[331] Sir Daniel Lange was knighted after the opening of the Suez Canal. He is a native of London, and the holder of various foreign honours. He unsuccessfully contested Midhurst in 1868. [332] Not however by all her statesmen, for Mr. Gladstone, Lord Russell, Sidney Herbert, Mr. Cobden, Mr. Bright, Mr. Milner Gibson, and others strenuously objected to any hostile interference on the part of Government with the project. [333] My readers will find an excellent account of the early works of the Suez Canal, in a little book published by Mr. A. K. Lynch, entitled “A Visit to the Suez Canal,” Lond. 8vo. 1866, with several excellent lithograph drawings of Port Said, Ismailia, and other places on it. A French mètre is 39 English inches or 1-19th more than an English yard. [334] Herodotus (132) speaks of the vast amount of forced labour employed in the construction of the great Pyramids; hence various writers, recalling the hardships these “slaves” had to endure, protested against the employment of “similar bodies of men” in the construction of the Suez Canal, commenting on the scandalous treatment to which they were subjected. But I have enquired minutely into this question, and I cannot find any just grounds for these complaints. On the contrary, the men employed appear to have been free labourers, fairly remunerated according to the work they performed, and, on the whole, kindly treated. [335] Besides the dredging-machines and men employed, there were at work upon the canal during the last six months of 1864, 42,929 camels, 9350 horses, 2489 mules, and 2835 donkeys. [336] Paper read to Society of Arts, p. 7. CHAPTER X.