The Sun.
London, England, 1869-12-23 00:00:00

THE SUEZ CANAL.

The journal L'lsthine de Suez of the 18th instant,
publishes the following with respect to the Canal :
—" The subjoined letter has been communicated
to us. It was written by M. de Lesseps to a body
of shareholders in reply to an address forwarded to
him by them asking him to procure from the Khe-
dive a temporary guarantee for the payment of in-
terest :—' Gentlemen,—The directors have trans-
mitted to me the letter:bearing your signatures re-
lative to the Suez Canal. In consequence of the sinis-
ter reports that have been circulated regarding it, you
propose to ask of the Khedive a temporary guaran-
tee for the payment of interest. What has oc-
curred to justify such a request, the evident result
of which would be to give rise to the supposition
that the shareholders, after having had faith in
their enterprise and sustained it through diffi-
culties, are discouraged now that the work has
been crowned with such striking success? A de-
mand for a guarantee which I abstained from
making at the beginning, as containing a prin-
!fly convictions, could not now
ciple contrary to
be adopted by your president. Nor is there any
necessity for such a guarantee ; it rests with the
shareholders to keep up the value of the shares by
the attitude they assume in the face of the calumni-
ous reports that have been propagated concerning the
enterprise, evidently for the purpose of lowering the
price of the securities, and thereby causing you to
dispose of them in order that they themselves may
buy them at a discount—a proceeding which proves
that they estimate the worth of the shares more
highly than you yo arselves do. A stranger toallkinds
of Bourse speculations, I learnt with the greatest
astonishment that on the day succeeding the inau-
guration of the Canal, accomplished with unhoped-
for success, there was a great fall in the price of
the shares. lam quite aware that the majority of
the shareholders have been unaffected by these ru-
mours, rightly attribu ting them to the manoeuvres of
stock jobbers; but I do not the less deplore the alarm
that has seized the minds of some of the most steady
and oldest of my co-operators. Why is it that past
experience has not warned them against the unblush-
ing falsehoods which a body of jobbers have set
afloat on the Paris Bourse? I have but one reply
to make to reassure those of the shareholders whose
alarm has been awakened. Between the 17th and
the 27th of November 130 large vessels passed from
one sea to the other, representing a gross tonnage
of 80,000 tons. Since that time the navigation has
not been interrupted a single day ; every vessel
arrived at either port has and can pass through the
Canal without the slightest difficulty. Our position

is therefore excellent, and to cut short the

scandalous proceedings of the clique above men-
tioned I have requested the Council of Adminis-
tration to convoke a general assembly at an early
period. Consequently, I shall soon be among you,
and will lay before you with the same frankness as
heretofore the exact condition of our fine and
fruitful undertaking. I may add that we have no
kind of loan to submit to you. . . . You may
publish this letter if you think proper.'

After an absence of five months Mr. Hepworth
Dixon returned to town yesterday. In the course of his
journey he had joined the pilgrims at Solovedsk, lived
amongst the Nomadic Kalmucks, and visited the most
holy places in Russia.
MURDER IN SCOTLAND.— EDINBURGH, Wednes-
day Night.—On Tuesday night John Miller, an old man,
keeping the Blackhill toll-bar,, near Dunblane, was mur-
dered. lie must have been attacked while at supper, and
beaten to death with a crowbar. The house was rifled
of all that was valuable. The murder was not discovered
until this morning.
A NEW LIFEBOAT.—The Misses Carter, of Har-
rogate, have been engaged (luring the past three or four.
years in preparing needle and fancy work, and afterwards
disposing- of the same at bazaars held at their house, for
the purpose of realising the entire cost of a lifeboat. The
last b,:zaar has just been hold, and the sum of £420 has
now been realised altogether by these sales of the ladies
handiwork, which amount is at the disposal of the Na-
tional Lifeboat Institution for the purpose of placing an
hdditional lifeboat on this C9P.t.

Vift7 udilloll '.ti,:clopcs are 501.. i 111141101 V, and stamped
with 4'.'.0 el%st and ail 1-
--vms fr6ni upwards of :;1,000 steel dies, at
l'arkirr .l.iiit Motto'::, who make no charge for stamping or cement-
ing, and, having only one price, undertake to supply the nobility
and gentry with every description of writing paper and envelopes
of the best and most fashionable kind, at extraordinarily low
charges. Monograms
, Crest or address dies cut at less than half
price. Colours'' stamping reduced from 2s. tole. per 100. Arms,
monr"T'arns, and crests emblazoned. 60 stampers, die sinkers,
and engravers being kept upon the preromiases, all orders are eme
cuted with great despatell. Dance pgrmmes, invitations, at
home notes, MSS. books, return thanks, bordered and overland
papers, dish, dessert, and bouquet papers, and every description
of fancy and household stationery. Parkins and GOttO, mann
actaing stationers, 2-land 25, Oxford-streot, WI