266 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



was on very friendly terms during the risings in 

 Barcelona, and when I was Minister at Madrid, was 

 sending to the manager of The Times the enclosed 

 letter, which embodies his own views as to the Suez 

 Canal Scheme. 



" The Times, June 13th, 1855. < The project for cut- 

 ting a canal through the Isthmus of Suez begins to 

 occupy so much the attention of the public, notwith- 

 standing the absorbing interest attached to our opera- 

 tions in the Crimea, that it may not be considered 

 out of place to say a few words respecting it. It 

 appears that in November last the Viceroy of Egypt 

 communicated to the Consuls- General accredited to 

 him a firman, in virtue of which M. Ferdinand de 

 Lesseps was authorised to organise a " Universal 

 Company," to which the concession of the construction 

 of the canal should be accorded. The terms of the 

 firman exclude the idea which had been entertained, 

 that the said concession was exclusively granted to a 

 single French subject, or even to a French company. 

 It was granted to an association of shareholders of 

 every country, to be constituted by the person already 

 named as the representative or negotiator of the Vice- 

 roy. M. de Lesseps at the outset gave complete 

 explanations to Mr. Bruce, her Britannic Majesty's 

 diplomatic agent and Consul- General in Egypt. In 

 the letter addressed from Cairo, on the 27th of 

 November, to that gentleman the negotiator expressed 

 his earnest desire to avoid everything which could 



