(Signed) Linant _Bey_. Mougel _Bey_.
APPENDIX.
No. V.
LETTER FROM THE GRAND VIZIER, TO THE VICEROY OF EGYPT.
LETTER FROM THE GRAND VIZIER RESHID PACHA TO HIS HIGHNESS MOHAMMED SAID
PACHA, VICEROY OF EGYPT.
_Translation from the Turkish._
The 12th of the Month of Djemazul Akhir 1271.
(1st March, 1855.)
Your very humble servant has the honour to address you as follows:—
M. Ferd. de Lesseps is about to return to your Highness. He is indeed,
as your Highness was graciously pleased to observe to us, a guest who of
himself deserves all possible attention and consideration. His object in
coming here had reference to the affair of the Canal; an undertaking of
the most useful character. During his stay in Constantinople, I have had
the pleasure of seeing him several times, and of conversing with him at
length on various subjects. He has had the honour of being presented to
his Majesty the Sultan, by whom he was received with the highest favour.
In conformity with the Imperial order on the subject of the Canal, the
question of this interesting undertaking is now under the consideration
of the Council of Ministers. M. de Lesseps, not being able to wait until
the end of the conferences, has decided on taking his departure. I shall
shortly have to acquaint your Highness in detail with the result.
(Signed) MOUSTAPHA RESHID.
APPENDIX.
No. VI.
REPORT FROM M. DE LESSEPS TO THE VICEROY OF EGYPT. AND HIS HIGHNESS’
INSTRUCTIONS.
REPORT TO HIS HIGHNESS MOHAMMED SAID PACHA, VICEROY OF EGYPT.
The Camp, Marea, 30th April, 1855.
I had the honour of submitting to your Highness the memorial of your
Engineers MM. Linant _Bey_, and Mougel _Bey_, for the construction of the
Canal of the Isthmus of Suez.
This is intended as a precursory scheme for the cutting through the
Isthmus. It is accompanied by a map indicating the configuration of
the ground and the nature of the soil. It has met with your Highness’
approval, and you have requested me to give it the most extensive
publicity in order to call the attention of all competent persons in
Europe and America to a question which interests the whole world, and to
invite their examination and observations.
...
Your Highness has decided to send immediately, to the Counsellors of His
Imperial Majesty the Sultan, the explanations which they require for the
ratification of the scheme for the communication of the two Seas.
For my own part I shall proceed immediately to Europe, I shall make it my
especial business to get the official documents relative to the affair as
well as the precursory scheme of MM. Linant Bey, and Mougel Bey, printed
and published. Arrangements will be made in order to collect within a
limited time the opinions of those competent persons who shall be willing
to aid the enterprise with their information and suggestions. In the mean
time your engineers will be preparing the elements of their definitive
scheme.
Agents will be appointed in every country to collect the communications
and arrange the correspondence.
When the definitive scheme of the engineers is completed, and when the
remarks received from each country have furnished a mass of information,
a commission will be appointed, composed of engineers of known ability
in hydraulic operations, and chosen in England, France, Germany, Italy
and Holland. This commission will give its opinion upon the scheme of
your Highness’ Engineers, and point out the modifications, or alterations
which it shall think proper to be adopted. Every means shall be placed at
the disposal of the Commission for visiting the Isthmus of Suez, should
it be considered necessary to see the localities before deciding.
Your Highness has been pleased to limit at present the consideration of
the track. After having passed in review the numerous schemes presented
to Governments, or to the public, for more than fifty years, you give
full liberty for the application of the means that science shall
recognize to be best for making a communication between the Red Sea and
the Mediterranean, by cutting through the Isthmus of Suez at any point of
the Isthmus, eastward of the course of the Nile; but you have declared
that you will not authorize the Grand Maritime Suez Canal Company to
adopt any track that might have its point of departure on the coast of
the Mediterranean eastward of the Damietta branch, and which would cross
the Nile.
It will not be until after the adoption of the track of communication
between the two Seas, and when all the advantages and all the
responsibilities of those who take part in the enterprise are clearly
determined, that capitalists and the public will be invited to subscribe
for shares, and the representatives of those interested will finally
decide upon all questions affecting the administration, the execution and
carrying out of the undertaking.
Allow me now to point out to your Highness, the preparatory operations to
which MM. Linant _Bey_ and Mougel _Bey_ have to apply themselves previous
to presenting their definitive scheme.
They have—
1st. To trace out on the ground the line of the Maritime Canal in detail,
with all its angles and curves, and transfer the line so traced on to a
plan.
2nd. To take the levels throughout this line, extending them into the two
Seas to a depth of ten _metres_ of water.
3rd. To make profile sections wherever the formation of the ground
requires it.
4th. To take soundings along the line, and carry them out to a depth of
ten _metres_ below the level of low water in the Mediterranean.
5th. To collect specimens of the various soils met with in their
operations.
6th. To settle the prime cost of manual labour and of all the materials
that will be employed in the construction of the Canal.
7th. To establish positive data that will serve to estimate the number of
workmen of all kinds necessary for the execution of the works.
For my own part, I shall make it my business to collect the most recent
statistical documents that will afford the means of ascertaining
positively the _minimum_ valuation of the returns.
When the time has arrived for commencing the works of the Maritime Canal,
a large number of machines, and a considerable quantity of materials,
timber, iron, coal, &c. &c., ought to be procured from Europe. The Suez
Canal Company will find the advantages of certainty, economy and facility
of transport, which do not exist at present, in the continuation of the
railway to Suez, and the establishment of the Towing Society, with which
is connected the amelioration of the Mahmoudieh Canal, and also its
communication with the port of Alexandria.
...
The communications which I have received from Europe bear witness to the
ever-increasing interest with which the scheme of opening the Isthmus of
Suez is everywhere received.
Amongst those who have spontaneously offered me their co-operation,
there are some who have placed considerable sums at my disposal as a
contribution to the preliminary expenses of the undertaking. These offers
already amount to more than 15,000,000 francs. I have not thought it
proper to avail myself of them, but I have noted the names of those who
have made them in order that they may take their appropriate place in the
list of subscribers.
Certain founding members have already been named; they have subscribed an
engagement, under conditions, to contribute to the expenses preliminary
to the regular organization of the Company. The first list of founding
members, fulfilling the conditions required by Art. 11, of your
Highness’s Firman, contains fifty-five names belonging both to Egypt
and to Europe. Your Highness who leaves to me the charge of completing
this list by the addition of persons of all countries who shall actually
contribute to the establishment of the work, has desired that the total
number should not exceed 100 if it can be avoided.
Your Highness has been pleased to approve of the provisional appointment
of M. Ruyssenaers, Consul General of the Netherlands, as principal agent
of the Company in Egypt; he deserves in every respect this mark of
confidence.
Such are the preliminary proceedings that have appeared to your Highness
calculated to promote the success of your grand enterprise.
I beg your Highness to inform me whether I have fully understood your
intentions.
(Signed) FERD. DE LESSEPS.
MY ATTACHED FRIEND M. FERDINAND DE LESSEPS, OF HIGH BIRTH AND ELEVATED
RANK.
I have made myself acquainted with the report which you addressed to me
on the 30th of April, and I approve the document which is to serve you
in place of instructions. I appreciate the zeal which you have displayed
in this affair, and the friendly interest you have taken in it has
afforded me real satisfaction.
3 Ramadan, 1271.
(_The Viceroy’s Seal._)
A true translation of the Turkish text.
KŒNIG BEY,
Secretary of Mandates
to His Highness the Viceroy.
Alexandria, May 19, 1855.
APPENDIX.
No. VII.
OPINION OF MR. ANDERSON.
OPINION OF MR ANDERSON.[5]
The interest which has recently been manifested in the improvement of
our means of communication with India, China, &c. _viâ_ Egypt and the
Red Sea, seems to have revived the speculations, first broached during
the occupation of Egypt by the French forces under Napoleon, as to the
feasibility of opening a communication between the Red Sea and the
Mediterranean by a Canal through the Isthmus of Suez.
Various statements upon this subject have lately appeared in the
newspapers and periodicals, both of this country and the Continent, and
a kind of prospectus proposing the formation of a Company to execute the
undertaking, has just been put in circulation in London.
These statements and speculations, in so far as they have come under
the cognizance of the writer of the following pages, are, in a great
measure, superficial, crude, or erroneous,[6] and, therefore, calculated
to mislead rather than inform the public in regard to the practicability
and utility of an enterprise, whose importance it is scarcely possible
to overrate, considering the nature and magnitude of the interests which
would be involved in its successful accomplishment.
The writer has had the means of obtaining information relative to this
matter, which he considers may be relied on, and having devoted much of
his attention to this Canal question, he deems the present time opportune
for submitting to the public some facts and observations tending, he
ventures to believe, to lead to more correct conclusions on this very
interesting subject than any which have as yet been published.
These facts and observations will be found arranged under the following
heads:—
1.—_The physical practicability of the enterprise._
2.—_The political arrangements requisite for effecting it._
3.—_The advantages or disadvantages of navigating by the
proposed Canal route, as compared with the route by the Cape of
Good Hope._
4.—_Financial considerations._
5.—_General observations as to the political, commercial, and
moral benefits which would be derived from the accomplishment
of the undertaking._
That facility of intercourse creates commerce, and commerce carries with
it civilization, is an axiom founded on universal experience.
Where seeming exceptions to it are found, they may be traced to the
blind selfishness of human legislation, counteracting the natural laws
established by the all-wise and beneficent Governor of the universe.
A project, therefore, which, by severing two continents, proposes to
change the whole course of commerce and communication between the eastern
and western worlds, and approximate by many thousand miles the knowledge
and industry of the west to the ignorance and barbarism of the east,
presents considerations of a nature to excite the imagination, and to
awaken some of our best feelings in its favour.
In dealing with it, the writer, however, purposes to limit himself
to a strictly practical view of the subject. He will state his facts
with accuracy,—place every circumstance, whether for or against the
undertaking, as far as his information enables him to judge, impartially
before the reader,—and thus leave him to form his own opinion as to the
practicability of accomplishing the contemplated enterprise, and of its
utility should it be accomplished.
The writer deems it proper to add, that the matter was some time since
submitted by him to the consideration of Her Majesty’s Government,
and that the extract from M. Linant’s Survey of the Isthmus, herein
given, appears in the “_Commercial Tariffs, Regulations, &c., of
Foreign Countries, part 10, presented to both Houses of Parliament, by
command of Her Majesty, 14th July, 1843_,” being part of those valuable
compilations, for which it is well known the country is indebted to the
talents and industry of Mr. Macgregor, of the Board of Trade.
PHYSICAL PRACTICABILITY OF THE ENTERPRISE.
The improvement of our communication with the East has been, for some
time past, an object of much public solicitude, and in proportion to the
progress made in its developement, its importance becomes more and more
manifest. The establishment of a steam communication with India, &c.,
_viâ_ the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, although as yet only in its
infancy, has already been productive of considerable benefit, both to
Great Britain and her Oriental dependencies.
But, although the steam communication presents a greatly improved means
of transit by this route for passengers and letters, it cannot, except in
a comparatively very limited degree, be made available for the general
purposes of commerce. The transport of all articles of merchandize of
moderate value, compared to their bulk or weight, must, from the small
stowage-room afforded by steam vessels, and the expense of the transit
across Egypt, continue to be effected by means of sailing vessels
navigating by the long and circuitous route round the Cape of Good Hope.
The principal object, therefore, of the contemplated Canal, would be to
open a shorter route between Europe and the East, which could be availed
of by sailing as well as by steam vessels, and thus serve the general
purposes of commercial intercourse.
Previously to proceeding to treat of the practicability of opening such a
canal, it may be proper to explain how it has fallen to my lot to deal
with this subject:—
In the year 1841, I visited Egypt. While there, my attention was, among
other matters, directed to the question which has so frequently been
mooted, although never hitherto, I think, satisfactorily treated, viz.
the practicability of re-opening the ancient Canal through the Isthmus of
Suez, said to have once joined the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.
In following up this object, I became acquainted with M. Adolphe Linant,
of Cairo, a French Civil Engineer, of considerable reputation, and who
has been in the employ of the Pacha of Egypt, for, I believe, upwards of
twenty years.
I found that M. Linant had devoted a great deal of time and labour to
the practical investigation of this subject, had recently completed an
elaborate survey of the Isthmus, and was in possession of much detailed
information derived from a personal examination of the localities through
which the proposed Canal would have to be cut. Under certain conditions I
induced him to furnish me with a memoir on the subject, accompanied by a
manuscript map of his Survey of the Isthmus of Suez, and of Lower Egypt,
in which the site of the ancient and track of the proposed Canal are laid
down with great minuteness. In short, the map, now in my possession,
which is on a large scale, contains a far more complete view of Lower
Egypt than any hitherto executed.
POLITICAL ARRANGEMENTS.
The co-operation, or, at least, the concurrence of the Pacha of Egypt
would be indispensable.
Having suggested the expediency of the interposition of one or more of
the European powers to remove any political impediments which might stand
in the way of this enterprise, it appears necessary to take a brief view
of the interest which they would each have in promoting it.
_Great Britain_, from the vast extent of her commerce and political
connections with the East, would, undoubtedly, derive the greatest
advantage from it; but most of the other nations of Europe would derive
benefit in proportion to the extent of their commerce; and those, having
ports in the Mediterranean and Levant, or indeed anywhere nearer to the
proposed communication than the ports of Great Britain, would gain more
in proportion.
_Holland_, next to Great Britain, would, from the extent of her trade
with the East, have a direct interest in the accomplishment of the
proposed enterprise. Her commerce would be improved, and her political
connection with her extensive colonies of Java, &c., would be much
strengthened by it.
_France_ would derive most important benefits. It would create almost a
new commerce for her, in which, through her ports in the Mediterranean,
she would have the advantage over us in importing direct the indigo, &c.,
of India, of which she requires such large quantities for the use of her
manufactories, while the shorter route which would be opened to India,
&c., would give a stimulus to her exports.
_Austria_, there is every reason to believe, would give a cordial support
to the undertaking. She is making active and judicious efforts to extend
and improve her commerce; and there is little doubt of her co-operation
in promoting an undertaking so well calculated to further her views in
that respect. The merchants of Trieste have been the first to avail
themselves of an arrangement which the writer of this succeeded about
two years since in effecting with the Pacha of Egypt, by which he agreed
to relinquish the high rate of transit duties in Egypt, imposed by the
treaties with the Porte, and to substitute as low a rate of duty as would
admit of the transit through Egypt of goods to and from India, &c. Under
this arrangement, two cargoes of India produce have been already brought
from Bengal to Suez in sailing vessels, thence transported across Egypt
to Alexandria, whence they were brought to Trieste.
The Chamber of Commerce of that port are, it is well known, anxious
to extend their trade with the East in this direction; and it is
stated, that a proposal was, a short time since, made by some Austrian
capitalists to the Pacha, for opening a Canal through the Isthmus.
_Greece_ would obtain a decided benefit by it. Her numerous small vessels
would be well adapted for trading with the ports of Africa and Arabia in
the Red Sea, and they would soon be seen covering these coasts.
Italy, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, the minor northern states, and
even America, would all participate more or less in the improved route
for eastern commerce, and, taking a just view of their own interests,
would hail it as a benefit.
Even _Russia_, although possessed of an over-land communication with
Central Asia, India, and China, would gain an advantage by the Canal, as
she could open a maritime intercourse with the east through her ports in
the Black Sea, which would be less costly, and susceptible of greater
extension than a land transit.
It hence appears, that all the European powers would have an interest,
more or less, in promoting this enterprise; and there appears to be
reasonable grounds for concluding, that if requested by one or more of
the first-rate powers, either to undertake the work himself, or permit
it to be undertaken by private capitalists, under such an arrangement as
would connect his name with it, and secure to himself and his descendants
a pecuniary benefit from it, as already suggested, Mehemet Ali would be
induced to co-operate in it.
The guardianship of such a passage between Europe and the East, would
serve to enhance the importance of his political position, and to
strengthen those relations of mutual interest between the ruler of Egypt,
and the communities of Europe, which would form the most efficacious
guarantee for the continuance of the Government of Egypt in the family of
Mehemet Ali.
The association of his name with so magnificent an enterprise, would, I
consider, be another powerful motive to a man so ardently imbued with the
love of fame.
Should a firman or other formal act from the Sultan of the Ottoman
Empire, in his character of sovereign of the soil, be deemed requisite
for securing a permanent and indisputable right to make and keep open the
Canal, I should suggest that point being left to the management of the
Pacha, who, I have some reason to think, would obtain it much more easily
and promptly than if it were attempted through the medium of European
diplomacy.
ADVANTAGES OF NAVIGATING BY THE CANAL ROUTE, AS COMPARED WITH THE ROUTE
BY THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.
Before entering on a comparison of these two routes with regard to
their navigation by sailing vessels, it may be well to consider what
advantages the contemplated Canal would afford in facilitating the steam
communication with the East _viâ_ Egypt and the Red Sea, commonly, though
very erroneously, denominated “the Overland Route.”
In order to make this properly understood, it will be necessary to give a
brief account of the present arrangements for the transit through Egypt
of the mails, passengers, and packages, to and from India, China, &c.
It is, no doubt, generally known, that this communication is carried
on by the steamers of a private Company, which ply monthly between
Southampton and Alexandria, touching at Gibraltar and Malta, and by
smaller steamers belonging to the East India Company, which ply monthly
between Bombay and Suez, chiefly for the purpose of conveying the
mails. The private Company have now also placed two steam ships, the
“Hindostan,” and the “Bentinck,” of 1800 tons, and 520 horse power each,
to ply between Suez and Calcutta, touching at Aden, Ceylon, and Madras.
The vessels of that Company, both on this side of Egypt, as well as
on the other side, convey goods as well as passengers, and the mails;
but the East India Company’s vessels plying between Suez and Bombay,
do not receive goods, and have but limited, and comparatively inferior
accommodations for passengers.
The mails, passengers, and packages, are, of course, disembarked from
the steamers coming from England at Alexandria, and are re-embarked at
Suez in the steamers proceeding to India on the outward route, and _vice
versâ_ on the homeward route.
It now remains to show how their transit across Egypt, between Alexandria
on the Mediterranean, and Suez on the Red Sea, is effected, with the
present cost of it, in order to estimate how far it would be improved by
the contemplated Canal communication.
I shall now proceed to consider what advantages the Canal would present
to sailing vessels navigating between Europe and the East.
The distance from the English Channel to Calcutta, _viâ_
the Cape of Good Hope, by the route taken by the best
sailing vessels, may be put down at _miles_ 13,000
_Viâ_ the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and Indian Ocean,
it is about 8,000
Gain in distance by the latter route, to or from Calcutta 5,000
By the Cape route to Bombay it is about 11,500
By the Red Sea route 6,200
Gain in distance to or from Bombay 5,300
This is, of course, assuming the navigation by the Mediterranean and Red
Sea route to be of equal facility with the Cape route. And I shall now
endeavour to examine this part of the question with the accuracy which
its importance demands.
The first point which presents itself in this consideration, is the
influence of the monsoons, or periodical winds, which prevail throughout
the Indian Seas, and in the southern part of the Red Sea.
The south-west monsoon, which blows much stronger than the north-east
monsoon, prevails in the Indian Ocean, between the east coast of Africa
and the coasts of India, &c., from May until October, blowing with the
greatest force during the months of June, July, and August.
The north-east monsoon prevails from October to May, but is of much less
force than the south-west monsoon.