1 60 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



fraternity between us. He is to join us in the journey 

 through the desert, and will bring with him his 

 falcons and greyhounds. His arms and servants are 

 to be at my disposal." 



" November 9, 1854. 



" An early morning visit to the Yiceroy, in his 

 father's palace of Baz-el-tyn, at the extremity of the 

 port. This is his divan for official receptions, and I 

 witnessed the first audience granted to the Consul- 

 General of Sardinia, who had to present his letters of 

 credit. After the audience we enter the private 

 apartments, where we have a long and very interest- 

 ing conversation as to the best principles of govern- 

 ment, but in the course of which not a word is said 

 about the Suez Canal, a subject which I do not intend 

 to broach till I am quite sure of my ground, and 

 until the question is so far ripe that the Prince may 

 adopt the idea as coming rather from himself than 

 from me. 



" It is all the more necessary to act prudently as 

 Euyssenaers remembers having heard him say, before 

 his accession to power, that his father, Mehemet Ali, 

 to whom the project of making the canal had been 

 suggested, had abandoned it upon account of the diffi- 

 culties it might cause him with England; and that if 

 he ever became Viceroy he should do as his father 

 had done. 



k ' This precedent was not an encouraging one, but 

 I am convinced that I shall succeed." 



