THE ORIGIN OF THE SUEZ CANAL. 57 



which the Suez Canal would create for India, as well 

 as for the integrity of the Ottoman Empire. The 

 English press has already declared, of its own accord, 

 that the masters of India have nothing to fear from 

 the Mediterranean Powers as long as they are in 

 possession of Gibraltar, Malta, Aden, and have just 

 taken Perim. Turkey is at least as much interested as 

 Lord Palmerston in seeing that Egypt is kept within 

 the limits assigned to her by treaty. Now, the Divan 

 is so far from regarding the canal as a cause of sepa- 

 ration, that the English Ambassador is obliged to bring 

 his full weight to bear in order to defer the ratifica- 

 tion of the project. It is clear to the Porte, as it must 

 be to all reflecting minds, that the opening of the 

 isthmus, guaranteeing, as it will, Egypt against all 

 foreign ambition, will add a fresh force to the integ- 

 rity of the Empire, and be fraught for Turkey with 

 religious and economic consequences of the highest 

 importance. 



" If a systematic yet unavailing opposition is per- 

 sisted in, the enterprise may be beset with difficulties 

 which will aggrandize rather than weaken it, but its 

 execution will be resolutely gone on with, and the 

 universal support accorded it will render its success 

 infallible. In the meanwhile, it will be for the com- 

 mercial classes of England to decide whether, in oppo- 

 sition to the views they have manifested, the obstacles 

 are to be raised by their own Government. It will be 

 for them to say whether they will allow a policy so 



VOL. II. F 



