242 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



of the canal in his correspondence and conversation 

 with English statesmen, over whom he exercises so 

 deserved an influence. Give him, if you please, the 

 enclosed copies of my letters to the representatives 

 of Great Britain in Egypt and Constantinople. They 

 will prove to him that our only difficulties proceed 

 from England. It is upon England that we must 

 concentrate our efforts, and if M. Thiers, with his 

 wonderful talent for explaining his views, and with 

 the grandeur which they always possess, will take 

 up iny cause, his opinion will carry' great weight 

 with it. 



" There is one point of view which will not have 

 escaped his notice. The opening of the Suez isthmus 

 will be a very powerful safety valve for the boiler of 

 European revolutions. In 1848 we had evidence of 

 how necessary it was to find occupation for an exu- 

 berant population, and to provide some useful em- 

 ployment for the turbulent energies of those whom 

 a rapid increase in the number of inhabitants had 

 left in enforced idleness. It is, therefore, in the 

 interests of all the nations of Europe to favour the 

 junction of the two seas, which offers so vast a field 

 to their present tendencies towards speculation and 

 locomotion. 



" England does not like to confess the motives for 

 her opposition ; but she must make up her mind to 

 the fact that she can no longer claim the monopoly 

 of the trade of the world, nor supremacy in all waters. 



