252 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



begun. The present Viceroy, by carrying out this 

 great enterprise, will confer high honour upon him- 

 self, and will elevate in no small degree the role of 

 Egypt in the affairs of the world. I cannot say, nor 

 can any one else, what will be the fate of the Maho- 

 metan East as a consequence of the efforts which are 

 now being made whether to maintain it, or to trans- 

 form but, in any event, the great canal from the 

 Mediterranean to the Suez will transform the relations 

 of Europe and Asia. This is a result which is worth 

 working for, and which may be attained amidst the 

 storms and obscurities of the war now in progress.' ' 



To the same. 



"ALEXANDRIA, April 8, 1855. 



" M. Baude, in the Revue des Deux Mondes, advocates 

 the roundabout route for the canal proposed by Tala- 

 bot, and he bases his argument for it upon the state- 

 ment that the delta and alluvial deposits on the east 

 coast of Egypt are due entirely to the mud from the 

 Nile, which will block up the entrance to the canal at 

 the Mediterranean end. This is an erroneous view, 

 which the subjoined report of Linant Bey and Mougel 

 Bey will serve to dispel ; and it will, I may add, 

 be much easier and less costly to execute the works 

 required for preventing any silting up of the kind 

 than to make the canal by the roundabout route, which 

 is two hundred miles long, and which would necessi- 

 tate from eighteen to twenty-four locks and a very 



