IOD RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



worked out by very competent engineers, agreed to by 

 the principal men of science in Europe, and accepted 

 by all the great commercial and maritime towns, in- 

 cluding those in England. 



" ' As there is no more serious resistance than this 

 to be encountered, and as English statesmen have no 

 better reasons than these to justify the hostile action 

 of their agents at Constantinople for the last three 

 years, all that we have to do is to prove that the 

 so-called chimera is a reality. 



" l The Universal Company of the Suez Canal, armed 

 with the regular concession of the Viceroy, to which 

 the Sultan offers no opposition in so far as concerns 

 his Suzerainty and the interests of his Empire, will, 

 however, be too prudent to provoke a conflict between 

 the policy of progress and that of retrogression, or to 

 give its opponents an excuse for playing upon 

 prejudices ; while so as to avoid all misunderstand- 

 ings in an affair which should retain its general and 

 commercial character, the Company will not ask for 

 the assistance of any of the governments of whose 

 support it was assured. But it is about to organize 

 itself in a definite form ; it will march resolutely for- 

 ward and complete its work, backed up by the invest- 

 ments of its shareholders of all nations, and by the 

 public opinion of the whole world. 



uc The Scientific Commission will meet about the 

 end of June, and its report will settle the conditions 

 under which the works are to be executed, in order to 



