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Mr. J. F. Bateman on the Suez Canal. [Jan. 6, 



towards the seaward end of the jetty. The Company will no doubt see 

 the necessity of completing the necessary works here and elsewhere. The 

 harbour at Port SaVd and portions of the canal will require pretty constant 

 dredging for some time ; but in my opinion neither this nor any other work 

 will entail any very serious expense in maintenance. 



The cost of the whole undertaking is stated to have been about 

 £16,000,000 sterling; and it may require from £2,000,000 to £4,000,000 

 more to complete the work satisfactorily on its present scale of dimensions ; 

 but interest has to be paid at present on about half only of the capital 

 hitherto raised. 



Many persons who are competent to form sound opinions on this 

 point believe that the traffic will be quite sufficient to pay all cost of main- 

 tenance and handsome dividends ; but I am not sufficiently well informed 

 to hazard any conjecture on the purely financial part of the question. In 

 an engineering point of view I consider the canal a great and most im- 

 portant undertaking — great, however, only as respects its magnitude and 

 the country in which it has been executed. There is not a work of art or 

 of difficulty from one end to the other ; but there have been about 

 80,000,000 cubic yards of material excavated, and at one time nearly 

 30,000 labourers were employed in the works. For their sustenance, and 

 before operations could be carried on with any vigour, sweet water had 

 to be brought from the Nile at Cairo, and distributed along the whole 

 length of the canal. This work was in itself one of considerable magni- 

 tude. It is a navigable canal from Cairo to Ismai'lia, and thence to Suez. 

 From IsmaVlia to Port Said and intervening places, the fresh water is con- 

 veyed in pipes. The surplus water has been applied to irrigation, the 

 fertilizing results of which are already visible, and may be expected to 

 perform an important part in the improvement of the country. 



The canal must be regarded as a great work, more from its relation 

 to the national and commercial interests of the world than from its en- 

 gineering features. In this light it is impossible to overestimate its im- 

 portance. It will effect a total revolution in the mode of conducting the 

 great traffic between the East and the West, the beneficial effects of which 

 I believe it is difficult to realize. It is in this sense that the undertaking 

 must be regarded as a great one ; and its accomplishment is due mainly to 

 the rare courage and indomitable perseverance of M. Ferdinand Lesseps, 

 who well deserves the respect he has created and the praises which have 

 been bestowed. By cutting across the sandy ligaments which have hitherto 

 united Asia and Africa, a channel of water-communication has been opened 

 between the East and the West which will never again be closed so long as 

 mercantile prosperity lasts or civilization exists. 



I cannot close this letter without expressing my obligations to Mr. 

 Pender, Chairman of the Eastern Telegraphic Companies, who courteously 

 entertained me, with other friends, on our passage through the canal on 



