VISCOUNT FERDINAND DE LESSEPS. 375 



Ever since the establishment of British power in India, the best 

 minds in England had seen the necessity of securing a right of way 

 across the Delta of the Nile, and a step in this direction seemed to be 

 made in the treaty of Warren Hastings in 177G ; but nothing came of it 

 till the vigorous movement of Mehemet Ali to open a transit route via 

 the Mahmoudieh Canal brought Waghorn to the front in 1829, — the 

 Indian mail service really opened two years later, — although it was 

 not till 1840 that a steamship company used the Red Sea route. 

 Young M. de Lesseps was witness of Waghorn's triumph, and, more 

 than all the world besides, did him the honor of a just appreciation. 

 He was an example and an inspiration all his life, and when his own 

 hour of triumph arrived he raised a statue to Waghorn at Suez. 



Professional detractors discover, now, that the Suez Canal never 

 really presented any physical difficulties or dangers ; but how many of 

 this class resisted the heresies of the French expedition, or forsook 

 them at the bidding of a Bourdelau? Many of us are old enough to 

 remember when in popular belief the two seas were out of level, the 

 sand storms of the desert buried caravans and armies, and thousands of 

 dead fellaheen were used each month to raise the banks of the Mah- 

 moudieh Canal. Children in our Sabbath schools were taught these 

 things of the land of Mehemet Ali, — that bold bad Napoleon of 

 Islam. And yet the Revue des Deux Mondes, away back in 1835, 

 ventured to say, " Mehemet Ali is working for Europe, which will 

 become his heir." 



None of these bugbears troubled the mind of M. de Lesseps, who 

 was the first to declare that the Isthmus was only a muraiUe de sahle 

 qui arrete le proyres. This was not the "bluff" of the speculator, 

 but the faith that moves mountains. Yet, as late as July, 1852, in a 

 letter to the Consul General of Holland in Egypt, he says, " I confess 

 that my scheme is still in the clouds, and I do not conceal from myself 

 that, as long as I am the only person who believes it to be possible, that 

 is tantamount to saying it is impossible." At this time he had forsaken 

 Egypt and was setting up a model farm in the Berry district and 

 restoring the castle of Agnes Sorel. Abbas Pasha was then Viceroy 

 of Egypt, and this prince knew not Joseph. It was under this 

 Viceroy that the English Transit Railway was built. 



In 1854, when M. de Lesseps was nearly fifty years old. Abbas 

 Pasha died, and the " sympathetic Mohammed Said " became Viceroy 

 of Egypt, and immediately sent for his old master to return ; and before 

 the close of the year, the concession of powers for the formation of the 

 canal company had been issued. 



