The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1869-10-01

The Worlds Commensurate Suez and Darien
Ship Canals,

S42P San14ss
The opening to commerce of the much
talked Of Suez Canal, which is to take place
in November next, promises to revolution
lie the course of commerce and to bring
about vast changes in the relative wealth
and Importance of cities and nations. The
magnitude and cost of the undertaking,
great as they were, sink into insignifcance
when compared with the results to be &C.
complished The whole trade of Europe
with Asia that is now done by the route
of the Cape of Good Hope, by land trans
fer across the Isthmus of Suez and overland
from Russia, will henceforth seek the short
and expeditions line of the Mediterranean
and the Red Sea, connected by the Suez
Ship Canal. This channel, which is in
some respects reopening and enlargement
of like work that existed in the time of
the Ptolemies, is about ninety miles in
length and of depth and breadth sufficient
to permit the passage of vessels drawing
twenty-five feet of water. Its cost is about
million dollars mile, which includes
the construction Of seaports at either end
of the line. The building of new vessels
in England and France is being carried on
with direct reference to the capacity of the
Suez Canal. AS business speculation on
the part of the company, its success is be-
You'd doubt or question, for even a mode.
rate tonnage and passenger toll on the ships
and steamers passing through will produce
revenue that, while paying a handsome
dividend to the stockholders, will be suf-
ficient before many years to reimburse the
original outlay. The present volume of
trade between Europe and Asia will be
vastly increased. so that the tonnage now
engaged in it, supplies no criterion on
which to base estimates for the future.
1t appears remarkable, indeed, not that
this great undertaking has been entered on
and completed in our day, but rather that
preceding generations did not accomplish
it. 1t has long been discussed and talked
about, just as the connection of the Pacific
and Atlantic oceans by way of the Isthmus
of Darien has, ever since the discovery of
America, been thought of and recognized
as a kindred work of equal importance to
the trade of the New World. Now that
M. de Lesseps has demonstrated the prac-
ticability of carrying the one to success
full ISSUE we trust that it will act as an in
citement to the capitalists who have under
taken to prosecute the other.
The first Napoleon used to say that the
opening of the Suez Canal would do more
than anything else to establish the empire
of the Sultan on secure basis. Whether
it will have that effect is now questionable.
Even if the tendency were not to make the
Pacha of Egypt independent of the Porte,
it would seem inevitable that Russia will
now more than ever before covet possession
of Constantinople and of the Straits of the
Dardanelles. So that, with this double
menace to the Turkish empire, the Suez
Canal is just as likely to be fatal as it is to
be propitious to its existence.
The maritime supremacy of England, too,
is rather apt to suffer diminution from this
same cause. The countries washed by the
Mediterranean are those that have the best
chance of controlling the trade of Asia.
Marseilles will be the great European sea-
port to which that trade will come, and
from which it will be disseminated through
Europe Venice and Genoa will probably
regain some of their former splendor and
prosperity; and, in fact, all the ports of
Mediterranean will once again, after ages
OF dullness and decay, become active marts
OF commerce. No wonder that England
turned cold shoulder on M. de Lesseps
and his project, and sought by quiet di-
plomatic means to prevent its being real
lied, for it must be confessed that there is