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.