190 PIM ON THE ISTHMUS OF SUEZ. [April 11, 1859. 



of the works, and, judging by the cost of similar undertakings, 

 1,500,000/. would at least be required. 



Thus it appears that, supposing only ordinary difficulties occur, 

 the sum of 10,600,000/. would be requisite for the mere construction 

 of Port Said, 92 miles of canal, and Port Suez. M. Lesseps himself 

 fixed the contingent work and other expenditure at 3,500,000/., 

 therefore the grand total for works would amount to 14,000,000/.; 

 when, however, the serious obstacles I have detailed, and which 

 will inevitably be met with, are taken into consideration, it must 

 be evident that the 14,000,000/. I have named may be increased ad 

 infinitum ; in fact, from the outset the utmost uncertainty regarding 

 expenses must prevail. At first sight it seems difficult to under- 

 stand how such a small estimate as 8,000,000/. could have been 

 supposed sufficient. But it is probable that Messrs. Linant Bey 

 and Mangel Bey have been dealing with forced labour, and the 

 expenditure of money of which no account has been given. This 

 forced labour is slavery in its worst form. The Fellahs are com- 

 pelled to leave their homes at the will of the Pasha : the Mamau- 

 dieh is a melancholy instance of this ; 20,000 of the workmen are 

 said to have perished during its construction. Males of all ages, 

 from children ten years old and upwards to old age, are taken from 

 their native villages and made to work. I have myself often seen 

 the poor wretches in gangs of hundreds, surrounded by overseers 

 with sticks, whose duty it was to beat any symptoms of laziness out 

 of them. The Fellahs naturally look upon the canal scheme as the 

 certain grave of thousands; they know the locality is entirely 

 destitute of water, and they have vividly in remembrance the late 

 disasters in the vicinity of Suez, when so many of their numbers 

 perished. The Fellahs, it is true, make excellent navvies — ^witness 

 the railway they have constructed ; but in that instance they entered 

 into the spirit of the work and appreciated its importance, in proof 

 of which they lately volunteered to make the embankment, if the 

 rails were provided, from the main line to Samanhour, and also to 

 Zagazig, both of which branch lines are now in course of construc- 

 tion, and when finished will open up the richest part of the Delta. 



Having now disposed of the question of practicability, let us 

 examine whether, under different circumstances, the Suez Canal 

 would have been a paying concern. The facts I am about to quote 

 are of the latest date, and have been in the kindest manner furnished 

 by the Peninsular and Oriental Company and the Board of Trade. 

 In the first place, the distance from England to the East Indies 

 (say Calcutta, for instance) is 13,000 miles via the Cape of Good 



