1870.] Mr. J. F. Bateman on the Suez Canal. 137 



being maintained with ease and efficiency, and without the necessity of 

 incurring any extraordinary or unusual yearly expenditure." 



The whole of Mr. Hawkshaw's report is well worthy of perusal ; and I 

 must congratulate him on the sound conclusions at which he arrived, and 

 on the foresight by which he was enabled to point out difficulties and con- 

 tingencies which have since arisen. Could he at that time have seen the 

 full realization of the work, he would scarcely have altered the report 

 he wrote. 



Said Pasha died between the period of Mr. Hawkshaw's examination of 

 the country and the date of his report. He was succeeded by his brother 

 Ismail, the present Viceroy or Khedive, who, alarmed at the largeness 

 and uncertainty of the grants to the Canal Company, of the proprietor- 

 ship of land which could be irrigated by the Sweet-water Canal, and 

 anxious to retire from the obligation of finding forced labour for the con- 

 struction of the works, refused to ratify or agree to the concessions 

 granted by his brother. The whole question was referred to the arbitration 

 of the present Emperor of the French, who kindly undertook the task, 

 and awarded the sum of .£3,800,000 to be paid by the Viceroy to the 

 Canal Company as indemnification for the loss they would sustain by the 

 withdrawal of forced or native labour, for the retrocession of large grants of 

 land, and for the abandonment of other privileges attached to the original 

 Act of Concession. This money was applied to the prosecution of the 

 works. 



The withdrawal of native labour involved very important changes in the 

 mode of conducting the works, and occasioned at the time considerable 

 delay. Mechanical appliances for the removal of the material, and Euro- 

 pean skilled labour, had to be substituted ; these had to be recruited from 

 different parts of Europe, and great difficulty was experienced in pro- 

 curing them. The accessory canals had to be widened for the conveyance 

 of larger dredging-machines, and additional dwellings had to be provided for 

 the accommodation of European labourers. All these difficulties were 

 overcome, and the work proceeded. 



Since the date of Mr. Hawkshaw's Report, viz. February 1863, much has 

 been said and written upon the operations of the canal as they were going 

 on, and upon its prospects of success. Sir William Denison, K.C.B., R.E., 

 presented the Institution of Civil Engineers, in April 1S67, with a paper 

 on the condition of the works as he found them at the end of 1866, which 

 led to an animated discussion upon the whole subject. The conclusions 

 at which Sir William Denison himself arrived were : — 



" 1st. That (subject, of course, to the condition that the relative levels 

 of the Red Sea and the Mediterranean are as stated by the French autho- 

 rities) there will be no extraordinary difficulty in carrying an open salt- 

 water channel from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea of the depth pro- 

 posed, namely 8 metres. 



