THE CANALIZATION OF THE ISTHMUS.
Sic vos non vobis.—VIRGIL.
I went from Cairo to the Suez Canal by the new branch railway from
Zakazeek to Ismailia. The original direct line from Cairo to Suez has
been abandoned on account of the expense both of working the inclines
over the intervening high ground, and of supplying a line through the
desert with water, a great part of which had to be carried in skins on
camels’ backs.
As you pass along the rails you see, in the occurrence, here and there,
of patches of alluvial soil in the desert, indications of former
cultivation. This cultivable soil must have been created by the water
of the old Bubastis Canal. You see, also, that cultivation is now
re-establishing itself all along the Sweet Water Canal, which supplies
the towns and stations of the Suez Canal with drinking water as it did,
from the first and throughout its excavation, the army of fellahs that
was employed on the work. The fact is that there is a great deal of
argillaceous matter in what appears to be merely the grit, and siliceous
sand, of the desert: all, therefore, that is requisite, in many places,
for at once rendering it fertile is a sufficiency of water.
The history of the canalization of the desert is full of interest.
The earliest attempt of the kind with which we are acquainted is that
ascribed to the Great Rameses. That first Canal was between fifty and
sixty miles in length. It left the Nile at Bubastis, and reached the
neighbourhood of Lake Timsah. Upon it Rameses built his two treasure
cities Pithom, and Ramses, mentioned in the first chapter of Exodus. By
treasure cities is probably meant strongly-fortified places, in which
were caravanserais for the trade with Asia, and large depôts of the
warlike materials kept in store by the king for his Asiatic campaigns.
That they could have been treasure cities, in the ordinary acceptation of
the word treasure, is impossible. That would not have been kept on the
most exposed border of the kingdom; and the treasury of Rameses must have
been at Thebes, his capital, at the other extremity of Egypt. Herodotus,
and others mention Pithom. The site of Ramses, though its name occurs
nowhere, excepting in Exodus, has been ascertained by the discovery of a
granite statue of Rameses, between the figures of the two gods, Ra and
Atmu, with the name of the king several times repeated in the inscription
upon it. This was found at the time of the French expedition. Rameses
must have been worshipped in his own city; and his being placed between
these two gods, in this piece of sculpture, shows that it belonged to a
temple. The mound, therefore, of rubbish from which was disinterred this
group of figures in which the king is presented as an object of worship,
must be the _débris_ of the city of Ramses. There is no doubt about the
site of Pithom.
Especial interest is attached to these cities. We know that the
Israelites were employed in building them: and, as it seems probable that
the cities and Canal were parts of a single plan, we may suppose that
the Israelites were forced to labour in the construction of the Canal
also. Of this a part, that near Bubastis, still remains in use. With how
much interest then does it become invested, when we feel that we may
regard it as the possible, even as the probable, work of the people Moses
led out of Egypt. At all events we can stand on the ruins of the cities
they built with the certainty that here was the scene of their labours.
But something more remains to be said. We have in this first chapter of
the history of the canalization of the isthmus an ascertained date, which
enables us to fix the date of the exodus. The oppression took place in
the reign of the Pharaoh who preceded the one to whose reign the exodus
belongs. As then the oppression took place in the reign of the builder of
Pithom and Ramses, the exodus must have occurred in the reign of his son,
and successor, Menophres.
The extension of the cultivated soil of Egypt was only a secondary object
in the construction of this Canal. Its main object was to strengthen that
side of Egypt which was exposed to invasion from the dreaded and hated
Hyksos. One of the greatest works of the great Rameses was the covering
the whole of Egypt with a network of waterways in connexion with the
river. These Canals, or wet-ditches had a double purpose. They would
greatly extend the supply of water, in exact proportion to which was
the capacity of Egypt for supporting life; and they would also have an
invaluable defensive utility, for they would render it impossible for a
mounted army, such as that of their north-eastern neighbours would be,
to overrun the country. This Canal, then, branching off from the Nile
at Bubastis, and running out for sixty miles into the desert, with the
strong cities of Pithom and Ramses upon it, would be the first check
to an invading army, which would have either to turn the Canal, or to
sit down in the desert before those cities. The history, therefore, of
the canalization of the desert begins with a work, the first object of
which was national defence, and which also greatly promoted the (in
its case) secondary object of national extension. To create a means of
communication between the two seas is not a purpose we are under any
necessity for ascribing to the designers of this first Canal.
We have spoken of Rameses as its constructor, and the reasons for
assigning it to him are amply sufficient, still it may be as well to
remember that it might have dated far back beyond his time. The Egyptians
had been great then for more than a thousand years in Canal making.
This implies familiarity with the art of taking levels, and with other
branches of hydraulic engineering. The Bahr Jusuf Canal, which ran
parallel to the river throughout almost the whole of the valley of Egypt,
and was many times as great a work as this Pithom-Ramses Canal, had
been constructed at so remote a time that all tradition of its date and
construction had been lost. Amenemha, under the old primæval monarchy,
had carried out enormous hydraulic works in the Faioum; and Menes, the
first human name in Egyptian history, had been great in this department
of engineering; for he had, at Memphis, given a new channel to the Nile
itself. There would, therefore, have been no difficulty whatever in this
particular Canal we are now speaking of having been constructed many ages
before the time of the great Rameses; and the district through which it
passed was one to which attention must have been directed from very early
days, both for the purpose of strengthening it against any sudden inroad,
and because it was the necessary base of operations in all Egyptian
invasions of Asia. It is, however, easy to wander about in the region of
possibilities; what we know with certainty is that this Canal existed in
the time of Rameses, that he fortified it, and that he had the credit of
having constructed it.
There is no evidence that he seriously entertained the project of
connecting the Nile with the Red Sea by the prolongation of the Canal.
Some such idea must have occurred to so sagacious a people as the
Egyptians of that day, and they would have found no difficulty in
carrying it out. They made, however, no attempt of the kind. The reason
is on the surface. Defence was what people were then thinking about,
and a through water-way would only have been making a road for their
enemies; and it would have been one, of which Arabs, as they have always
shown a certain kind of aptitude for maritime affairs, and as the inlet
to it might have been easily reached by sea, would not have been slow in
availing themselves. There can be no reasonable doubt that there was, at
that date, a great deal of commerce, on the Indian Ocean, and, therefore,
on the Red Sea; indeed, we may be pretty sure that the annual number of
clearances in and out of Aden in the time of Rameses would not be looked
upon as insignificant at the present day.
Perhaps also the reason given by Aristotle had some weight. It was
known that the level of the Red Sea was higher than that of the Bitter
Lakes; the influx, therefore, of the salt water, which might take place
through the Canal, if it were extended to the sea, might, it was feared,
overwhelm a great deal of land which had lately been brought into
cultivation by aid of the fresh water of the Canal from Bubastis.
The date of the first Canal, supposing it to be no earlier than the time
of Rameses, was the fourteenth century before our era. It was still in
use in the time of Herodotus, being then about one thousand years old.
Necho, who planned and carried out the expedition that circumnavigated
Africa, and who of all the Pharaohs was the one most disposed to maritime
enterprise, was naturally inclined to the idea of connecting the Red Sea
and the Mediterranean by some system of internal navigation. But whatever
his designs were, he does not appear to have gone further in their
execution than the extension of the Canal of Rameses, which had then been
in existence at least seven hundred and fifty years, as far as the Bitter
Lakes. Herodotus was informed that he abandoned the enterprise on having
been told by an oracle that he was working for the barbarians.
Darius, in the time of the Persian occupation of Egypt, carried out the
grand idea to its completion, by extending the work of Rameses and Necho
to the Red Sea. As there had, all along, been an apprehension of the
effect upon cultivation of admitting into the land the salt water, we
find, as we might have anticipated, that it was not allowed a passage
into the Bitter Lakes, but was kept back by a lock. The connexion of the
Red Sea and the Mediterranean by an unbroken water-way was now complete.
A vessel might leave the Red Sea at the modern Suez, or somewhere in
that neighbourhood, and enter the Mediterranean at the Pelusiac mouth of
the Nile. This through communication was in actual use in the time of
Herodotus. Darius’s completion of the work followed Necho’s extension at
an interval of about a century.
The ensuing century and a half was a period of troubles and decadence.
We are, therefore, not surprised to hear that when Alexander the Great
entered Egypt, he found the Canal no longer open. A larger expenditure
may have been required to keep up the banks, and to dredge out the sand
that was always drifting into the channel, than could have been commanded
in such times; and so it had been neglected and had become impassable.
Another century elapses; order and prosperity have been restored to
Egypt; and Ptolemy Philadelphus re-opens the connexion of the Bitter
Lakes and the Red Sea. He did not clear out the old Canal of Darius
which had been blocked up, and abandoned, but cut a fresh one. He had it
constructed of sufficient width and depth to allow ships of war to pass
from the Sea to the Lakes, intending to carry it through, on the same
scale, to the Mediterranean. But this magnificent project had to wait two
thousand years for its realization. It is, however, possible that Ptolemy
did not contemplate the direct route. If his war-vessels could have found
water enough in the Bubastic branch, he would of course have contented
himself with enlarging, and deepening the Bubastic Canal. We are told
that his design was that of a Canal 100 feet in breadth, and 40 feet
in depth. The latter appears incredible, because unnecessary. He built
Arsinöe, the modern Suez, at the Red Sea terminus of his Canal, at which
he constructed locks to exclude the salt water, and retain the fresh.
There was also a second Canal from the Nile to the neighbourhood of Lake
Timsah in the mid-desert. It was known by the name of the Emperor Trajan.
It left the river at Babylon—possibly the Babylon from which the first
Epistle of St. Peter is dated—a few miles to the south of the site of
modern Cairo. It thus received its supply of water from a higher level
than the Canal of Rameses. It watered a new district in its passage
through the desert.
The Canals are now lost to sight for several centuries. At last, 644
A.D., they are again rescued from the obscurity into which they had
fallen by the Caliph Omar, who repaired, and restored them to use. About
a century after his time they were again destroyed.
There was then nothing new in the idea, or in the fact, of a water
communication between the two seas. The old Egyptians had fully debated
the question of whether it was better to have, or not to have it. If they
had thought it advisable to undertake it, they would have engineered
it in the completest manner, and on the grandest scale. They, however,
rejected the plan from motives of policy. The idea was actually carried
out, and through communication kept up by Persians, Greeks, Romans, and
Saracens. _Apropos_, then, to the recent opening of the Suez Canal, we
may say that the thing itself is more than two thousand years old: the
idea more than three thousand.
That it is direct, that is one hundred miles in length, instead of
indirect, which made the navigation nearly double that length, is the
difference, and the gain.
The only absolutely new point is that it is a salt water, and not a fresh
water Canal; and with respect to this, I think we may feel certain that
if old Rameses, or Necho, had engineered it, instead of M. Lesseps, it
would not, in this respect, have been as it is. They would have decided
in favour of fresh water, because they could then have constructed it at
half the cost; and would, furthermore, by so doing, have had a supply of
water in the desert, sufficient for reclaiming a vast extent of land,
which would have more than repaid the whole cost of construction. Instead
of cutting a Canal deep in the desert at an enormous cost, they would,
as it were, have laid a Canal on the desert. This they would have done
by excavating only to the depth requisite for finding material for its
levées, and for the flow of the water which was to be brought to it from
some selected point in the river. It is evident that this kind of Canal
might have been made wider, and deeper, than the present one at far less
cost. The river water would then have filled the ship Canal, just as it
now does the sweet-water Canal parallel to it. The sweet-water Canal now
reaches Suez. A sweet-water ship-Canal might have done the same. As far
as navigation is concerned, the only difference would have been that
locks would have been required at the two extremities, such as Darius,
and Ptolemy had at Arsinöe. These locks would have been at Suez, and at
the southern side of Lake Menzaléh.
But the diminution in the cost of construction, say 8,000,000_l._,
instead of 16,000,000_l._, would not have been the chief gain: that would
have been found in the fact that the Canal would have been a new Nile in
a new desert. It would have contained an inexhaustible storage of water
to fertilize, and to cover with life, and wealth, a new Egypt. Though,
indeed, not new historically; for this would only have been the recovery
from the desert of the old Land of Goshen, and the restoration to it, by
precisely the same means as of old, of the fertility it had possessed in
the days of Jacob and Rameses.
It was natural that the French should have been the most prominent
supporters of this scheme. Every Frenchman appeared to come into
the world with the idea in his mind that France, by the order and
constitution of Nature, was as fully entitled to Egypt as she was to
the left bank of the Rhine; and that nothing but an unaccountable
combination of envy and stupidity, withheld the human race, especially
those to whom these fair portions of the earth belonged, from recognizing
the eternal truth, and fitness of this great idea. Here we had a gauge
for measuring the moral sense of the educated portion of the French
nation. As to the Canal, their idea appears to have been that they were
only making improvements in a glorious property, the reversion of which
must be theirs. It would give them, too, such a footing in the country,
and such materials for the manufacture of pretexts, and claims, that it
would enable them, almost at their will, to expedite the advent of the
day when the reversion would fall to them.
I heard, while I was in Egypt, that the Imperial charlatan of France
had been behaving towards us in the matter of Egypt in the friendly and
straightforward manner it appeared he had been behaving in the matter of
Belgium. Our discerning friend, and staunch ally, I was told, had been
confidentially exhorting the Viceroy to disregard English policy and
advice, and to prepare for asserting his independence of the Sultan. Only
let Egypt become an independent kingdom, and then there would be a clear
field for the realization of the grand French idea M. Guizot declared,
some thirty years ago, no Frenchman could ever abandon. Under such
circumstances, nothing could be more easy than at any moment to find, in
the affairs and management of the Canal, grounds for a quarrel, that is
to say, for taking possession of the country: though perhaps the world,
taught by history, would predict that the attempt would not succeed. The
plan was to have things ready for turning to account, at any moment, any
opportunity that might arise.
The catastrophe of the last twelve months would have prevented my making
any such remarks as the fore going, were I now thinking of making them
for the first time. In that case they would have appeared too much like
being wise after the event; and too much, also, like being hard on those
who are down. I feel myself, however, at liberty to make them now, for
in so doing I am only repeating what I ventured to predict in print
four years ago (the fact even then for some years having been manifest
to many), that the _rôle_ of the Latin race was played out. People said
to me, ‘What can you mean? The French have the largest revenue, and the
finest army in Europe, and their military glory is untarnished.’ My
answer then was, that the French army appeared to have been changed into
a Prætorian guard; and that the French nation appeared to have lost the
moral instincts which compact a population into a people. Among those
instincts, the sense of right and justice, the absence of which we have
just been noticing, holds the first place: without it the formation and
maintenance of political society are impossible.
There are three towns on the Canal: Port Saïd, which is almost entirely
French; Ismailia, which is so to a great extent; and Suez, which has a
French quarter. At these places I heard that the French were far from
popular; that they are regarded as arrogant, and illiberal in their
dealings with the Arabs they employ; and vicious to a degree which
offends even the tolerant natives, who trouble themselves very little
about the morality of unbelievers. It would require some familiarity with
the life of these places to know how far such accusations are true: they
are only set down here because they are current among the non-French
part of the population. Certainly, however, at Port Saïd some things are
paraded which in most other places an attempt is made to keep out of
sight. But Port Saïd is the Wapping of the Canal. This town is built on
a reclaimed sand-bar. The hotel is better than one would have expected.
The _Place_, _Place_ Lesseps it is called, is ambitiously large. In some
parts of the town the stenches make you feel bad: of course on a low
sand-bar there can be no drainage. It seems to do a considerable trade
in pilgrims: those we saw were chiefly Russians. On being introduced to
the American Consul—he appeared to be an Italian—he offered to show me
his garden. It proved well worth seeing. It contained a good collection
in a small space, of African, Australian, and Brazilian plants. Many,
that with us require almost constant stove-heat, were flowering here, in
January, in the open air. Among the inhabitants, as at Ismailia, are to
be found many of the (in the East) ubiquitous Greeks.
Ismailia is very preferable every way to Port Saïd. It is in the heart
of the desert, and on the shore of a considerable lake. I can imagine
a not unprofitable, or over dull, month spent here by a man who finds
a pleasure in coming in contact with strange sorts of people; and who
also takes an interest in natural history and botany; for the natural
history and botany of such a place must be very peculiar. It must, too,
be pre-eminently healthy, for it combines the pure air of the desert with
that of the sea-shore, for such is now the shore of Lake Timsah. It has
a pretty good hotel, a _place_ yclept Champollion, a French bazaar, a
promenade, an Arab town, a good house surrounded by a garden belonging
to M. Lesseps, and a more ambitious one surrounded by sand, built by the
Khedivé, at the time of the opening of the Canal, for the Empress of
the French, and his other Royal visitors. Ismailia might also be made
the head-quarters for a great deal of very interesting Egyptological
inquiry. Within easy distances are Pelusium, the Abaris of the primæval
monarchy, Arsinöe, Pithom, Ramses, and Heroonpolis. Persians, Greeks,
and Romans alike left their marks on this neighbourhood. Here, too, was
the Goshen of the children of Israel. It would be interesting also to
ascertain how far into what is now desert reached the land that was then
cultivated; and what, relatively to the sea and river, was the level of
the bottom of the old Canal.
Suez is in a state of rapid decay. Many houses are untenanted. This
has been caused by the diversion of the traffic. What formerly passed
through the town now passes by it on the Canal. Here, again, the hotel
is good. Its Hindoo waiters are to be preferred to the Italian waiters
of Alexandria and Cairo. They are clean, quiet, and alert. Nature seems
to have fitted them for the employment, but perhaps you might think they
have heads for something better.
I was two days in passing through the Canal from end to end. For this
purpose I chartered at Suez, jointly with two friends who happened to be
with me, a small steamer. It was an open boat that might have held four
passengers. The crew consisted of three men. The distance is about one
hundred miles. Herodotus gives it very accurately when he says that the
Isthmus has a width of one thousand stadia.
To one who is on the look out for beautiful scenery and stirring life,
the two days’ steaming from Suez to Port Saïd will not give much
pleasure. As long as you are on the actual Canal, you pass along a
straight water-way between two high banks of sand. The sky overhead is
the only additional object in Nature. There is no vegetation. There are
but few birds. There is no animal on the banks, or insect in the air.
At long intervals there are small wooden shanties for watering stations.
A great many dredging machines are passed. Some are at work; but the
greater part of them are rusting, and rotting. They are large floating
structures, moved and worked by steam. Each of them costs between five
and six thousand pounds. Their business is to dredge up the mud, or sand
from the bottom of the Canal to a lofty stage which each carries, a
little above the level of the bank. From this elevation what is dredged
up is run down on an incline to the point on the bank where it is to be
deposited, and there shot out. They are called mud-hoppers. They are
hideous-looking objects; of all the works of man that float the most
unsightly: but they are what you here see most of. You occasionally have
the excitement of meeting a small steamer, carrying some official on the
business of the Canal, or for his own pleasure. The officials have quite
a fleet of these little steamers: almost every one his own. The rarest
object on the Canal is that for which it was constructed: a vessel of
one, or two, thousand tons passing through it. On the first day we saw
three. This was a good day. On the second day, our good luck, and that
of the Canal, continuing, we saw the same number. But, as the wind was
fresh, two of the three had got aground: of these two one was an English
troop ship with a regiment for India on board. Three little steam tugs
were hauling away at each. It is difficult to say how large vessels,
drawing within an inch or two of the greatest depth of water, and which
is to be found only in the mid-channel, can manage to keep out of
trouble: the margin for inattention, bad steering, for not making proper
allowance for wind, &c., being not far from nil. There are mooring posts
all the way along to enable one ship to make fast while another goes by.
The company’s regulations give them the power of blowing up a vessel they
consider hopelessly grounded.
But you are not always in a straight watercourse, between two high mounds
of sand. The two Bitter Lakes, and the Lakes Timsah and Ballah, are
passed through, and cover nearly half the distance. In the large Bitter
Lakes you are pretty nearly out of sight of land. A glass shows you that
there is a slight rise in the ground along their shores, upon which are
seen, here and there, stunted tamarisks, more like shrubs than trees. The
bed of these lakes, before the water was admitted, was full of detached
trees of this species. They grew larger on the lower ground. The tops
of some are still seen in and above the water. If, therefore, you leave
the channel which is buoyed out for you, you stand a chance of being
snagged. I take it for granted that in old time when none but sweet water
from the Nile, brought by the Bubastis and Babylon Canals, was admitted
to this district, much land now under salt water, and much more in the
neighbourhood, was then under cultivation.
The evaporation from the surface of the Bitter Lakes, as might be
expected in the hot dry desert, is enormous. This I was told had
perceptibly affected the climate, making it more cloudy, and more
inclined to occasional showers. Of course, whatever effect it has had,
must be in this direction; but seeing how small a proportion these lakes
bear to the contiguous seas, I am disposed to think the amount of this
effect very slight. There is, however, another effect of this rapidity
of evaporation, which we may measure, and weigh, and which is felt by
the fish. It increases the proportion of salt in the water to such an
amount, that in summer one gallon of water yields thirteen ounces of
salt: a gallon of Dead Sea water yields eighteen ounces. This, last
summer, killed almost all the different species of fish that had come
into the lakes the previous autumn, on the first opening of the connexion
with the two seas. I was told that at that time, the surface of the water
was covered with the dead. It is believed that some species proved, by
surviving, that they possessed a power of resisting a degree of saltness
they had never been exposed to before.
Lake Timsah is a large natural basin in the very centre of the Isthmus.
As its area is much less than the Bitter Lakes, while its shores are
higher, and more irregular, it possesses an approach to something
like a kind of picturesqueness you might not have been expecting. In
this midland harbour we found a fleet of large vessels: some of them
men-of-war; some even ironclads. A sense of surprise comes over you at
seeing not only a pleasing expanse of water in the thirsty, scorching
waste (how one wishes it were fresh water), but in addition a fleet of
mighty ships in the mid-desert.
The traffic of the Canal is increasing rapidly; and, I think, for obvious
reasons must go on increasing, till it has absorbed the whole of the
traffic of Europe with Asia. At first people were not prepared for it.
They had not the data requisite for their calculations, and so they
would hardly have been justified in building steamers in advance of
the demonstration of the practicability, and advantages of the route.
That demonstration is now complete: and I suppose there are now very
few sailing vessels being built in this country, or anywhere else, for
trading with the East. This part, therefore, of the question, may, I
take it for granted, be regarded as settled. I saw one of the P. and O.
boats, the _Candia_, passing through the Canal. The whole of its fleet
must eventually make use of it. The only wonder is that they do not do so
at once; for, while they are hesitating, multitudes of other steamers,
built for the India and China trade, and in which every improvement for
economizing coal, and for the convenience and comfort of the passengers,
has been adopted, have been put upon the line of the Canal. And as the
majority of passengers object to the trouble and expense of being hurried
overland from Suez to Alexandria, a great many of the old customers of
the P. and O. Company, and of travellers who would have been glad to
use the boats of so well-known a concern, are now going by these new
boats which take the through route. And this is only what the P. and O.
Company must, like the rest of the world, come to at last. Their delay
is only driving the custom into the hands of their rivals. It is in fact
creating, and maintaining those rivals. When, however, they have taken to
the Canal, this single company will pay for its use more than 100,000_l._
a year: for they will be bound to despatch, as they do now, a vessel each
way each week. The tonnage of their vessels will not be less than two
thousand. The Canal charges are 8_s._ a ton, so much for each berth for
passengers, and some other items, which together bring up the total to
not far short of 10_s._ a ton. This on a vessel of not less than 2,000
tons, will not be less than 1,000_l._[10] Each way this will have to be
paid. But it is what others are doing; and it will be, on the whole, a
gain over the present system of land-transport, for passengers and cargo
from Suez to Alexandria, and _vice versâ_; and practically, whatever it
may be on paper, at no loss of time.
For the Canal to take 100,000_l._ a year from one company would seem a
great deal: but it is a sum that is soon absorbed in the expenses of so
big a concern. I understood that at the beginning of this year: it was
February when I was there: they were taking about 1,000_l._ a day. This
was a great advance on what had been done previously; but it implies only
one ship of 2,000 tons through in the twenty-four hours. And is very far
short of what is indispensable for completing and keeping up the works.
This at present demands 3,000_l._ a day, or about 1,000,000_l._ a year.
It seems imperative that, even if a few more inches are not added to the
depth of water, the deep mid-channel should be widened.
The traffic is increasing so fast, and it is so certain, that all who
can come this way will, that we may believe that the Company, whether
the existing one, or some new company to which the existing one may be
obliged to sell the concern, will somehow or other find the means for
carrying out the necessary completions, and for maintaining the affair;
but it is hard to believe that, even if every keel that cuts the Indian
Ocean were, going and coming, to take this route, anything could remain
over for dividend in the lifetime of the present shareholders; for even
should a dividend be declared, the incredulous world will surmise that it
is paid, not because there are net profits to justify it, but with a view
to enabling the Company to raise loans needed for necessary completions,
for which the revenue would be inadequate.
It is natural to ask of what advantage to Egypt is this Canal? We might
answer, and perhaps rightly, that if the Isthmus had been divided by the
wand of a magician, and the Canal thus made at the cost of a word, or
of the waving of a hand, presented to the country, the advantage would
not have been very considerable. But we will take things as they are:
Suppose the case of the P. and O. boats. They have hitherto discharged
everything at Suez, and at Alexandria; and their passengers and cargo
have been carried across Egypt. We will suppose that the cost of this
operation has been for each boat 1,000_l._ The whole of this 1,000_l._
has been left in Suez and Alexandria. It was so much toll paid to Egypt
for so much work done in helping passengers and cargo through. But how
would it stand with the same boats going through the Canal? We will
suppose that they will pay precisely the same amount. But the question
is, into whose hands will it go? Primarily to the account of the Company.
If it should so happen that the concern has reached the point of paying
dividends, a great portion will then be remitted to Europe for dividends.
From that Egypt will derive no benefit; nor from that portion of the
salaries of officials they may save, and remit to Europe; nor from what
will be paid in Europe for materials, and machinery. The officials, too,
being Europeans, and always in the end returning to Europe with their
families, will not at all increase, or improve, the human capital, or
human stock, of the country. In fact, Egypt would gain little except from
the small amount of native population that would be brought into being
to supply the food, and some of the other wants of the officials, and
others employed on the Canal. Some of these latter also, being natives,
must be reckoned as part of the gain accruing to Egypt. With these small
exceptions, Egypt is no more benefited by English ships passing through
the Canal, than it would be by a flock of wild geese flying over the
Isthmus.
But the question which concerns us is, of what use will the Canal be to
ourselves? To us it will be of very great use. First to our commerce. As
our trade with the East is taking this route as fast as steamers—which
alone can pass through the Canal and Red Sea—can be substituted for
sailing-vessels, there can be no doubt but that, on the whole, it is
advantageous for them. For this trade all kinds of sailing-vessels are
now antiquated. That it would have been better to have left things as
they were, the owners of these sailing-vessels will naturally think: but
this is a rococo thought. The P. and O. Company also will, of course,
have to accommodate their business to the new order of things. This will
be costly and inconvenient to them: and they, too, will grumble; and, for
a time, endeavour to fight against necessity. The world, however, will
not be convinced with the logic of either; nor will they be convinced
themselves with their own arguments.
The new order of things is superseding the old only for one reason, and
that reason is that the preponderance of advantages is on its side. It
does not claim the advantage in every respect. So much for the commercial
side of the question, as far as we are concerned.
It is manifest that for Southern, and Central Europe the Canal is, in
proportion to the amount of their trade, a still greater advantage than
to ourselves. It will be a great lift to Marseilles; and even in a higher
degree to some port on the Adriatic, whichever it may be that will be
found most convenient for Central Europe. It may be Trieste. It may be
Venice. It is a question of harbours, railways, and policy conjointly
considered. If it be Venice, the channel from the sea to the quays of
the Grand Canal will have to be deepened. If the German provinces of the
Austro-Hungarian empire should eventually gravitate towards Northern
Germany, it will, I suppose, be Trieste. Or, should a mid-European
railway be completed from Hamburg to Constantinople, much of the traffic
of East with West may again be attracted to the quays of the old world’s
Imperial centre.
But there is for us another question besides the commercial one: that
is the naval one. Suppose England at war with some maritime power. It
is obvious that in these times it would be impossible for us to protect
our vast eastern commerce on the open ocean. But if the whole of this
commerce be carried on through narrow seas it may be possible. These
narrow seas for the whole distance is precisely what the Canal gives
us. After having left the extreme point of China, where we have the
naval station of Hong Kong, our trade will enter the Straits, where we
have Singapore. It will then pass by Ceylon, another naval station.
Here, whatever may be coming from Calcutta and Madras will join the
main stream. It will then be forwarded to Aden, which will guard the
Red Sea; and which is, in fact, the key of the Canal. Malta will make
the Mediterranean safe. The short remainder of the voyage will be to a
great extent protected by Gibraltar, and Plymouth. Nothing could be more
complete. The Canal gives us the very thing we want: a defensible route.
From a naval point of view, a defensible route is a great gain; but very
far from being all the gain. The whole trade with Europe of India, China,
and the Straits, and a great part of that with Australia must take the
line of the Canal; and all of it must be carried in ocean steamers; that
is to say, four-fifths of all these steamers will belong to England. This
will give to us a fleet of ocean steamers outnumbering those of all the
rest of the world combined; and these will always be at our disposal for,
to say the least, the transport of troops, and of the materials of war.
Of the remaining fifth a large proportion will be built in this country,
as our resources and arrangements for the construction of iron ships and
marine engines are superior to those of any other country.
If, then, it should prove that this forecast of the advantages of the
Canal to us in war is correct, it would seem to follow that, in time of
war, we should be under the necessity of holding it ourselves; or, at all
events, of occupying its two extremities. We should be obliged to take
care that neither an enemy blocked it up, nor a friend permitted it to go
out of repair.