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Such, gentlemen, is the list of subjects for investigation at your present meeting and the documents which will be at your disposal.

The international scientific commission on the Suez Canal, which you represent, consists, when complete and with some additions, of the honourable members whose names I subjoin:

For England, Mr. MacClean, as chief engineer; Captain Harris, of the British Navy, who was chosen because of of his special study of the Suez Canal question and his practical knowledge of the Red Sea; Mr. Chas. Manby, secretary of the Institute of Civil Engineers in London; and Mr. Rendel.

For Holland, Mr. Conrad, chief engineer of the Water Staat.

For Austria, Mr. Councillor Negrelli, Inspector-General of the Railways of the Empire.

For Prussia, Mr. Councillor Lentzé, Chief Engineer of the Works on the Vistula.

For Italy, the engineer M. Paléocapa, Minister of the Public Works at Turin.

For Spain, Don Cipriano Segundo Montesino, DirectorGeneral of Public Work at Madrid.

For France, M. Renaud, Inspector-General and Member of the General Council des Ponts et Chaussées; RearAdmiral Rigault de Genouilly, Captain Jaures, and M. Lieussou, Hydrographic Engineer to the Navy.

Moreover, you have among you the respected M. Jomard, one of the last representatives of the Egyptian Scientific Commission of 1798, who was anxious to assist at your first meeting last year; and his co-member of the Institute, M. Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire; who followed the labours of your colleagues in Egypt, and who since then has never ceased to afford me his wise and useful co-operation in the task I have undertaken.

The section of the commission that went to Egypt nominated M. Conrad as its president and M. Lieussou as its secretary. These gentlemen consider that their offices, which they have held with so much zeal and distinction,

conclude to-day. Some of your colleagues thought it would be fitting to offer the presidency of your general meeting to M. Paléocapa, who seems called to the office by his age, his consummate experience, and the high position he occupies in the councils of his Government.

M. Paléocapa, however, although much gratified by the overtures officially made to him, has thought it best to decline this mark of confidence in him, excusing himself on the plea of his health, which however allows him to take part in your deliberations. The assembly will there. fore proceed, after hearing M. Conrad, to elect a president and a secretary.

M. Mougel Bey, who is present, and has come from his Highness the Viceroy, is ready to give you any information and explanation you may require of the documents that his colleague Linant Bey and himself have drawn up and arranged with great care. He will explain, if need be, the general idea and chief data on which their rough draft, which is submitted to you, was based.

In concluding the remarks I have offered, gentlemen, and before you begin your important deliberations, I congratulate myself on seeing you thus happily assembled to promote the great work which has so powerfully excited the sympathies of Europe.

SUMMARY OF

CIX.

RESOLUTIONS PASSED BY THE INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC COMMISSION AT SIX MEETINGS HELD ON THE 23RD, 24TH, AND 25TH OF JUNE, 1855.

(Forwarded to the different correspondents of all countries, till a Report, to be drawn up by a special commission, shall be translated and published.)

PARIS, June 25, 1856.

1. The commission has rejected the plan of an indirect channel across Egypt, and has adopted the principle of a straight channel from Suez to the Mediterranean.

2. It has rejected the proposal of feeding the maritime

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canal by water from the Nile, and adopted that of filling it from the sea.

3. It has discussed the advantages and disadvantages of having the Canal banked the whole way from one sea to the other; and finally decided that the Canal should not be banked where it crosses the Bitter Lakes.

4. These Bitter Lakes, being left open, will have the the effect of weakening the force of tidal current; and the commission considers that locks at the two entrances to the Canal, at Suez and Pelusium, will not be necessary. It reserves the right, however, of making them later on if required.

5. It decides on a width of 100 mètres at the water line, 46 at bottom throughout the whole course of the Canal, 20 kilomètres of which must be walled between Suez and the Bitter Lakes. It has reduced the width of the rest of the Canal to 80 mètres at the water line and 36 at bottom.

6. The plan of the proposed scheme drawn up by the engineers of his Highness the Viceroy is maintained.

7. With reference to the entrance from the Mediterranean (Port Said), the commission adopt the plans of piers for Port Said which the members who went to Egypt drew up, only the width of the channel will be 400 mètres, instead of 500, and an inner dock will be added.

8. With reference to the port at Suez on the Red Sea the commission adopt the site and direction of the channel. The width will be 300 mètres, instead of 400, and an inner dock will be added.

9. The commission hold that when the Canal is opened, the shallows on the Egyptian side and on that of the Red Sea should be marked by powerful lights.

10. A port for victualling purposes and for repairs will be made on Lake Timsah.

II. As regards auxiliary fresh water canals fed by the Nile, the commission leave the engineers who carry out the works to decide on the best way of making them, with the sanction of the Viceroy's Government.

12. Finally, it appears from detailed information supplied by the naval officers who are members of the com

mission that the navigation of the Red Sea is as good as that of the Mediterranean and the Adriatic. This conclusion, which the commission endorse, is the result of the opinion of Captain Harris, who has made seventy voyages from Suez to India.

CX.

TO COMTE DE LESSEPS, PARIS.

VIENNA, July 8, 1856.

WHEN the labours of the international commission were over, it was my duty to go and acquaint the Viceroy with the definite result of their deliberations. But I thought that when I told him the scientific opinion of engineers, it would be a good thing to take him the political opinion of a veteran European diplomatist.

I want you to show Count Walewski the opinion of Prince Metternich, which I committed to writing when I left him, and he has admitted that my report is

correct.

THE OPINION OF PRINCE METTERNICH.

His Highness Mohammed Said had the right to carry out the Suez Canal. Every step he has taken in this matter deserves the assent of European statesmen; but in a question of so much importance, in which he could foresee that foreign politics would be engaged, he was very wise to apply for the ratification of the Porte.

Official approbation for an enterprise so manifestly advantageous to the Ottoman Empire, as also to all other nations, cannot be withheld since science has given a favourable opinion and sufficient capital is forthcoming to carry it out.

Thus, then, while the Sultan has begun by agreeing with his vassal's proposal, his Highness will take up an excellent position with regard to Europe by proposing that the friendly or Allied Powers, in order to avoid all difficulties with them or with Egypt in the future, should send Plenipotentiaries to guarantee by convention the perpetual neutrality of the Suez Canal, which has been admitted in principle, as far as the Ottoman Empire is concerned, in Article 14 of the Act of Concession.

In this way the domestic question of how to make the Canal is separated as it ought to be from the foreign question of neutrality. By this means the prerogatives of territorial sovereignty remain intact, and the Ottoman Empire by taking, for the first time since the conclusion of peace, a position of influence which is fitting in a negotiation that affects the public rights of Europe, gives satisfaction to the

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political and commercial interests of all Powers, at the same time obtaining by their consent a fresh guarantee of its own integrity and independence.

The Viceroy of Egypt, who served his suzerain so faithfully in time of war, will render him no less a service by his conduct in this work of peace, and thus Napoleon I.'s prediction will be fulfulled, for, from the beginning of this century, he regarded the opening of a canal between the two seas as a means of contributing to the glory and strength of the Ottoman Empire.

CXI.

To MADAME DELAMALLE, PARIS.

(Continuation of Journal.)

ALEXANDRIA, July 16, 1856.

I REACHED the port of Alexandria this morning, and I could not have arrived at a better time, for when the ship cast anchor the guns of the port proclaimed the Viceroy's birthday. When I learnt that the Consular corps and other authorities were going to congratulate his Highness at eight o'clock, I took care no one should tell him I was on board the mail boat from Trieste; and going to the palace without stopping in the town, I entered the Viceroy's room: we embraced, and I was the first to offer my felicitations.

I shall conclude my business and leave for Paris on the the 22nd, going via Trieste, Vienna, Milan, Genoa, and Marseilles.

CXII.

To M. THOUVENEL, CONSTANTINOPLE.

ALEXANDRIA, July 20, 1856.

PUBLIC opinion here is engrossed with the official mission of Nedjib Bey, the envoy from the Sultan, who brings magnificent presents to his Highness the Viceroy. The autograph letters by which the Grand Seigneur accredits him were read with great ceremony in the presence of all the functionaries, Ulemas, Christian Patriachs, and Rabbis.

Nedjib Bey, whom I knew in Constantinople and with whom I had private interviews, seems well satisfied with