellah is in question, it is quite another thing. I have just turned off one of my Turkish secretaries. Will you believe me that the knave, to whom I had given an order to write a decree granting a modest pension to an Egyptian soldier who had been maimed in the East, had the audacity to tell me that the sum was too great for the man? The other day, too, I was informed that an old master-blacksmith of the