MEMORIAL ADDRESSED TO HIS HIGHNESS MOHAMMED SAID, VICEROY OF EGYPT.
The Camp, Marea, In the Lybian Desert,
15th November, 1854.
The junction of the Mediterranean and the Red Seas, by a navigable canal, is an undertaking the utility of which has attracted the attention of all the great men who have reigned in, or conquered, Egypt: Sesostris, Alexander the Great, Julius Cæsar, the Arab Conqueror Amrou, Napoleon I. and Mehemet Ali.
A canal, communicating with the Nile, was in existence in ancient times; first, for a period of 100 years, down to about the middle of the ninth century before the Hegira; secondly, for a period of 445 years, from the reign of the first successors of Alexander the Great, down to about the fourth century before the Hegira; thirdly and lastly, for a period of 130 years after the Arabian conquest.
Napoleon, upon his arrival in Egypt, immediately organized a commission of engineers to ascertain whether it would be possible to re-establish that ancient channel of navigation: the question was resolved in the affirmative, and when the learned M. Lepère delivered to him the report of the commission, on the eve of his return to France, he said: “It is an important affair, it is not now in my power to accomplish it, but the Turkish Government will perhaps one day owe its preservation and its glory to the execution of this project.”
The moment has now arrived to realize Napoleon’s prediction. The work of cutting through the Isthmus of Suez is certainly destined, more than any other, to contribute to the preservation of the Ottoman Empire, and to demonstrate to those who have been wont to proclaim its decay and ruin, that it still has a productive existence, and that it is capable of adding a brilliant page to the history of the world’s civilization.
Why have the governments and the peoples of the West combined to uphold the Sultan in the possession of Constantinople, and why has he who has thought fit to menace that position met with the armed opposition of Europe? Because the passage from the Mediterranean into the Black Sea is of so much importance, that whatever European Power might become master of it would domineer over all the rest, and destroy that balance which the whole world is interested in preserving.
Do but establish at another point of the Ottoman Empire a similar, and a yet more important position; do but make Egypt the highway of the commercial world by cutting through the Isthmus of Suez; and thereby you will create in the East another immoveable seat of power; for, as far as the new passage is concerned, the great powers of Europe, from fear of seeing it one day seized upon by one amongst them, will regard the necessity of guaranteeing its neutrality, as a question of vital importance.
M. Lepère fifty years ago required 10,000 workmen, four years’ labour, and from 30 to 40,000,000 francs for the construction of the Suez Canal, but upon a plan which would now be insufficient for the demands of commerce and navigation; and his idea was the possibility of a direct cutting through the Isthmus towards the Mediterranean.
Prior to the year 1840, some skilful English Engineers, who were employed in levelling operations in the Isthmus, had the honour of first ascertaining that no difference existed between the levels of low water in the Mediterranean and in the Gulf of Arabia.
M. Paulin Talabot, one of the three distinguished Engineers chosen in 1847 by a society for the investigation of the Isthmus of Suez,[3] (and who also had important operations in levelling executed by M. Bourdaloue,) had adopted the indirect route from Alexandria to Suez: availing himself of the barrage for the passage of the Nile, he estimated the entire cost at 130,000,000 francs for the Canal, and 20,000,000 for the port and roadstead of Suez.
M. Linant Bey, who for the last thirty years has ably conducted canal works in Egypt, has made the question of the Canal of the two Seas the study of his life on the spot itself. He was appointed in 1853 to direct fresh levelling operations, and has proposed to cut through the Isthmus in an almost direct line at its narrowest part, establishing a large inland port in the basin of Lake Timsah, and making the channels from Pelusium, and from Suez, into the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, available for the largest vessels.
The General of engineers, Gallice Bey, on his part, submitted to Mehemet Ali a proposal for a direct cutting across the Isthmus. M. Mougel Bey, director of the Nile barrage-works, and chief engineer of bridges and highways, also submitted to Mehemet Ali the possibility and utility of cutting through the Isthmus of Suez; and, in 1840, at the request of Count Walewsky, at that time an envoy in Egypt, he was instructed to take preliminary measures which political events did not allow to be carried out.
A thorough examination will decide which of the lines is most suitable; and, as the undertaking has been acknowledged to be practicable, it only remains to make a choice. Whatever the operations that may be necessary, and however difficult, they will not intimidate modern art; their success can be no matter of doubt at the present time: it is a question of money, which the spirit of enterprise and association will not fail to resolve, provided the benefits resulting from it are in proportion to the outlay.
It is easy to demonstrate that the cost of the Canal of Suez, admitting the highest estimate, is not out of proportion with the utility and the profits of this important work, which would curtail by more than one-half the distance of India from the principal countries of Europe and America. This result is made obvious in the following Table, drawn up by M. Cordier, professor of Geology:—
LIST OF EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN PORTS.
| Distance to Bombay in leagues: | Viâ Suez | Viâ the Atlantic | Difference. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Constantinople | 1.800 | 6.100 | 4.300 |
| Malta | 2.062 | 5.800 | 3.778 |
| Trieste | 2.340 | 5.960 | 3.620 |
| Marseilles | 2.374 | 5.650 | 3.276 |
| Cadiz | 2.224 | 5.200 | 2.976 |
| Lisbon | 2.500 | 5.350 | 2.850 |
| Bordeaux | 2.800 | 5.650 | 2.850 |
| Havre | 2.824 | 5.800 | 2.976 |
| London | 3.100 | 5.950 | 2.850 |
| Liverpool | 3.050 | 5.900 | 2.850 |
| Amsterdam | 3.100 | 5.950 | 2.850 |
| St. Petersburgh | 3.700 | 6.550 | 2.850 |
| New York | 3.761 | 6.200 | 2.439 |
| New Orleans | 3.724 | 6.450 | 2.726 |
With such figures before us, comment is useless; they show that all the nations of Europe, and even the United States of America, are alike interested in the opening of the canal of Suez, as well as in the rigorous and inviolable neutrality of that thoroughfare.
Mohammed Saïd clearly comprehends that there is no undertaking within his power, which, from its immensity and the utility of its results, could bear comparison with that which I propose to him. What a splendid title to fame for him! What an everlasting source of wealth for Egypt!
The pilgrimage to Mecca henceforth assured and facilitated to all Mussulmans; an immense impulse given to steam navigation and to distant voyages; the countries on the coasts of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Persia, the eastern coast of Africa, India, the kingdom of Siam, Cochin China, Japan, the vast empire of China, with its more than 300,000,000 of inhabitants, the Philippine Islands, Australia and that immense Archipelago, towards which the emigration from old Europe is directed, brought nearer by nearly 3000 leagues to the Mediterranean Sea and the north of Europe: such are the sudden and immediate effects of cutting through the Isthmus of Suez.
It has been calculated that the European and American navigation, viâ the Cape of Good Hope and viâ Cape Horn, may carry on a yearly traffic of 6,000,000 tons, and that on the half only of that tonnage the world’s commerce would realize a benefit of 150,000,000 francs annually, by sending the ships viâ the Gulf of Arabia.
There is no doubt that the canal of Suez will occasion a considerable increase of tonnage; but in reckoning only upon 3,000,000 tons, there will yet be an annual produce of 30,000,000 francs by collecting dues of ten francs per ton, which might be reduced in proportion to the increase of navigation.
After having indicated the financial advantages of the undertaking, let us consider its general political advantages, which we believe to be equally incontestable.
Everything that results in contributing to the extension of the commerce, of the industry, and of the navigation of the world, is especially advantageous to England, a power which stands foremost amongst all others from the importance of its navy, from the productions of its manufactories, and from its commercial relations.
A deplorable prejudice, based upon the political antagonism which so long and so unhappily existed between France and England, has alone accredited the opinion that the opening of the canal of Suez, so useful for the interests of civilization and of the common weal, could damage those of England. The alliance of the two nations which rank highest in the scale of civilization, an alliance which has already proved the possibility of solutions hitherto reckoned impossible by vulgar tradition, will, amongst its other numerous benefits, allow us to investigate with impartiality this mighty question of the Canal of Suez, to form an exact estimate of its influence upon the prosperity of nations and to consider it heresy to believe, that an undertaking calculated to halve the distance between the Western and Eastern hemispheres of the globe, should not be suitable for Great Britain, the mistress of Gibraltar, Malta, the Ionian Islands, Aden, important stations on the east coast of Africa, India, Singapore, and Australia.
England, as well as France, and even more so, must wish to see a cutting through that strip of land of thirty leagues, which no one who pays attention to the subject of civilization and progress can behold upon the map, without feeling the most ardent wish for the disappearance of that only obstacle that Providence has left in the highway of the world’s traffic.
The railway, by itself, is not sufficient; it will never acquire any substantial importance, and will only be assured of its revenues when it has become the auxiliary of the maritime Canal of Suez. The completion of the railway, so useful to travellers, and so justly desired by England, will then become a necessity, and will no longer be a heavy charge upon the Egyptian Government.
Germany will also hail all the efforts for the construction of the Canal across the Isthmus. It will be to her the complement to the free navigation of the Danube. Prince Metternich, who for more than twenty years has interested himself in the cutting of the Canal of the two Seas, and Baron de Bruck, one of the promoters of the investigations made in 1847, saw that in this question lay the aggrandizement of Trieste and of Venice, as well as the opening of important outlets for the produce of the Imperial provinces, and of the kingdom of Hungary, where the projected canal from the Danube to Kustendje, on the Black Sea, in the line of the ancient trench or rampart of Trajan, will facilitate exportation.
Russia will find in the opening of the Canal of Suez a just satisfaction of that national aspiration towards the East which led her on one occasion to extend the limits of her vast Empire to the confines of British India, and, on another, to threaten the integrity of Turkey. The mission of civilization devolving upon the Czar over the numerous tribes of whom he is arbiter, may yet suffice the noblest ambition; the new outlets which will be pacifically thrown open to their activity and to their necessity of expansion, will be more profitable to them than a policy of conquest and exclusive dominion which it is now no longer possible for any one nation to carry on triumphantly.
The United States of America, whose traffic with Indo-China and Australia has for many years immensely developed itself; Spain with the Philippine Islands; Holland with Java, Sumatra and Borneo; the towns formerly so flourishing on the coasts of Italy; the ports and islands of Greece; all the nations in short which have held or hold a high maritime and commercial position; will hasten to take part in a work which will augment their wealth, or create new sources of it, and to the success of which I believe I can promise His Highness Mohammed Saïd the active and energetic co-operation of the enlightened men of all countries.
(Signed) Ferd. de Lesseps.