New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-11-29
ZEN ROUTE FOR SUEZ.
lrroM DIR OWN CORRESPONDENT


hut II is n good deal nearer Sucz than New-York.
And Of course you understand that a great part OF
tho SueZ Inauguration ceremonies has been tlahs
acted i'm quite other places than Egypt. IhoSe u
the Viccroy's guests who had leisure quilted Lohuoh
and Paris a month ago. Not few eminent men nc
cepted his invitation to go up the Nile before INC
inauguration, and the French papers were Desini"s
to print letters from this party week OF TWO "so.
AZ for the English Journalists many OF them went
by way of COnstantnople, timing their Jouino' ~
meet Nine Fugere Bonaparte on her WISH 10 INC
SnItop When or how the Americans went, don't
know There are, think, but three on board thls
vessel.
The range Of invitations sent by the Vlceroy was
very wide beginning with sOvercigns and merely
show peoplo OF that kind. and thence ascending TO
include the useful classes representatives oil COM
merce. engineers, eminent politicians and men OF
letters Journalists and Swans. The whole list was
shown me in Paris, and it was stupid in me not to
have copied down such names wanted to use,
most of which have now forgotten. Most Of them,
or at least most Of the English, seem to have de-
clined, with the exception of those who have a
specal interest in the canal Numerous chambers OF
commerce send delegates transportation and tele-
graph companies are represented; mereduOus En-
glish engineers 90 to see with their own eyes what
otherwise they will not believe; and the journalists
On of course Credulous or iucreduous, they have
no other duty than to report what they see. why
did you not send Mr.. Richardson TO say whether the
Suez canal OF the Pacific Railway is the greaterwon
der and the more important to the worldf Inc TWO
great enterprises are rivals in than one.
On board the Guenne there are journalists in great
number, mostly Continental; two or three English.
and the three Americans whom have mentioned.
We left Marseillcs at halfpast eight the morning
of Tuesday, Nov. o. are due in Alexandria on the
evening of Sunday. suppose it is proper to say eX
plicity that are guests of the NlcerOy The sort
of restriction imposed a correspondent by that re-
latiOn will be understood without being expressed
1t may may not prove irkSOme but it exists, and
as it is one shall bear constantly in mind have to
ask that readers of these letters will sometimes
member it, When sent a correspondent to Russia
in 1885, he wrote me from ST. Petersburg that it
q good country for (foreign journalists. lie was
lodged i'm palace and retinue of servants at his
orders. The VicerOy's hospitality is even more mag
nifcent Ii meets u.s. not at Cairo or Alexandria,
not on the threshold of his palace, but at Paris. His
guests are his guests from the moment they step in
side the railway staton-Gare de Lyon-in the
Boulevard Mazas. The agent of tho Kh6dive
who is charged to invite you, hands You with the
invitation railway ticket for Paris and Marseilles-
$50 mles-and steamship ticket from Marseilles to
Alexandria, 1,5OOmiles further. He is at the pains
to explain to you that the orders Of his master do
not permit him to enjoy the pleasure of providing
for you beyond that point, but that at Alexandria
you will find officers of his Hghness in waiting to
welcome you to indicate where his Higbness will re-
ceive YOU and to charge themselves with all arrange
ments for your residence. and for travel while you
remain in Egypt. While abstaninG from particu-
lars he gives you to understand that every Opportu-
nifty will be offered you to inspect the works of the
great canal and to witness all the ceremonies of in
auGuration. The Inauguration complete, you will be
FL, ila tn
remain; aud when you ready to return, the
choice of routes is open to yOu In a word, you may
20 where You will and when you will. only you must
allow the YiceTOy to be your host till you safely
back in Paris. The Sultan may deny the prerOga-
tives of Royalty to the ruler of Egypt, but he has
not been able deny him the pleasure of dispensing
hospitality with more than royal splendor.
1t is all done so gracefully that it would be chur
ish to show, whatever we may feel, any reluctance
in accepting it. If there ever time when the
press could surrender its inesmable right to abso-
Lutte independence of judgment, it must be in such
circumstances as these
Impossible not to remark how completely the Vice
roy has Invested himself of the Oriental contempt
for public opinion; and especially for European
opinion. OF course, he believes in the complete
cess of the canal as a piece of engineering OF
course he believes that financial success must follow
sooner or later. the engineering success. But in
these DAYS the talSman OF success is no longer inc
issuing of a decree-Let the world hear and obey.
1t is the journal-and the Vicoroys invitations in
clude, l believe every great journal in Europe and
America-nOt to mention some which are great only
by his courtesy. Three hundred invitations to the
press Two-thlrds to the continent of EurOpe the
other third to England and America i'll about equal
proportions. There never yet any piece of work
done in broader daylight than the Inauguration will
be. In month the world will know all that remains
to be known about the Suez Canal
1t is curious how doubt has seemed to linger to
the last moment about the perfect success Of the
canal Not in the French papers, for it is a French
work, and the French would believe in a railway to
the moon, engineered by themselves Inasmuch as
we are completely free-we and the English-from
any tendency to Dragging about our own doings, we
have the right of course, TO critcise q nation that
does. But the English kilograms have told queer
stories within the last month They insisted that a
corvette started to go through the canal sernfore
most for fear of not being able to get back in
of obstruction that she stuck fast in a mud-baDk
and was extricated with difficulty. 1t was a pure
invention, but found plenty of believers. Still
later. the Emperors yacht got stranded-also
by telegraph and by the Same versatile instrument
was next day got ahoat lagan. ] don't know what
other appalling catastrophe may have happened
since we got ont of Geographic range.
The 800 journalists arc but small part of the
Vceroy's guests. At the first dinner to be given in
Ismailia on the night of the l7th 1900 are expected
TO sit down. They have been fOcking TO Egypt by
every route for a month past and more On board
the GYennc we have about $50. On the Peluse that
left Marseles Monday evening, there were perhaps
as many more The idea, more or less Oriental that
guest is master while he is guest. was pretty
illustrated at the departure of the Peluse. One
passenger belieyedto be the last, was protractng