72 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



cannot affect to ignore that these declarations, which 

 will serve as a guide to the diplomatic agents of 

 England, will cause your Highness a good deal of 

 annoyance, which I should wish to spare you. You 

 can put upon me all responsibility for the preliminary 

 works on the canal, and with this view I have in- 

 formed MM. Eenaud and Lieussou, who have been 

 appointed to survey for the making of the sweet-water 

 canal, that I was about to propose to your Highness 

 not to execute the work at your own cost, but to 

 leave it in the hands of the Universal Company, which 

 will doubtless be organized very shortly. 



"If we look back to what occurred in regard 

 to Egypt during the years 1839-40 we find that 

 there is a good deal of analogy between then and 

 now. Thus among the grievances alleged by the 

 Porte, at the instigation of Lord Ponsonby, the 

 English Ambassador, to justify the armed intervention 

 against Mehemet Ali, was one to the effect that he 

 had attempted to interfere with Great Britain's com- 

 munications with India, by way of Egypt and 

 Syria. The only foundation for this charge was in the 

 following opinion, confidentially expressed by Me- 

 hemet Ali in a despatch to the Grand Yizier : 



" ' That the opening of the passage from Europe 

 to the Indies, by way of Egypt and Syria, ought 

 to be made for the benefit and with the concurrence 

 of all nations, and ought not to constitute a mono- 

 poly for the profit of England alone, a monopoly 



