The Press. — London, England, 1855-09-01 00:00:00

property, whether in India or in England ; and even if it were so, we have great reason to doubt whether the private lives of those who seek in either country to profit by the change are such as to make it an improvement to have them elevated in the places of those whom they would depose. The private life of this Eastern King, who died some years ago, is not a very favorable specimen of what the private life of princes ought to be ; but a man must be very ignorant of India and its social history who does not know that if the private lives of all the Company's public functionaries, past and present, were similarly written, a much more shameful record woull be published than that with which the English reader has thus been favoured. Indian scandals, civil, military, and mercantile, aro abundant—they are, unhappily not confined to the departed Kings of Oude. THE SUEZ CANAL. --- IT is gratifying to turn from the troubles and turmoils of war, its terrible bombardments and desperate con flicts, to the peaceful projects of scientific mem devised for the benefit of nations and the civilisation of the world. At this moment wealth and speed are the two great objects of mankind's pursuit. It is with the latter we have to do at present, and to call the attention of our readers to a subject which has more or less agitated Europe for some years, and which, through the efforts of M. Dc LEssEPS and DEVAL, French and English engineers of celebrity, has now arrived at such a state of advancement as to demand the consideration and decision of the two great Governments of Western Europe. We allude to the question of the Suez Canal. The first NAPOLEON, whose warnings ring through Europe at the present moment, as each recurring event testifies to the soundness of his opinions, remarked that " one day, perhaps, the Turkish Government would " owe its preservation and its glory to the execution " of this project, which he had designed to carry " out." It appears probable that a canal from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea would at once make Egypt the great high road of the commercial world, and might possibly contribute, under the guarantee of France and England, more to the preservation of the Turkish empire than a pyramid of protocols. But, leaving the Turkish empire to derive what benefit it ma 3 from the immense accession of European intelli gence and capital which would flow in upon Egypt on the construction of so magnificent a design, and the inestimable advantages of having its own dis tant Arabian dominions brought immediately under the influence of its Government, it is we ourselves who more than apy other nation in Europe are vitally concerned in the execution of this great project. The proposal is to cut a canal through the Isthmus of Suez from Pelusiam in the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. The depres sion of the land and the existence of numerous lakes en route, are singularly favorable to the project, which has been more or less entertained by every ruler of Egypt, from ALEXANDER the GREAT to NAPOLEON and SAID PAcuA. It is to be of sufficient depth to float the largest vessels (we suppose the leviathan at Millwall, now building, is included), to Cost 6,400,0001., and to be completed in six years. A company of capitalists is to be formed for the arrangement of the work, and they are to enjoy the revenues of the canal for ninety-nine years, paying fifteen per cent. on net profits to the Government of Egypt; after which it reverts to that Government. By it the route to India, China, Australia, and Poly tiesia, will be shortened by so vast a distance as to bring them all within a few weeks' reach of Lon don, while the trade of Europe with India is ex pected to be stimulated and benefited to an incal culable degree. The construction of a railroad from Alexandria to !nes would of course be more or less affected by this ship canal. For passenger traffic, the rail would be as much preferred in Egypt as it is in England to the tedious passage of a canal, were the route by the canal of any length. But when we bear in mind that the rail to Suez would be 204 miles, and the canal to the same spot only 90, there would be not Much advantage gained by the rail over a powerful steam-ship. The trains would not average more than t iirty miles an hour, while the steamers could in anooth water always attain ten or twelve ki.ots : consequently few would care to suffer all the inconve- Dieuees of disembarkation at, Alexandria, and re-em barkation again at Suez, when the same steamer would take them the whole distance from Southamp ton to Bombay or Calcutta; while for goods traffic TtlE PRESS the canal would Completely absorb all but the very light sort. The political considerations involved in the project are important. To us the sole value of Egypt is to secure the shortest route to our Indian possessions; and these, though they would, by the con struction of a ship canal, be brought ma terially nearer to us, would likewise be laid more open to the attack of an enemy in time of war; and the argument of M. DE LESSEPS, the projector of the present plan, that such a point could be easily remedied by the canal beir.g bound by treaty to the ex clusion of ships of war, is futile, if transports containing troops were to be admitted. On the other hand, were such vessels denied admission ; were military expedi tions of any sort excluded from using the canal, one of the main advantages of the canal to us—the affording a short and immediate route by which in a few weeks we could transport troops from England or Malta to any part of India—would be lost to us ; and while every other nation profited immensely by such a short route, we should he debarred from the principal advantage which it could offer. Such points might, perhaps, be best left in abeyance, the Government of the country being empowered to make whatever regulations it might deem expedient; but here again the Government of Cairo is traditionally opposed in its policy to that of Constantinople, and whenever English interest is predominant in Con stantinople it is precisely the reverse at Cairo; and hence the possession of the fortifications at the en trance and exit of the canal, if held by the Egyptian Government, might become to us a possible subject of serious contention. Neither can we agree with M. DE LESSEPS, that from the moment of the opening of the canal Egypt loses her present political importance. The canal would enhance her political importance to us at least, if not to France, a thousand fold. Moreover, it is within the bounds of probability that the present entente cordiale may not be per. manent, and the moment it ceases, Egypt, with its canal, becomes an object of jealousy to both, and of intense solicitude to the one. The neutrality of the Egyptian forces in possession of the defences would he nothing in time of war ;—the safety of our Indian possessions would depend more on Egyptian powers of resistance against an army determined to strike a blow at our Eastern empire than on Egyptian neu trality. The neutrality of weak nations has been trampled on before now, and would be again when the result counterbalances the breach of faith, and the canal on an emergency might be forced by a hostile fleet, though a great naval power like England, if prepared, ought certainly to have nothing to fear from such a canal, as a block ship at each of its mouths would at any time give us virtual command of the communication; for it is on the seas alone that the battle of naval supremacy must be fought, though England, under Whig adminis tration, is not always prepared with her fleets. The opening of such a route to the East would go far to revolutionise the trade of the world. France, Austria, Greece, Portugal, Spain, and Holland, would compete with us in our Eastern trade ; the Mediter ranean ports would profit enormously. But need we fear competition? The project now is firmly fixed in the mind of the present Viceroy of Egypt, and unless we step in and cut the canal, making it of such dimensions as shall admit the free passage of our largest ships, his Highness may find means to open a route for small coasting vessels which would more seriously damage our Eastern trade than the competition of all Europe and America put toge ther. From the various statements which M. DE LESSEPS has lately put forth in his able pamphlet, we are inclined to believe that the construction of the canal is perfectly practicable, but that the numerous dangers and difficulties of the navigation of the Red Sea, which are borne witness to by all who have ever traversed it—its south-west monsoon for ode six months in the year, and its north-west one for the other six months—will effectually prevent it from ever becoming the great route for large sailing. ships, though for steam navigation its benefits are incalculable, and perhaps one effect of its creation might be to increase the use of steam very ma terially in oceanic trade. The case as put forward by M. DE LESSEPS is on the whole partial, and does not fairly state the diffi culties of the question. All facility of intercourse with our distant possessions is of course of immense advantage to us in the abstract, but when the means of attaining that facility breaks down the barrier which has hitherto stood between Europe at large and India, it becomes a grave question of policy whether these proffered advaltages to us of easy in tercourse and increased trade with India are not more than fully compensated for by the perils which would necessarily environ our Eastern possessions. THE EAST INDIA COMPANY are relieved from maintaining Haileybury College by an act passed last session, and the establishment is to be closed from the 31st of January, 1858. No person will be admitted as a student after the 25th of January next. SATuitriO, INSULT TO A BRITISH ATTACHE AT NAPLES. _ . _ LETTERS from Naples recount the incidents of a daring insult offered at Naples to the First Attaché of the British Legation in that city. It has long been known that the strongest antipathy was felt by the Neapolitan for the British Government, though all the shades of bad humour by which that antipathy was indicated were not hitherto appreciated. Be yond a certain line it has never ventured, and it has been reserved to the present time to violate even the courtesies of society towards a highly meritorious and confidential agent of the British Government. The details of the case are thus given in a letter of the 25th ult. : A few evenings since, Mr. Fagan, First Attaché to the British Legation at Naples, was charged by his Minister with a commission to Prince Satriano, the Superintendent of Theatres. To execute it he was obliged to go to the Teatro del Fondo ; the commission being simply to re quest a benefit for Signora Paressa, an English lady now singing in Naples. On his entering the prince's box, the Minister of Police, who was opposite, began to make sip.' of the greatest anger and the most menacing gesticula tions in that direction, to the great astonishment of Prince Satriano, who was unable to divine the reason of it. On the following day the director sent for Signor Attanasio, one of the employes of the Superintendenza, and, healing the lowest insults on Prince Satriano for having received such a man as Signor Fagan, who was stigmatised as a birbutele asseusino, and an enemy of the King, ordered him to inform the prince that he prohibited him from ever again receiving Mr. Fagan in his box. Had this been an insult offered to private gentlemen only it would have been bad enough, but the station of all persons engaged converts it into an affair of great public importance. Prince Satriano is himself a man of the highest rank and character. The Director of Police has now supreme control over the lives and liberties of the Neapolitan subjects, while Mr. Fagan is the First Attaché to the British Legation, a rank and office which in most parts of the world commands the highest respect. The transaction, therefore, is one of importance, and, unless promptly and strongly resented, will prove to be the pre cursor of other, and in such a case deserved insults. LORD PANMURE has expressed his entire approba tion of the dismissal of Assistant-Surgeon Bakewell from the army, on account of his having written a letter to the papers, complaining of certain hospital deficiencies in the camp. "As regards the absence of the accuser during the inquiry," writes Mr. F. Peel to the father of the unfortunate surgeon, "I am to observe that he made his charges anony mously, and that the inquiry was instituted not for his detection, but for the discovery of the truth in the matteer of his charges; and that though an anonymous accuser may succeed in hiding himself, he must not expect that his accusations will be suffered to remain uncontradicted because proceed ing from an unknown quarter." CoL. J. F. S. CLARKE has been appointed Deputy- Quartermaster-General at the Horse Guards in place of the late Major-General Sir Arthur Torrens, K.C.B. Mr. A. J. STEPHENS has been appointed Recorder of Andover, in the room of Mr. Bellenden Ker, re signed. MR. J. D. COLEREDGE, of the Western Circuit, will be the new Recorder of Portsmouth, in succession to Mr. Massey, M.P., appointed Under-Secretary for the Home Department. A LETTER FROM ROME mentions some fresh disco veries of antiquities, among which are two columns, one of alabaster and the other of marble, both of ad mirable beauty, dug up in the Via della Scrofa, and a granite column twenty feet long, with a well-pre served Corinthian capital of marble. IT is estimated that the damage caused by the late earthquake in the Valais does not amount to less than a million of francs. The British Museum closed yesterday, and will not reopen until Monday the 10th of September, when the hours of admission will be from ten till four during the winter months, instead of ten to seven as during the summer season. By the death of Mrs. Richardson the Governesses' Benevolent Institution acquire the sum of 12,0001. The deceased lady contributed to the Cancer Hospital, the West London Dispensary, and nume rous other charities, previous to the termination of her useful life. TEE Simla and the Cleopatra (both screw steamers) have been in collision in the neighbour hood of Constantinople, and both were damaged. COMMANDER LAURENZANA, a Neapolitan colon' l under Murat, lately died at Genoa, in the 80th year of his age. He was for several years a prisoner of Lr. Francis, in Paraguay, and, having been constantly kept there at work in the fields, he was nearly bent double. Mn. J. CARTER, the engraver of E. M. Ward's " Scene in Change Alley during the Agitation of the South Sea Bubble," expired suddenly last week having only just completed the unpublished plate of " West's First Effort in Art," from Ward's picture of that title.