290 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



by all the other members of the International Com- 

 mission, the general meeting should be held in Paris." 



To M. Barthelemy St. Hilaire, Paris. 



" LONDON, April 7, 1856. 



" I found Lord Palmerston just what he was in 

 1840, full of mistrust and prejudices with regard to 

 France and Egypt. He was very polite, and was in 

 some respects very frank, but after hearing me read 

 the resume of my conversation with Lord Clarendon, 

 he spoke to me, with regard to the Suez Canal, in the 

 most contradictory, the most incoherent, and, I will 

 even add, the most senseless fashion imaginable. He 

 is firmly convinced that France has long pursued a 

 most machiavelian policy in Egypt against England, 

 and that the fortifications of Alexandria were paid for 

 by Louis Philippe or his Government. He sees in the 

 Suez Canal the consequences of this policy. Upon 

 the other hand, he persists in maintaining that the 

 execution of the canal is materially impossible, and 

 that he knows more about it than all the engineers in 

 Europe, whose opinions will not alter his. Then, re- 

 gardless of the fact that he had just proved the scheme 

 to be impracticable, he indulged in a long tirade 

 upon the drawbacks which would result for Turkey, 

 and for Egypt herself, from the Viceroy's concession 

 and the realisation of the enterprise. Finally, he 

 declared that he should continue to be my adversary 

 without any sort of reticence. I could not help ask- 



