The Sun.
London, England, 1857-03-21 00:00:00

THE ISTIIMUS OF SUEZ CANAL.

The committee appointed by the Academy of
Sciences of Paris to examine the documents pre-
sented to that bedy by M. Ferdinand de Lesseps
on the subject of the projecte I canal through the
isthmus of Suez has just published its report. After
a rapid survey of the various plans either attempted
or executed by the ancients in order to establish a
communication between the Mediterranean, or
rather the Nile, and the Red Sea, the report pro-
ceeds to consider the relative advantages of the
railway now in contemplation between Cairo and
the Red Sea and a canal through the isthmus, as
compared with the usual route to India by the
Cape, and shows that the latter will maintain its
superiority over the railway on account of i.,s cheap-
ness, which, in the eyes of the commercial men, is
a circumstance of paramount importance, although
not altogether conaideied in that light by govern-
ments. From the late surveys it appears that the
mean altitude of the waters of the Red Sea does
not exceed that of the Mediterranean by more
than 68 centimetres (21 inches), so that a canal
without locks, such as the nature of the ground
permits, will not present the inconvenience of
a current constantly flowing in the same direc-
tion, but will have currents alternately flowing
either way, according as the winds and tides
may influence the relative altitudes of the two
seas. These facts being established, the report
proceeds to detail the efforts made since 1854
by M. Ferdinand de Lesseps to promote the
formation of a company, under the title of
" Compagnie Universette du Canal maritime du
Suez," and the subsequent appointment of an
international committee to investigate the rela-
tive advantages of the various plans respectively
proposed by MM. Talabot, Barrant, and Linant
Bey, that of the latter obtaining a decided prefer-
ence as the shortest and least expensive. Accord-
ing to this plan, Suez and Tinch (the ancient Pe-
lusium), differing only by 1 deg. 5 min. in latitude,
are the extreme points of the canal, the length of
which therefore, does not exceed 117 kilometres
(73 miles.) The line, commencing from Suez, will
wind through a valley for the space of 28 kilo-
metres, then describe a circular are of a large radius,
in order to penetrate into a basin formerly filled
with the waters of the Red Sea. In this basin are
situated the Bitter Lakes, which the line will tra-
verse lengthwise, and then proceed straight on in a
northward direction, slightly inclining towards the
west, until it reaches an eminence about 50ft. high,
which must be cut through ; thence it reaches Lake
Menza'eh without any further obsac!e. In order
to ascertain the nature of the soil, 19 bhaf s have
been sunk along the line to the depth of 9 metres
(29i ft.), and it has been found mostly compose" of
sand mixed with clay, a small portion only consist-
ing of a kinder sandstone ; so that the excavations
will meet with little or no difficulty. It having
been objected that the moveable sands of the de-
sert might obstruct the canal in a .short space of
time, the report observes that, during the lapse of
19 centuries, the effect of the sands has been so
slight as not even to oblitera'e the vestiges of
the old canal of the Pharaohs. Two parallel
jetties, one 2,000, the other 1,803 metres in
length, and 400 metres asunder, are to project
into the Red Sea from the port of Suez, leaving a
roadstead spacious enough to harbour 500 vessels.
To the north of this basin the canal is. to com-
mence, continuing, without any locks or interrup-
tion whatever, to the Mediterranean, and forming
A kind of Bosphorus. Its other extremity is to
open into the Mediterranean, at a distance of 16
miles west of Pelusium,, where a port is to be
constructed named Said, after the present viceroy,
under whose auspices this great enterprise is to be
accomplished. The coast on this side his under-
gone no change during the lapse of nineteen cen-
turies ; the distance between the ruins of Pelu-
sium and the sea being exactly the same as it was
in the time of Straho. The winds most to be
guarded against on this coast being the westerly
and north-westerly, one of the two jetties to be
constructed here will advance 1,000 metres fur-
ther into the sea than the other (2,500 metres in
length), so as to protect the entrance. The maxi-
mum difference between high and low water here
dixs not exceed 22 centirnea (81 inches) ' • and
at a distance of 2,300 metres from the spot fixed
upon for the port of Said, the depth of Water is
8 metres (26 feet), a depth which is more likely to
increase than to diminish, the sea on this side
tending more to erosion than to deposition. The
presumed expense of the undertaking is laid at
162 millions of francs. The report-now examines
the degree of competition which the canal com-
pany may be exposed to. As regards the railway,
the distance between Alexandria and Suez may be
performed in six hours, while it will take twenty or
thirty by the canal ; a difference, however, which
is more than counterbalanced by the loss of time
occasioned by the operation of traushipmeet.
Moreover, the canal offers the advantage of the un-
iuterrupted responsibili7 of the ca.pt ein for the
merchandise he conveys from the point of ship-
ment to that of destination, while, by the ralway,
the respousibility is divided among thre3 persons,
and consequently no one can be made answerable
on delivery for the bed condition of the goods.
The Syrian railway now in contemplation, which is
t o pass between the valleys of the Lebanon, and ter-
minate at Byr on the Euphra'es, woul,d for the
same reasons, b 3 more expensive than even the
Cape route. The latter, thersfore, is the only one
offering a chance of successful competition. Here
the report ent -rs into various deta'ls touching the
price of coal, the tonnage of British vessels annually
sent to India, dee.t and arrives at the conclusion
that, from whatever port of Europe a vessel may
start, there is between 45 and 68 per cent. iu fa-
vour of Suez as regards the length of the voyage
and that, as to tonnage, the Suez canal will admit
of the passage of merchant ships of between 3,000
and 4,000 tons burden' while the largest now in
use for the- voyage to India do not exceed 2,000
tons. Moreover, mixed vessels, propelled both by
sail and steam, will offer a decided advantage in
favour of the canal. Maritime insurances will be
reduced to one third of their present amount ; a
circumstance of no mill importance when it is
considered that the trade between England and
India is now upwards of five times larger than it
was in 1800. If the wo ks of the cared were com-
menced in 1858, it might be opened to the com-
merce of the world in 1864 ; the lowest estimate of
its annual profits is 26 millions of francs. The re-
port concludes with a general view of the numerous
social advantages which would accrue to the world
by the accomplishment of this gigantic enterprise.
The Academy has approved of the report.
Galignani.

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From the London Gazette of Last Night.

WHITEHALL, MARcIIIB.

The Queen has been pleased to present the Rev. Henry
Alford, 8.D., to the place and dignity of Dean of her Ma-
jesty's rnetropolitical church of Canterbury, void by the
death of William Rowe Lyall, D.D., late Dean thereof.
FOREIGN-OFFICE, MARCH 19.

The Queen has _been pleased to appoint Mr. George
Kohler as Consul for the Province of New South Wales, to
reside at Sydney, for his Majesty the King of the Nether-
lands,

CROWN-OFFICE, MARCH 18.
MEMBER RETURNED TO SERVE .IN THE PRESENT
PARLIAMENT.

County of Tipperary—Daniel O'Donoghoe, Esq., com-
monly called " The O'Donoghoe of the Glens," in the
county of Kerry, in the room of James Sadleir, Esq., who
has been expelled the Lower House of Parliament.
HOME-OFFICE, MARCH 19.

The Dorset Reformatory School at Milborne St. An-
drew, near Blandford, in the county of Dorset, has been
cartifi,A by the S )cretary of State as fit to be a Reform-
atory School, under the provisions of the Statute 17 and
18 Viet., c.