YISCOUNT FERDINAND DE LESSEES. 379 



to her trade from the success of the canal built by a rival nation ; but 

 when she prevailed upon the Sultan to order the withdrawal of 

 the fellah labor, our American journals charged her with complacent 

 hypocrisy, and very naturally, since she had just completed the 

 Transit Railway under the corvee in its most cruel form. Under this 

 corvee, Egypt had always draughted men for public works, much in 

 the same way that other countries procure soldiers in time of war. 

 In a country whose existence is involved in a system of canals of irri- 

 gation and dikes, there must be no hesitation at critical moments. 



M. de Lesseps had prevailed upon Mohammed Said greatly to mod- 

 ify the corvee so far as to provide wages and hospitals, but the Viceroy 

 insisted that the abolition of the system would ruin Egypt. Inducing 

 the peasant to work for government by offers of reward was an 

 untried experiment, and one too dangerous to try, since its failure 

 involved, as alternative, the calling in of foreign labor, — an abomina- 

 tion to the Egyptian. England's suggestion that, to avoid the foreign 

 force, the dimensions of tlie canal should be reduced to the capacity of 

 the native labor, was perfectly logical, and consistent with her alarm 

 policy. But England's policy, like our own, is the net result of con- 

 flict among varied interests, theories, and sentiments. The Transit 

 Railway had been practically a national interest, and in the composition 

 of forces this interest had been strong enough to determine the direc- 

 tion of the resultant till the work was finished. But reports from the 

 scene gradually aroused the humanitarians, who threw their weight 

 into the scale where the interests of the fellahs seemed to lie. In this 

 way, Lord Palmerston, wholly misunderstanding the signs of the 

 times (as events proved), worked more wisely than he knew, and the 

 spell that had darkened Egypt from her birth broke forever. 



M. de Lesseps — always single in his purpose — made the with- 

 drawal of the corvee another stepping stone to success. He procured 

 the reference of the question of damages to the Emperor of the 

 French, who made a generous decision in his favor, — far too gener- 

 ous, perhaps, but it enabled the company to introduce machinery in 

 place of hand labor, till the Suez plant excelled that in use in any 

 other part of the world. 



The writer of this notice, who made an inspection under full 

 authority from M. de Lesseps the year before the canal was opened, 

 can bear witness that never before or since, in his long experience, has 

 he seen laborers so kindly cared for and so free under the most abso- 

 lute discipline. M. de Lesseps said, " I have no difficulty in controlling 

 my laborers, because I treat thera kindly and make them comprehend 



