The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-02-07

embodylng the frank and unsolicited testimony
of his countrymen TO the fidelity and ability with
which he has discharged his ministerial duties,
and to the merchants as evincing on their part
perfect appreciation of the difficulties by which
Mr.. WARD was surrounded, and which have
made his position at times one of exceeding
and trying responsibility.
Prominent among topics of interest abroad, if
we may Judge from the space devoted to its dis
cussion in English papers, is the recent revival of
NJ. DE LEssEPs' grand scheme for digging Ship.
Canal through the Isthmus of Suez and furnishing
a short cut TO India by way Of the Mediterranean
fthe five principal Continental Powers have joined
in an application to the SULTAN for a concession OF
the right of way and other privileges incident 10
the commencement and prosecution of the work,
coupled with the offer of the Porte TO submit the
whole question to the approaching Congress, has
given to the project significance and importance
which it has never before possessed; and in view
of the interest which is taken in the subject the
other side and of the possible complications to
which its further agitation may give rise, we have
thought that some explanation of the general fea-
lures of the plan might not prove uninteresting to
to the majority Of our readers NJ DE LEssEPs' pro-
iect is to cut canal from Peusium to Suez-a |
distance of over ninety miles-the canal TO be three
hundred feet wide, and thirty feet deep-to have
two locks and dock in the middle and at either
end, double pier, one extending six miles into |
the Mediterranean and the other four miles into |
the Red Sea. On account of the nature of the
soil, the canal will have to be cased with stone
throughout its entire length, to prevent its sides
from caving in and to keep the sand of the Desert
from blowing in, parapet of stone, several feet
high, will be needed on either side, making with |
the PIERS aggregate Of 200 miles of stone-work,
for which the necessary materials will have to be
brought from Arabia Petr9a and the Island of
Cyprus. The estimated cost of the work is thirty
millions of dollars. According to an English En-
gineer-the late ROBERT STEpHENsoN-three times
that sum will be insufficient. The principal obsa-
cles which are supposed to interfere with the sue.
cess of the enterprse-admittng all mechanical DIFF
ficulties in the way OF construction to be over
come-are the liability of the canal to become
choked up on the Mediterranean side, with silted
mud from the Nile, and the difficult navigation Of
the Red Sea, said to be the most dangerous
known TO the underwriters at LLoYDs' With
these and similar arguments English journalists
have been endeavoring 10 dissuade French CAPT
talists from cmbarking in the undertaking, but
have altogether failed to account for their own oppo
sition to the scheme. Nobody is green enough, al
this time of day to believe that the English people
actuated solely by a philanthropic desire to
save their French neighbors from pecuniary loss.
When Lord PALMERsTON in his place in Parlia-
ment, protested against any attempt TO cut
Ship-Canal through the Isthmus, upon the
ground that it was mpractcabe, Or if
practicable, that it wonld not pay, he was
simply guilty of an impertnenee, and we
must seek elsewhere than in his Lordships speech
Cor an explanation of the hostility of the English
Government TO the project The feasibility of any
speculation may be safely left to he tested by
those who willing to risk their money in
it-and if the English thoroughly honest in
their disbelief Of the practicability of NJ LEssEPs
scheme we should hear of much less opposition
on their part to the losing experiment being made
The truth stha independently of the jealousy with
which England would regard any eclat which
France might acquire from the successful
prosecutions of an undertaking like that
Of N. DE LEssEPs the English people view
with ill-disguised apprehension the presence and
influence of the French in the East. They
may try TO conceal it, but the cloyen foot of susp
cion will perpeuaIIy be sticking out They would
ttin persuade the world that they are not afraid;
but the very effort to hide their fears, like a
Scheol-boy's whistling jim the dark, only makes
their state Of apprehension more ludicrously APP
parent. Thus they tell us that it is long step
from Sucz to Kurrachee that the French in
Egypt for purposes of invasion, would be no
nearer India than the French at Marsees-that
the collection of feet of steam transports in the
Red Sea, with troops and munitions of war,
would be of no avail unless accompanied by mari
time preponderance the Ocean, as we'll as the
anobSructed possession of the Canal-that in time
of peace, the Canal would be of quite much
service to England as to France, and that in time
of war il would be blockaded by an English fleet.
Yet with all this, the English journals continue
10 protest against any attempt to carry NJ. DE
LEssEPs' project into execution, and even the
more cautious and temperate among them
do not scruple to declare that its accomplishment
will inevitably lead to war between the two
nations, in which event the Isthmus and the Canal
will be the prize of and supremacy at sea.
One would suppose that, with all the difficulties
which their engineers have been able to conjure
up in the path of NJ. DE LEssEPs' undertaking,
Eugiishmen might well afford to rest quiet and sleep
undisturbed, in the conviction that it never will
nor can be accomplished. One would imagine
ahat they might trust NAPoLEoNs sagacity not TO
undertake impossibilities, and French patriotism
and common sense not to embark one hundred
and fifty millions of francs in q project which
must fail, Or of which-if it succeed-the chief adj
vantage must accrue to England. Il the English
had any faith in their own facts or arguments
they would cease TO clamor against the stupen-
d0us folly, as hey term it, of the French enter
prise. Is it not enough that according to their own
showing, the Canal cannot be made-that ifmade
1t cannot be kept open-that, if kept open, it will
not he used-thqt if used, the tolls will not pay
the interest the first cost to the projectors and
shat all the advantage will acrue to English ira
ders? Do not drifting sands-siting mud-the
shifting shoals of the Red Sea, which render all de-
pendence upon charts and pilots uncertain, and
the semestrial monsoons which sweep its surface,
interpose sufficient obstacles in the way Of the
cessful prosecution Of the project, without of
fering the additional ones of diplomatic notes and
Ministerial protests? We are half inclined to be-
lieve that whatever vitality the LEssEPs scheme
possesses at the present moment it owes chiefly TO
she warmth of English opposition. When fears
are so easily excited, and SO unreasonablV mani
tested, the temptation to play upon them is almost
irresistible. The French, now that it is their
turn, may be pardoned for amusing themselves a
little at the expense of those who have made
them, more than once, laugh on the other side of
the mouth.
The English papers furnish us with hideous
accounts OF series of murders said to have
been committed by the mates of the Amer-
can bark Anna which arrived lately at Cowes.
They reported 10 have killed six of the