THE SUEZ CANAIi. 



371 



occur at intervals of 6 or 8 miles along the route. The original projectors had 

 anticipated a yearly traffic of six million tons; but provision must now be made for 

 a double and even fourfold movement at no distant date. It is proposed to treble 

 the width of the present channel, so that steamers may pass each other without 

 slacking speed, and also to prevent the whole traffic from being blocked by the 

 grounding of a single vessel, as so frequently happens at present. 



England, which formerly opposed the opening of the canal, is the very pov^r 

 now most urgent in calling for its enlargement. But the results afford a ready 

 explanation of this change of attitude. The canal has in fact become an almost 

 exclusively British highway, and an eighth part of the whole trade of Great 

 Britain, representing a value of over £80,000,000, passes through the Isthmus of 



Fig. 111. — Great Inteknatioxal Koutes of the Old World. 

 Scale 1 : 170,000,000. 



3,000 Miles. 



Suez. The British Government has also become one of the chief shareholders, and 

 since the occupation of Egypt it practically controls this route, which it may open 

 or close at pleasure, as was seen before the battle of Tel-el-Kebir, when all traffic 

 was for a short time suspended, in spite of the conventions guaranteeing the 

 neutrality of the passage between the two seas. Thus Great Britain, which feared 

 lest the marine route to India might fall into the hands of her rivals, has succeeded 

 in securing its possession at least for the present. At the same time, according to 

 the terms of the international convention concluded in 1885, the canal is hence- 

 forth declared an open highway under the joint guarantee of the European 

 powers. It is thus absolutely free to the ships of all nations, and in time of war 

 even to those of belligerents; which, however, cannot remain in the canal for a 



