THE CANAL OF SUEZ

Colonist, Issue 8, 17 November 1857, Page 2

THE CANAL OF SUEZ

" Necho commenced the digging of a Canal, Lut was frightened, by some oracular words of the priests."

"Amru, the Lieutenant of Caliph Omar, made in his day objections to the Canal; but he had a master who knew better, and who said to hinfj ' The Egyptians have persuaded thee ; but I will punish thee if thou dost not dig the Canal so that ships may sail upon it.' And in the seventh month from that time they did sail upon it."

By recent intelligence from England it will be perceived that the project of cutting the Canal of Suez has been again frustrated by the English Ambassador at Constantinople, and Lord Palmerston at home. The excuse of the latter is curious, but characteristic:—that it would facilitate the dismemberment of the Turkish Empire ! As bearing on this point, the following summary of the subject is quoted from one of the most remarkable works of modern times-: it forms a sequel to Sir John M'Niel's Progress of Russia in the East — the two works making a complete history of Russian aggression. Its author has been called a madman; but revolutionary Europe might be regenerated by such methodical madness. Its title is The Progress of Russia in the ■ West, North, and South. Its author is David Urquhart—a classical scholar—a traveller, a legislator, —a diplomatist,—an author, —a contributor to the Times in its best days,—and a regenerator of the Circassian tribes, and the first Englishman who formed their various tribes into one glorious and formidable phalanx, which has so heroically opposed Russia for the last twenty years, in spite of the base eonduGt of the Government of England in declaring Circassia to be a portion of the Russian Empire. The present state of India proves that the aggresactivity of Russia was only scotched at Se~ bastopol.

The opening up of the passage from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, a work associated with the glories of the Pharaohs, the Ptolemies, and ,the Caliphs, was a task which ought to have been vindicated to herself, by the ruler of the ocean and the mistress of India. The Pharaohs did not supply China with woollens, nor the Ptolemies, Hmdostam with cottons; the Caliphs were not rulers of the Deccan: none of them claimed superiority in the world by mechanical enterprise, or commercial ambition. England, with the dominion and the commerce of the East, with the dominion and the command of the seas, with wealth in one hand, and steam ia the other, has had no thought of bringing India and the Eastern hemisphere to her doors. If we had been ignorant of history, geography might have invited us to the attempt; and without surveys past events might have suggested the enterprise. The physical difficulties are nothing ; the dangers of the navigation of the Red Sea have disappeared. We have now the aid of locks and steam; we have illimitable capital and endless inventions. If, therefore, a canal had even proved impracticable in ancient times, that would be no argument now. What then are we. to say of those who, despite the evidence of its former existence, pronounce it an impossibility ?# The canal is mentioned by all the old writers, Herodotus, Pliny, Diodorus, Siculus, &c. It was in the Roman period restored under Adrian. Again closed' up by the shifting sands, it was opened as soon as the Arabs had got possession and established themselves on the Nile. The conqueror of that country, Amru, completed the work,f and it remained open for 120 years, until it again fell amidst the schisms of the Abassides and Omraaides,

Scarcely had Napoleon a sun-rise free, when he rode forth to the desert, in search of the traces- of the ancienl; work, and was the first to discover it; he then ordered the well-known survey. When

* Mr. Galloway was the first, I believe, to speak of 'impossibility,' but he qualifies it as ' financial.' Mr. Stephenson makes the matter very difficult, by reason of an asserted want of scour, and calculates the cost at 8,000,-OOOL Both these gentlemen were railwaymen and had counter-projects; and, besides they were both under the influence of the British consul at Alexandria, if not of the Foreign Office in Downing Street.

f The Egyptians, alarmed at the,threatened drain of provisions, succeeded in persuading Amru that the difficulties he would have to encounter were insurmountable ; probably from the reverse of' the want of scour.' The Caliph, however, saw more clearly into the motives of the Egyptians than his lieutenant.

it was brought to him, he asked whether the reopening was a project feasible, and being answered that it was easy, arid, even offered greater facilities than it had presented before, he said, —' Well, it is a great undertaking; publish" a report, and force tiie Turkish Government to find in its execution, profit, and glory.' If it presented greater facilities in the time of Napoleon than in those of Necho and Amru, how much greater are those it offers to-day ? Then there was no steam :it was not for France, as it is for England, a domestic matter.

The total distance, by the French, report, from Suez to Tyneh, on the Mcditerrean, is 180,852 metres, or less than ninety miles. The cost is estimated at 30,000,000 francs, or £1,250,000 sterling (not more than a railroad from Varna to Silistria, or from Alexandria to Cairo), they further estimate at some hundred millions of acres the irrigable land that would be recovered. I have not had the opportunity of examining the surveys of M. Linan, but they are undei'stood to be even more favorable and at a lower estimate than that of the French scientific commission.

The French calculated the Red Sea about thirty feet higher, in level, than the Mediterranean : this the railway engineers have taken upon themselves to deny; I am not aware upon what data: the aqueous and atmospheric currents would suggest the inference, even if the fact had not been established by positive survey, of a higher level at the western extremity of the Red Sea, than at the eastern of the Mediterranean.*

There is a competition between two lines : the one from Suez to the Nile, at the ancient city of Bubastis; the other from Suez direct to the Mediterranean, at the Pelusiac or Eastern mouth of the Nile. But it is immaterial to discuss their relative merits, as the most cumbersome and expensive would yet be sufficiently remunerative and practical. In ancient times the line to Bubastis was no doubt preferable because they were destitute of our means for shortening labor, and a passage was not required for vessels of the dimensions' of those which now navigate the Indian Ocean: still the ancient canal was of depth sufficient (30 feet) to float line-of-battle ships, and the canal of Omar was finished in six months, so that on the seventh vessels floated through it, carrying the grain of Egypt to Mecca. An English engineer officer, Captain Vetch, who has surveyed both lines decides in favor of the direct one ; lie points out a consideration not to be neglected, the greater specific gravity of the waters of the lied Sea, which, in the discharge at the Pelusiac mouth, would clear out the deposit from the Nile, which the current from the Mediterranean always carries eastward. His estimate, including the works at both entrances, slightly exceeds two millions sterling. There lies dormant a sum of money sufficient for the enterprise, and which, the Court of Directors, with the consent of the Government would dispose of for this purpose. . Independently of India, and its 150 millions of inhabitants, this canal would shorten by six weeks the trade of England with nearly 420 millions of souls,t and diminish the charges on the double voyage of the large vessels by at least £2000. Amongst these populations there are none who are our rivals; they are all, or would be, our customers. The opening of this passage would be equivalent to the acquisition of a second India. If the reader will take the trouble to examine a globe, compasses in hand: he will then make the discovery that by Panama the distance not only from London but also from New York, to the Indian Ocean is greater not only than by Suez, but also than by the Cape of Good Hope! The local traffic of the back of America and that of the United States with China no doubt would be greatly benefitted by this passage ; but is it upon this basis that the scheme is constructed, or from tliis source that the returns are to come ? It is the connection of the East and the West, that is proposed. Consequently all those who enter into the scheme, whether speculatively or practically, must be opposed to the Suez project: from the moment that the other is subscribed for, being of vast dimensions, a powerful organisation will be created, possessing the subject, controlling all the organs of publicity, counteracting in secret and scouting in public the counter scheme, if it ever conies into public notice, a circumstance scarcely to be expected seeing that the press of Europe is in the hands of Russia. This is her interest in the matter; she does not want to trade in California, but she ' will not fail to take advantage of every means presented by her position to oppose the shorter and safer way to the Indian Sea, through the Euphrates or the Isthmus of Suez.'J What avails it then that the Suez canal be the canal for the whole world. She is against it.

The Isthmus which unites North and South America differs from that which unites Africa and Asia, no less in the difficulties it presents than in the advantages which it affords. The Realejo was the line selected by Louis Napoleon; he calculated the cost at ,£4,000,000 (the distance 278 miles), and expected that 900,000 tons of shipping would pass, that from Europe paying 10s. a ton, that from America 20s. That is to say, a vessel of 1200 tons leaving London or New York for Calcutta was to take a circuit of some thousand miles for the privilege of paying some thousand pounds. By Panama compared with Suez, the voyage from London to Calcutta would be lengthened 9,300 miles; from London to Hong Kong 4,600; from New York to Hong Kong 1,200. and from New York to Calcutta, 4,500. § The dxpnediture would be greater by three-foui-ths,||and the traffic less by three-fourths. Nevertheless, the English Government oversteps all form and all discretion to promote, to suggest, to call into existence the Panama Project, even, seducing capitalists to investing in it; it positively enters into a treaty with the United States for this end.

When this treaty was signed, it was accepted as an evidence of the praiseworthy anxiety of those governments to hurry on the march of intellect and the progress of civilisation. No one was struck with the extraordinary nature and provisions of the act; no one looked at the map; as in the case of the Austrian Treaty for the Danube, they took from it their notions of Geography, and all the world imagined that this canal was to put in direct communication the East and the West. The Atlantic and Pacific wei'e now to be joined— who cared for a communication between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, by a cut across

* " The surface of all the seas that communicate one with another must be regarded as generally perfectly equal in respect of mean elevation. Prevailing, winds and currents, however, in extensive land-locked seas, the Red Sea, for example, produce permanent, though still inconsiderable, differences of level. At the Isthmus of Suez, the level of the Red Sea is from 24 to 36 feet above that of the Mediterranean at different hours of the day. The form of the canal (the Straits of Babelmanded), by which the Indian Ocean communicates with the Red Sea being such, that the waters find a readier access than outlet, appears to assist in producing this remarkable, permanent, superior elevation of the surface of the Red Sea, which was already known to the ancients."— llumboldt's Cosmos, vol. i. p> 329. '

POPULATION. f Abyssinia . ... . , 2,500,000 Africa (eastern) say . . . 10,000,000 Arabia, say . . . . . 2,500,000 Australia and New Zealand . .. 500,000 Ava ........ 3,500,000 Borneo ....... 1,500,000 Ceylon 1,500,000 China ...... 850,000,0.0.0 Cochin China, and Cambodia . 4,000,000 Java ....... 10,000,000 Madagascar and Zangibar, Mauritius and Bourbon . . . 2,500,000 Malacca ...... 500,000 Persia ...... 9,000,000 The Phillippines . . . 3,000,000 Siam . ... . . . 2,500,000 Sumatra ..... 3,000,000 Tonquin ... . . 12,000,000 418,500,000 % Nebenlua.

Via Suez. Via Panama. § London to Calcutta . 7,920 — 17,280 New York „ . .. .9,800 — 14,340 London to Hong Kong 9,660 — 14,340 New York „ ; 11,460 — 12,640 || If we take the extreme calculations the Suez Canal would only cost one twelfth.

the Isthmus, the actual road from London to Calcutta, and which would join the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, and also to the Pacific? If heard of at all, it was smiled at as a cunning but defeated scheme of the envious French..

Here is a case in Avhich the nation may rectify as well as judge. We are seeking for means of investment for superfluous capital: here is a field better than any loan or railway at home or abroad. The present traffic by the Cape amounts to 1,500,000 of tons, we may estimate it by canal at 2,000,000 which would soon be largely increased. Estimating the dues at the half of that sum proposed by Louis Napoleon, for Panama (the quarter upon American vessels), the yearly returns would amount to half a million, or 20 per cent, upon the original investment. There is no difficulty whatever in the enterprise, if those who conduct it steer clear of Downing Street in England, and the British Embassy at Constantinople. But if English merchants are unfit to walk by. themselves, is there no capital available in France"? We have heard much of the spirit of enterprise of the Anglo-Saxon race ; we have heard much of what its energy was capable when planted in the New World, and freed from the governing trammels which oppress it in the Old; if so let it appear. Here is something worthier than buccaneering expeditions against Cuba, or civilising armaments for Japan. The United States have pretensions to justify and character to regain, no less than interests to advance and fortune to pursue. The parental stock in these Islands pleases itself sometimes in the anticipation of their future greatness, strange if it should have to look to them for its own present extrication.

We believe a great want, is at present felt by many re.-ident in the town from the fact, that we have no places of amusement or recreation existing. Although we have a Literary Institution, the rate of, payment we think too Mgh' and beyond the reach of many. Wbat we desire to see is (were it possible) the present building enlarged, the number of periodicals and good sterling works increased, and a series of lectures given on every useful subject gratuitously to every subscribing member.

It is highly necessary (as it always has bi?en) that the public shouM have every opportunity given them to obtain information on the events of the day, and we earnestly hope attention will ere long be given to this very important subject;, for nothing tends more to the development of wbat is good in man than fostering and cherishing a desire to obtain a knowledge of the beauties and wonders of nature and art that are vi-. sible around. Education, we are happy to say,, is becoming every day mr-to > ppreciated, its importance in all free couuti;«BM acknowledged,— in all despotic nations its want is f< It. Possessing as we do in this colony a large amount of political power, self government will be, found defective unless the community become enlightened, their minds expanded by the genial influences of science, and the blessings of L terary Institutions popularised. The using generation and many am -rig us who liave borne the heat and burden of the day in felling the forest and opening up the country, wiil, we trust, shortly experience the good that is sure to be effected, by doing all that can be done for the intellectual amusement and recreation of the young people of Nelson. •

It is well for this Province that no instance of canine rabies has ever been known, to occur here, and it will still be well if such a' fearful disease never appears amongst us. We believe the cause of its non-appearance in. the Southern hemisphere has never been traced to any authentic source; it may be atmospheric, or any thing else, for ought we know, and either too much or too little electricity may be the prevention of such a calamity. We cannot tell however, how soon the cause of this non-ap-pearance may be removed, and it behoves the Government of this Province to take some steps for the reduction of the multitude of useless and unnecessary curs that are constantly howling, growling, and fighting in the streets of the town. It should almost have been a sine qua non with the constituent and the member oi the Council, that the question of a Dog Tax should be brought before the House. Surely no man who values his dog would object to pay a small amount to have the animal protected against the mongrel crew that are wandering through the streets day and night in search of a meal, rather than in search of a master! Those who own these brutes cannot requir e them for any special purpose or they would, keep them at home, and prevent their being the pest and nuisance they are. Frequently any one may st;md at the coiner of a street and count twenty or thirty of the most hetreogeneous, mixed, and useless breed of dogs in the world; suddenly there will be a yelping, growling, and fighting amongst them, causing an uproar in the streets, and an annoyance to every one passing or living there. How often also do we find men on horseback dangerously interfered with by some whelp running after, barking and biting at the horse's heels? Such a nuisance should have some remedy applied for its prevention; and. we do hope that the Provincial Council when ■ they meet, will project some measure, not only to abate the nuisance,-but to protect those who pay a fax for their dogs. . '

Write your name by kindness, love, and mercy, on the hearts of the people you come in contact with year by year, and you willnever be forgotten. '— Dr. Chalmers.

Mirthpulnbss.—As the diamond is found in the darkness of the mine, as the lightning shoots with the most vivid flashes from the gloomiest cloud, so does mirthfulness frequently proceed from a heart that is susceptibleof the deepest melancholy. It is no more possible for an idle man to keep together a certain stock of knowledge than it is possible to keep together a stock of ice exposed to the meridian. Every day destroys a fact, a relation, or an influence; and the only method of preserving the bulk and value of the pile is by constantly adding to it,— Sydney Smith, A Wobd for the Suspicious.—-Shadows of doubting are generally flung from some bad realities within. You are looking at your own image when you see so mueh vileness in your neighbour's face.. ' '.

If thou would'st have, a good servant, let the servant find a good master. Be not angry with him too long, lest he think thee malicious; nor too soon, lest he conceive thee rash; nor too often, lest he count thee humorous.

Philosophy v. Astbonomy.—Exceedingly interesting are the new experiments about the earth's rotation; but it is said that a little more brandy in your water than usual will cause the rotation of the earth to he distinctly visible.