276 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



will be at liberty to subscribe without any regard to 

 politics. 6th, That the Yiceroy, having completed 

 the railway from Alexandria to Cairo, at the cost of 

 the Egyptian treasury, and being now engaged in 

 making the final section from Cairo to Suez, had been 

 anxious to give full satisfaction to England. And 

 7th, That the Suez Canal, having been of his own free 

 will made over to private enterprise, there was no 

 fear of the resources of the country which he ruled 

 being imperilled, and that his only aim was to further 

 the interests of Egypt and of his Suzerain. All that 

 I now ask you is to examina the question calmly and 

 impartially, being convinced that a mind so enlight- 

 ened as yours will not admit it to be possible that an 

 event so profitable to the moral [and material interests 

 of the whole world can be detrimental to the power 

 or commercial relations of England. 



" Lord C. I will not conceal from you that the tra- 

 dition of our Government has, up to the present, been 

 hostile to the making of a canal through the Isthmus 

 of Suez. I have myself, since I have had to deal with 

 this question, been compelled to conform my opinion 

 accordingly, and I confess it is not favourable to the 

 scheme. 



""We then discussed the objections raised in Lord 

 Cowley's note. 



"Myself. It seems after what has been said by 

 yourself as well as by me that the opinion which you 

 may have formed before you were acquainted with 



