196 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



me, obviate the necessity of my entering more into 

 detail about an enterprise in which, as you will ob- 

 serve, there is no question of any special privileges 

 for one state more than another, all that is intended 

 being to constitute an independent company, which 

 the shareholders of all nationalities will be able to join 

 upon equal terms." 



To Mr. Richard Cobden, M.P., London. 



11 CAIRO, December 3, 1854. 



" As a friend of peace and of the Anglo-French 

 alliance I send you a piece of news which will contri- 

 bute to realise the saying * aperire terram gentibus.' 

 I refer to the Viceroy's concession of powers for making 

 a canal through the Isthmus of Suez. Some persons 

 assert that the project will excite hostility in England. 

 I cannot believe it. Your statesmen are too enlight- 

 ened for me to admit such an idea. What ! England 

 has herself one-half of the general trade with the 

 Indies and China * she possesses an immense empire 

 in Asia ; she can reduce by a third the costs of her 

 trade and reduce by one-half the distance ; and she 

 will refuse to do so, simply in order that the nations 

 bordering on the Mediterranean may not benefit by 

 their geographical situation to do a little more trade 

 in Eastern waters than they do at present ! She would 

 deprive herself of the advantages to be derived mate- 

 rially and politically from this new mode of commu- 

 nication, merely because others are more favourably 



