The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-27 00:00:00

THE SUEZ CANAL.

The Duke of St. Albans, dating from Port Said, Egypt,
Feb. 29, describes in the Times his impressions of the
works on the maritime canal, across the Isthmus of Suez.
his Grace says :—" At the Suez end of the canal every-
thing seemed activity. I saw four large floating steam
dredges at work, clearing a channel through the shallows
of the Red Sea, and others being put together. I
saw the Arabs busy on the other side of an embankment
which divided the sea from the works, furrowing
out the course of the canal. I had seen this
part three months before, and the progress had been
considerable. I saw the course of the canal beyond this
marked by the enormous dredges standing above the
mirage and the desert. There are sixty large and twelve
small steam floating dredges, with more than a hundred
attendant steam barges in work. The larger ones cost
from £15,000 to £20,000, which may give you some idea
of their size. They discharge their buckets of sand into
the steam barges or into iron aqueducts 220 ft. in length,
which pass their contents over the banks of the canal on
to the desert beyond. Forty-eight millions of cubic feet
were thus displaced last month, and 60,000,000, it
is thought, will be done per month in the summer
days. The last-mentioned machines are an invention
peculiar to these works, and are due to M. Lavalley, who
may be called the maker, as M. Lesseps is the originator,
of the Suez Canal. The great difficulty has been found
after the water rises before the dredges can be floated. As
the salt-water canal is not filled between Suez and
Ishmailia, passengers and cargo are forwarded thence on
the fresh-water canal in steam launches and barges.
This canal is of ordinary size, and will allow two
large barges to pass each other, but I wish to speak
only of the great Salt - Water Canal. The first
point of interest after leaving Suez is at Great
Shalouf. This is the most important cutting next to El
Guisr. It is four miles in length, through clay, stone, and
sand, and is dry at present. Three thousand European
and Arab workmen are kept there. I was more struck here
than anywhere else on the works. The canal is cut to
its extreme depth, and the water will stand 26ft. deep
at low water in the Red Sea. You look down into this
enormous dry channel, with its busy hive of workmen
scooping away the ground and filling the trucks, which
stationary engines draw up and replace by others ;
and while looking down on this magnificent work you
almost persuade yourself to believe in large steamers
passing to and fro here between the West and East, in the
coffers of the company being filled with their dues, and in
delighted shareholders drawing large dividends. At the
Serapium, some distance further inland, you come on
another piece of the canal finished, and it is here you meet
the waters of the Mediterranean, which have been brought
over half the whole distance in the maritime canal, and are
kept back from other portion of the works by an
embankment of earth. From the Serapium you pass to
Ishmailia, the capital of the company, standing on the
pretty saltwater lake, Timsale, which has been filled from
the Mediterranean to the depth of 20ft. Here are the homes
of the company's officers. Church, gardens, streets, even
the dogs, are European, and you forget that the Arab rules
the land. I was there the last days of the carnival.
Masqueraders promenaded the streets, and a ball was to
be given at the Assembly Room. If financialruin is immi-
nent, it sits lightly on the good people of the Isthmus."
The Duke, after glancing at some of the other character-
istics of the country, tells us that where the canal enters
the Mediterranean and forms the harbour of Port Said, a
rapidly-increasing town has sprung up. He thus concludes
his letter : " I came a sceptic, and leave a true believer in
the completion within a short time of the canal across the
Isthmus of Suez. The kindness and courtesy we every.
where experienced were such as I shall always remember
with pleasure, and I heard on every hand expressed the
gratification all felt in shewing English people the progress
they were making."

A requisition is in course of signature from
members of the National Club, requesting the committee
to call a general meeting of the club, for the purpose of
protesting against the unconstitutional attem pt now openly
made to rend asunder the National Church by disesta.
blishing, that portion of it which extends over Ireland.
A parliamentary return leas been issued, shelving
the sums expended, compared with the amounts granted,
for army services in the year ended the 31st March, 1867.
It appears that the savings on the different votes were
£280,563, while on the other hand the deficiencies were
£329,043, thus leaving the balance to be made good by an
additional grant, £48,470. There were savings on the
militia, yeomanry, volunteers, warlike stores, new morks,
and out-pensions, while the expenditure was exceeded in
the several items of regimental pay, commissariat,
clothing, barracks, medical service, manufacturing depart-
ments, nalscellaneous services, and superannuations. One
of the items of staff and regimental allowances.is " beer-
Money," which represents an expenditure of more than
£11.0.000 per annum.