352 



COFFEE. 



through the canal during the years from 1870 to and including 

 1879, will prove interesting : 



Navigation, hy ilags, through the Suez CamMfor the yea/r ending 

 December 31, 1877. 



By this it will be seen that about 78 per cent., both in the num- 

 ber of ships and tonnage, are English, while the United States come 

 in with a beggarly 3, against a total number of 1,641 vessels, and a 

 tonnage of 2,152, against 2,250,554. The canal has become a ne- 

 cessity to great Britain, and a convenience to the whole world. 

 That the English Government appreciates this is evident from the 

 fact that during 1875 it purchased from the Khedive of Egypt 

 176,602 of his shares for $20,000,000. It is supposed that this 

 was done in order that in any future opening up of the Eastern 

 question, England might have a commercial claim to the great 

 highway to India. M. de Lesseps, in a circular issued by him to 

 the company after the purchase, while commenting somewhat bit- 

 terly on the opposition offered by Great Britain, as a nation, to 



* The figures for the last three years have been supplied to bring tlje state- 

 ment up to recent date. 



