April 11, 1859.] PIM ON THE ISTHMUS OF SUEZ. 191 



Hope"; while, by way of Gibraltar, throTigh the proposed canal, and 

 down the Eed Sea, the distance is 8000, showing a diiFerence of 

 6000 miles in favour of the canal route. This is apparently a great 

 gain; but, upon reference to the difficult navigation of both the 

 Mediterranean and Eed Sea, it will be found that the average 

 passage of twenty fine ships last year to Alexandria was 54 miles 

 per day, and of twelve ships to Suez 25 miles per day. Now a 

 small average, by way of the Cape of Good Hope, is 130 miles per 

 day ; therefore, basing the length of voyage on that calculation, 

 the distance from England to Calcutta by way of Suez would be 

 16,000 miles, without taking into consideration the length of the 

 canal or the delay in passing through it. This is conclusive as 

 showing that the voyage round the Cape of Good Hope can be made 

 in a shorter time than by the proposed canal, to say nothing of the 

 dangers of the Eed Sea, which occasion the loss of one ship in ten 

 traversing its waters. We will now glance at the financial pros- 

 pects. The arrivals in the United Kingdom of English and foreign 

 vessels from ports of the East Indies, by way of the Cape of Good 

 Hope, amounted last year to 718,992 tons. Supposing all these 

 ships used the canal, the revenue, at 10 francs per ton, would not 

 amount to 300,000Z. per annum, not quite 4 per cent, on the low 

 estimate of 8,000,000?. ; but, as shown above, the canal route would 

 never be chosen by sailing ships ; and, as the transport of goods of 

 little value compared with their bulk must, from the small stowage 

 in steamers, be forwarded in sailing vessels, therefore a very large 

 number will ever continue to make the voyage round the Cape of 

 Good Hope, even if the canal were completed. As the proportion 

 of sailing-vessels to steamers in England is 13 to 1, the largest steam 

 mercantile marine in the world, it will be seen at a glance how few 

 vessels there will be calculated to benefit by the proposed canal. 



Eeviewing all the circumstances I have detailed, it seems clear 

 that the direct open cut from Pelusium to Suez is impracticable ; 

 that any canal would be useless except for steamers ; that the pro- 

 portion of that class of vessel is so small that the tolls collected 

 upon the whole number would not maintain the proposed gigantic 

 works ; and, finally, that the opening of a direct cut across the 

 Isthmus of Suez would be merely adding 100 miles to the delays 

 and difficulties of Mediterranean and Eed Sea navigation. 



While I have not hesitated to denounce the union of the two seas 

 by a direct cut across the Isthmus of Suez as hopeless and impracti- 

 cable, I have not lost sight of the necessity of diminishing by every 

 possible means the time occupied in the voyage between the mother 

 country and her colonies. The importance of maintaining a rapid 



