weaken, the force of the current from the Red Sea-an objection, it must be admitted, of considerable weight. Captain Vetch also positively lays it down that' a ship-canal between the two seas, which contemplates an extended commerce between the countries of Europe and the Indian Ocean, should be free from disturbing causes arising from inundations, floods, and so on.' This will be freely admitted, and quite as readily, that it should be considered irrespective of the commerce of Egypt,' which would, however, be immensely benefited indirectly by the success of the enterprise. His own proposition to cut a canal in a direct line from sea to sea may be very briefly stated. According to the report of M. Lepère, assisted by other engineers, the surface of the Red Sea at Suez, at high water, was found to be 30 feet 6 inches French, or 32 feet 6 inches English, above that of the Mediterranean, on the northern shore of the Isthmus, at low water. The mean rise of the tide in the Arabian Gulf was found to be 5 feet 6 inches French, or rather more than 5 feet 10 inches English, and that of the Mediterranean 1 foot only, French. Captain Vetch, taking the accuracy of these levellings for granted, assumes the mean height of the sea at Suez to be about 30 feet above that of the Mediterranean in the Bay of Tyneh. This would give to his seventyfive mile of canal from Suez to Tyneh a fall of nearly five inches per mile. This fall, he says, if properly economised, and not dissipated or weakened by intervening wide lakes or basins of lakes, will give a scourage not only sufficient to keep a channel of the dimensions he proposes-namely, 21 feet deep, 96 feet wide at bottom, and 180 feet wide at top-perfectly clean, but to sweep away the sand and mud which accumulate on the Mediterranean shore, and would else render the northern entrance to the canal difficult, if not impossible of accomplishment, for ships of considerable burden. The soil to be cut through is, he says, though light, sufficiently tenacious to stand without walling; and he is of opinion that strong ribs of masonry, about a mile apart, would quite sufficiently provide for and assure the course and durability of the channel. And this, Captain Vetch maintains, would be a strictly controllable sea-way, which that suggested by certain gentlemen would certainly not be, who have off-handedly said: 'Cut through the slight sandy barrier on the south of the Isthmus, a few feet only above the level of the Arabian Gulf, and let the waters work their own course to the Lake Menzaleh, as geologists affirm they once did.' Unlike the passage of the Dardanelles, said to have been accomplished by such agency, there are no rocks on each side of the basin of the lakes to confine, deepen, and direct the channel, and the Isthmus must consequently become a dangerous, shifting sand, abounding in shallows, which would render its navigation impossible except by mere boats, to say nothing of the submersion of the Delta of Egypt. The waters once out, it would be impossible to stay or regulate their course under such circumstances; and even to his own controllable canal Captain Vetch proposes only to admit the Red Sea by means of several openings in solid masonry at Suez, so that the gradual onflow should be duly restrained and regulated. As to the shallowness of the water in the present harbour of Suez, he would get rid of that difficulty by removing the harbour, so to speak, farther down the Gulf, and by the construction of piers and a spacious wet-dock. Piers also on the northern shore are comprised in his

plan, the entire cost of which he estimates at £2,121,600. Let us say two millions and a quarter sterling; for a handful of extra thousands, tens of thousands indeed, must always be allowed for in such estimates, however honestly and carefully calculated. Even that enormous outlay, there could be no fear, were the canal of sufficient capacity to admit ships of considerable tonnage, would be amply repaid by a very moderate duty per ton. Should there be found any unforeseen and insurmountable obstacle to the direct route Captain Vetch proposes-which, however, he does not at all anticipate or apprehend he would, as the next best course, run the canal straight from Serapeum to the Bay of Tyneh—a distance of forty-seven miles, which, with a cutting of thirteen miles and a half between Suez and the Bitter Lake, would give but sixty miles and a half of artificial construction. This apparent diminution of length of work Captain Vetch, however, fears would have no effect in diminishing the amount of the estimate; as, from the great evaporation and absorption of the Bitter Lake when filled, the channel from Suez would have to be nearly doubled in capacity in order to maintain the lake at the required level, and to pour the waters flowing out of it at a constant and equable velocity.

Such, in rough outline, is the plan of Captain Vetch for promoting the swift, easy, and constant intercommunication of Great Britain and Eastern and Southern Asia. Other schemes have been imagined and set forth, slightly differing in line of route from those of Captain Vetch and M. Lepère, but so slightly that it is scarcely worth while to notice them. The mere reconstruction of the Canal of the Kings, facilitating as it would only the intercourse of the Valley of the Nile with Suez and Arabia, is evidently a matter, so far as Great Britain is concerned, of very minor interest and importance. Captain Vetch's ship-canal, if it can be effected, would accomplish all, or nearly all, that can be desired, and, as at present advised, we are inclined to think it quite possible of achievement. The digging out of the channel would be comparatively nothing. Mohammed Ali's feeble and wretched Fellahs excavated a canal nearly fifty miles in length in less than a year, unassisted by any of the appliances and helps of modern engineering tools and machinery. Still the doubt will again and again recur till actual experience has proved it to be unfounded, whether the old agencies which baffled the efforts of the Assyrian and Persian monarchs of the Pharaohs, the Alexanders, the Romans, the Caliphs—to keep open a water-way through the Suez desert, will not also prove victorious over all other similar undertakings. The light, shifting sands, moving with the speed of the wind, and put in motion by its slightest breath, can they be hindered from blocking up the painfully-achieved channel?—and will the scour of the water, the fall of five inches to the mile-barely five inches— effectually, as Captain Vetch appears to anticipate, render such a catastrophe impossible? Otherwise it might be found necessary to wall in the canal to a considerable height-a precaution that would tell fearfully on the estimate of cost, even if certain to be successful. An ingenious French gentleman, one M. Le Cours, has suggested that trees or shrubs that live and flourish in the desert might be thickly planted on each side of the canal, which would, he imagines, greatly at all events diminish the quantity of sand that must else be driven into the channel. We know not if this expedient is entitled to attention, or may be of any worth, and certainly

a long time must elapse before such plantations, did they take root, which we doubt exceedingly, would offer any effectual defence of a canal against the sandy tempests which sweep over the Isthmus. Still, any contrivance which promises only to aid the scour of the Red Sea in keeping a ship passage clear, would be of immense value. Captain Vetch has also some confidence in another agency for lessening the apprehended difficulty. 'For scouring a channel, I am disposed to place,' he says, 'great stress on the superior efficacy of a salt-water stream over a fresh-water one, as each of these, in coming into collision with their recipient waters, will be materially biassed in the direction of their currents by their respective specific gravities. Thus if the water of the Nile, having a specific gravity of 100°, falls into the Mediterranean Sea, having a specific gravity of 103°, it will naturally be deflected upwards, and lose its useful scour on the bottom; whereas if the Red Sea water has a trifle more of specific gravity than that of the Mediterranean, its bias on meeting will be downwards, and tend to preserve its scouring force. And although I am not aware of the fact, we have every ground to infer that the water of the Red Sea is more saline, and consequently heavier, than that of the Mediterranean.' Captain Vetch, as we have before observed, speaks confidently of success; other gentlemen of scientific eminence do the same. A writer in the 'Foreign Quarterly Review' for 1836 says: There is little doubt that if the French had remained in Egypt, and especially with Napoleon at the head of the government, they would have carried their canal project into effect. The expense compared with the magnificent result would have been so trifling that the wonder is it has not been carried into effect before now, either by a company having the support of Mohammed Pacha (Mohammed Ali) or by the pacha himself.' Other less sanguine theorists, as we have seen, argue for the impossibility of an effective permanent work of the nature contemplated. But the world is getting accustomed to the performance of impossibilities' in the physical world. Accomplished facts' are daily increasing the tendency to ignore the existence of obstacles which engineering science cannot break down or overleap, if an adequate object may thereby be obtained. And in this instance who can for a moment doubt that the prize to be ventured for will be a greatlyrewarding one-that it is strongly felt by the thinking people of this country, and will soon become a fixed maxim and tradition of the British government, that it is essential to the healthy life and wellbeing of Great Britain to assist forward, by all possible means, the development of the gigantic commercial power and activity which, aided by steam-power, has already done so much towards bringing the huge limbs of this great empire into closer and more intimate communion with its mighty, throbbing heart? Captain Vetch very pertinently remarks, that a great impulse would necessarily be given to trade in the new direction; and that entire new sources of commerce would be opened up between the places adjacent to each extremity of the sea, but which could not, under present circumstances, be attempted with any hope of success from the length of voyage involved; and with these considerations it will not be deemed unreasonable to expect that the commerce passing through the canal annually would in a short time amount to 1,000,000, and might eventually reach 2,000,000 tons.' The energy already manifested in this direction. that of inter

national communication-has even now rendered this country the centre and mainspring of the traffic of the world-the prime source to which it turns for intelligence of its own present and prospective condition-has, in fact, made Great Britain the mart, the exchange, the storehouse, and fountain of commercial intelligence for all the world. And a great security, every one understands, will be gained for this foremost position amongst the nations, by a successful effort to accomplish a task felt to be one of much necessity and importance in all past time, but which the comparatively feeble energies of the old world failed to permanently or thoroughly achieve.

It is very probable, however, nay, indeed, certain, that the improved mode of transit from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea will commence with

A RAILWAY ACROSS THE ISTHMUS.

It is scarcely conceivable that so flat a country can oppose any very serious obstacles to the construction of a railroad over the desert. Mr Galloway, who surveyed the route from Cairo to Suez in 1834 by order of Mohammed Ali, reported that there would not be the slightest difficulty in effecting it. His Highness,' observes Mr Galloway, 'foreseeing the probable increase in the intercourse that would take place with India, via the Red Sea, by the introduction of steam navigation, decided upon forming a railroad across the desert of Suez to Cairo (a distance of eighty-four miles Mr Galloway makes it), and for that purpose instructed my late brother, Galloway Bey, to make the necessary surveys and estimates, and our establishment was directed to carry out the work, in furtherance of which all the preliminary arrangements were made, and a large portion of the rails and machinery supplied. Unfortunately the agents of foreign powers, who were opposed to this work in a political point of view, used every possible exertion and means to dissuade His Highness from proceeding with it, alleging, among other reasons, that the traffic, the extent of which was then doubtful, would not repay so large an outlay, and the necessary expenditure for working the line.' His Highness was soon afterwards involved and embarrassed by his military aggression on Syria, and nothing further was done in the matter.

Mr Galloway is of opinion that a railway is the only practicable mode of improving the transit between the Red and Mediterranean Seas, and is altogether opposed to a ship-canal, as not 'practicable;' adding, however, the greatly-qualifying note, 'that by this I mean that the engineering difficulties may not be insuperable, but will involve so much expense as to render the project financially impracticable.' These italics are Mr Galloway's. With respect to a railway as a profitable speculation, Mr Galloway has the following: Our estimates shew that with the present passenger-traffic, reduced to one-half in cost to each person, the conveyance of goods in bulk as at present, the travellers to Mecca and various other parts, the conveyance of mails, with a train travelling each way every day, or in that proportion that with the above items it will produce an adequate revenue upon the investment, and pay the expenses of working.' The reader will remember the allusion we made at the commencement of these remarks relative to the wretched intrigues going on at the pacha's court, and the

foolish jealousy of England, relative to this route, manifested by certain European states previous to 1840. Upon this point Mr Galloway thus confirms what we said: 'Unfortunately for the interests of Egypt, of England, and of Europe, whenever anything is suggested calculated to serve England in common with other nations, the whole "corps diplomatique " are up in arms.'

But it is not by a railway through the Delta, and by Cairo to Suez, that the interests of this country and of Europe generally would be best served. The line which Mr Robert Stephenson is, said he, about to commence forthwith for the Pacha of Egypt, is to be, it seems, from Alexandria to Cairo. This line may be profitable as a source of revenue to the pacha, and if continued to Suez, of great value to overland passengers, but will very insufficiently meet the exigencies of British commerce; and can only be regarded as a make-shift till matters are sufficiently advanced to justify a line direct from the Bay of Tyneh across the Desert to Suez. One objection to a railway compared with a ship-canal, in addition to the expense and delay of transhipments, urged by Captain Vetch is, that for want of the scour which the fall of the waters through a straight channel from the Arabian Gulf would afford, the shore on the Mediterranean side would only be approachable in boats. This is certainly a grave objection; but still, with all drawbacks, a direct railway, if no more were done, would be of immense benefit. It might be rendered practically independent of the ruler of Egypt, and the rapidly-increasing passenger and goods traffic would, we have no doubt, soon convince the most timid of doubters that the greater venture of a sea-passage might be hazarded without the slightest commercial hazard, even supposing, what is barely supposable, that the British government were to remain indifferent and supine in the matter. Benefits other than merely pecuniary ones would be also received and conferred. Flourishing towns would spring up at each terminus of the rail-line; the lakes, lagoons, and pools would be, through the easilyobtained agency of the Nile, covered after a few years by a rich vegetation; the lamps of Mecca would pale their ineffectual fires before the dotted line of gas-lights stretching across the deserts; and an irresistible fillip be given to Oriental fatalism and indolence by the life, energy, and spirit of Great Britain working marvels on sterile sands which had for thousands of years baffled the utmost efforts of Assyrian, Persian, Egyptian, Turkish conquerors and monarchs to bind or to subdue.

A dream! A fantastic, unrealisable dream! exclaims the scepticnever bankrupt in doubt and unbelief however bare in knowledge or poor in hope. But is it more a dream than only a quarter of a century ago the possibility of being wheeled from Edinburgh to London in nine or ten hours would have been considered? Nay, does it more, or so much resemble a dream, an illusive prodigy, as the magnificent empire itself, with respect to which it in those days has become so vital matter that we should break down or overleap all barriers which separate it from us? Look at the giant steps that have hitherto marked the progress of that marvellous dominion, and then tell us that we regard its future progress with too sanguine a spirit! It was not till 1774 that English ships from Madras and Bombay entered the Red Sea, and sailed up to Suez; an enterprise which called forth the indignant fury of the Grand Signior,