, 1875-12-25
ENGLAND AND THE SUEZ CANAL.
From the Spectator.)

The Government has recovered by q
single act of far-sighted. courage the
reputation damaged by the many failures
of the present Recess. The purchase Of
the Khedive's shares in the Suez Canal on
behalf of the British Government is a
most important step, and one which it
required no small.courage and decision to
adopt. 1t is no light thing for a British
Minister to promise 94,00O,00o sterling,
and engage in an enterprise which may
cost millions more, without consulting Par
lament, and that the Cabinet has ventured
to do this is an evidence of energy which is
as unexpected as it is agreeable. The
negotiation, moreover, has been managed
in the most reassuring way. It's entire
history, its suddenness, its complete sue
cess, its audacity-for the news will fall
like q thunderbolt both in Paris and Con-
stantinople-serves to show that on some
poir4 40. there is irmness in British
& 0sels hap our Government can still
81 ure .perfecN@crecy in a most important
transaction /; andYhat our statesmen have
not forgotten that national wealth, though
sometimes an embarrassment, can some
times also be used as q most potent wea-
pom. The cou6try would, we believe,
applaud the act II if it were less wise
than it is, in its satisfaction that the Gov
ernment had acted in ore foreign affair
with energy, speed, and secrecy and its
content will not be diminished as it reflects
on the wisdom of the act itself. Mr.. Dis
raeli has purchased, at a cost which to
England means nothing, and which, indeed,
may possibly prove to be almost nominal,
the profit from the Canal ultimately ex-
ceeding the low interest paid by this
country for money, a predominant vote in
the management of q Canal which is Of
vital Importance, pot. only to our COM
merce. though it is probable that the whole
Asiatic trade Of Europe may yet pass
through this channel, but to the perma-
nent security of our Asiatic possessions.
He has saved Egypt, moreover, from a
collapse which might have precipitated
all manner of questions with disastrous
haste, and has announced, as we conceive,
the commencement of a novel and sound
course OF action in the East.
It would be affectation to deny that
the British Government has purchased n
p~reponderating vote in the Suez Canal for
political reasons, and though Continental
publicists will declare the transaction a
mystery, it is not hard for EDglishmen
10 understand what those reasons are.
There can be little doubt, or at all events,
there is little doubt in this country, in spite
of denials at St. Petersburg, and cross
purposes at Vienna, and silence in Berlin,
that the Eastern Question is about to be
~re.opened that Turkey is in danger, either
from within or without; and that Great
Britain is called upon to decide once more
upon her course in the East. There can
be- little doubt either that her usual course
0 disappearing, to use M. LemOinne's ex-
preston, as " the sworn and authorised
Ipatentde] protectress of the independence,
the sovereignty, and the integrity of the
Ottoman Empire" is no longer supported
By public opinion. Twenty years Of pain
full experience have disenchanted English
men, with the Turks. They will not spend
their soldiers or their money any more to
preserve an empire which only exists by
ignering the commonest principle of civil
justscet namely, the equal rights of all
sr Ysslsss Which i detestsd b.. the majority