, 1882-08-12

before be was forced to sell his shares,
had alienated to the Company all pros
pectiye dividends down to 1894. What
he sold, therefore, to the British Govern
ment, when he was allowed to draw on
MeSsrS. R0thsch ld's house for four mil
lions " at sight" Was the bare proprietary
right, without the profits. 1t was stipu
lated, however, on the part of the British
Government that until the term for which
the dividends were deferred should come
to an end the Egyptian Government
should pay to this country interest at the
rate of 5 per cent on the capital of the
actual purchase money &3,9 ;6,5S2. 1t ap-
pelred in the accounts furnished to ParliH"
ment that an annual sum of rsl9S, S29 on
this score has been duly received from the
khedive down to the close of the last
financial year, and to this extent we ere
nationally interested in the solvency of
the Egyptian Government. So far for
our position as prOprietors of two ftths OF
the original shares. with the right ulti-
mately to participate in three fOurths Of
the profits Of prospecting enterprise. Ii
we turn, in the next place, to our partlcl-
patton in the commercial advantages 0t
the Canal, it will he apparent that no other
country can even be mentioned in the
same breath with England. In the year
ending in April last, it is recorded 3,OO3
vessels, a~ggregating 4,257 900 tons, pissed
through the canal, of which 2,4S4, of
1872, 900 tons, were British. 1t has been
calculated that not far from One-fOurth OF
the whole capital invested in British ship
ping is engaged in the Suez Canal traffic.
We hear every day Of new victories
achieved by trade new communications
are opened, established rates of speed
C,o S,-~-IovA1 ont NV,n &c in thu OSn M
the steamers for the Chinese tea trade, one
of which has lately made the voyage from
China to London in less than thirty days.
The result is that the traffic through the |uez
Canal between the East and West is swell.
lingevermOre and more, so that very serious
practical difficulty arises from the slight
est obstruction or delay, as was shown
early in the present year when there WAS
q temporary interference with the free pas
sage. The Canal, IN fact, is at present like
a crowded street in a great city, and we can
notaff0Id to have the prOverbial problemOt
s~'getting three OmnibuSes abreast through
Temple Bar complicated by acknOwlel-
ging the right of reckleSSnesS or %interes-
ted jealousy to dominate the situation.
More especially must this be so when 1t is
remembered that the loss to England by
exclusion fl ON the Canal route would be
DOklGlcdl dS wen dS COIllLlclNldl. ~ any
other nation the fact that the Canal was
obstructed or that the control of it had
fallen into hostile hands c uld only mean
that certain mercantile profits were placed
in jeopardy, though even from this point OF
view it should not be forgotten that our
stake exceeds in magnitude the stake OF
any rival Power twenty.tOld or thlrtytold.
Bat in our case the necessity OF keeping
open the great highway between the
mother country and her dependencies IN
Asia and the Southern seas is added to
our commercial interest and 'ur financial
interest in the Canal. Mr.. GladStOne's
attempt to show in 1877 that III time of
war we might reasonably rely upon the
Cape route has been abandoned by it's
author, though it has been revived IN
reference to trading interests by some ship
owners, of whom Mr.. Norwood lately male
himself the spokesman. 1t may be true
enough that the Canal is too shallow ami
to- narrow for the large and swift ocean
going steamers of the most modern type,
but the moral is, not that Wa should be
willing to surrender the advantages of the
Canal rOute-which may be measured by
this single fact that, Bombay is distant
from London $3.50 nautical miles by way
of Suez and lO,595 by way of the Cape
but that in time the necessity OF enlarglng
and deepening the water. way through the
Isthmus mist be encountered and the
requisite improvements carried out at
any cost.