The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-07-21 00:00:00

THE SUEZ CANAL QUESTION.

THE history of the Suez Canal is one of the
most rem akable in the annals of the present
century. Five or six and twenty years do not
make a long contribution to the records of a
State which it has not taken a thousand years
to build up; and yet it is within the past quirter
of a century that the great project of cutting a
vvat er- way across the Isthmus of Suez has been
planned end executed.. Many of us reinemi,er
1857, the year of the Indian mutiny, when the
news of that terrible outbreak took a month to
reach this country, owing to the absence of tele-
graphic communication with our Eastern de-
pendency. The despatch of troops was also by
tile old route round the Cape. It was on the
21th July, 1857, that a n:e ti g was held at the
Mansion House, in London. the IL,lrd Mayor of
t1),0. day presiding, at which M.de Lesseps ex-
laincd tbe details of his scheme for making a
sh:p canal betwefin the Mediterranean and the
lelSr!as. It certainly cannot be sAid that the
pr)ject wat favourably received either by the
few esruau or the peli;icien, thecapitalist or tbe
engineer. At the head of affairs was a MiniEter
who all his life had been a strenuous advocate
for the maintenance of British interests all over
the world. Lord Palmerston had been Secretary-
at-War when we were engaged in the giganfic
conflict with the First Napoleon. He held office
heore Wellington had b.dihd Masaena at the
;t3 of Torres Vedras, and was activ 137 pre ;hi:
jug at the War Office at the time of Bouripartess
thiel overthrow at Waterloo. By tradition, by
training, and by experience as Secretary of State
for Foreign Affairs, Lord Palmerston had always
gone in fer upholding British interests. He sa
in the construction of a Suez Canal the prepon-
derance of French influence in Egypt, which
B maparte had endeavourt d to establish early in
the present century. He explained in the
H rose of Commons that the opposition of Great.
Bri:erin to the construction of the Stif-z Canal
was based first on the f ict that it would tend to
the more easy separation of Egypt from Turkey,
an I would, therefore, be in direct violation of a
policy supported by war and the treaty of Paris ;
secondly, "remote speculations with regard to
easier access to our Indian possessions, only re-
qairing to be indistinctly shadowed forth in order
to be fully appreciated." M. de Lesseps, finding
no encouragement in England for his plans,
carried them out notwithstanding. In the
month of March, 1869, the Canal was partially
opened, the waters of the Mediterranean being
admitted into the Bitter Lakes. On the 15th
of August following, the waters of the Red Sea
met those of the Mediterranean, and on the 17t.1i
November the gigantic undertaking was formally
opened amid a series of festivities participated
in by the Empress of the French, the Emperor
of Austria, the Crown Prince of Prussie, Prince
Wiliam of Orange, the English and Run an
Aarbassadors at Constantinople, and a large coin-
[prey of Knglish and Continental merchants.
No sooner was the Canal opened than its ad-
vantages were seen in this country. Mr. Bate-
man, C.E., lecturing at the Royal Seciety,
an,ich he had represented at the opening care.
molly, expressed a highly favourable view of the
manner in which the project had been carried
out and of its prospects. Sir Stafford North-
cote delivered an address at Exeter, in which he
exereised his belief that the Canal would greatly,
nfluence trade between England and India, and
it would still more open the conanunications be-
tween the Mediterranean ports and our import-
ant Oriental dependency. It would, moreover,
aid enormeusly the prosperity of Egypt i'self,
which had a great future before in Sir Searre
jui'ified Lord Palmerston in much of his oppo-
sition to the scheme, but said England could af-
ford to rejoice that his prophecies had not been
, fulfilled. Yet Lord Palmerston in his d4y was
regarded as one of the most prescient of Minis-
' tern His popularity with the masses of his
c untryrneu was unbounded; he was looked
upon abroad as the embodiment of wisdo'n and
seeacity. He never lived to see the Canal
opened ; but those who have witnessed its sue-
*Leese regard it as simply amazing. It had pet
be nin action six years befo e the British
Government purchased a large interest in it ;
and now that it is proved to be inadequate to tn,
accomodation of tie mighty traffic pou eei
through it. an English Ministry comes turward
with a proposal for astestance to M. de Le iseps in
the construction of a parallel channel, but v‘hicL
perpetuating the monopoly of the Lesset B Corn.
patty has excited widespread opposition. Fort-
'mate*. Parliament is sitting, aud the matter
has at (lice been relegated to the consideenti ii
of the High Court of the Legislature. The
chorus, of disapproval over the new arrange-
ment does not however interfere with the mar-
vellous triumph of M. de Lesseps. He has con-
quered physical obstacles, has been victorious
over the domain of prejudice, and has had the
satisfaction of seeing the sinister prophecies of
one of the most illustrious of British states.
men prove erroneous.