THE ORIGIN OF THE SUEZ CANAL. 55 



to easier access to our Indian possessions, which I need 

 not more distinctly shadow forth because they will be 

 obvious to anybody who pays attention to the subject. 

 I can only express my surprise that M. Ferdinand de 

 Lesseps should have reckoned so much on the credulity 

 of English capitalists as to think that by his progress 

 through the different counties he should succeed in 

 obtaining English money for the promotion of a scheme 

 which is in every way so adverse to British interests. 

 (Hear, hear.) That scheme was launched, I believe, 

 about fifteen years ago as a rival to the railway from 

 Alexandria by Cairo to Suez, which, being infinitely 

 more practicable and likely to be more useful, obtained 

 the pre-eminence ; but probably the object which M. 

 de Lesseps and some of the promoters have in view 

 will be accomplished, even if the whole of the under- 

 taking should not be carried into execution. (Hear 

 and a laugh.) If my hon. friend, the member for 

 Bristol, will take my advice, he will have nothing to do 

 with the scheme in question. (Hear, hear.) 



To the Members of the Chambers of Commerce and of the 

 Commercial Associations of Great Britain. 



"PARIS, July 11, 1857. 



" I cannot pass over in silence the assertions which 

 the First Lord of the Treasury has thought fit to make 

 with reference to the Suez Canal scheme at a recent 

 sitting of the House of Commons. Replying to Mr. 

 Berkeley, he expressed himself hostile to the making 



