Throughout Egypt, according to an ancient and still prevailing custom, private and public work is executed by a system of forced labor, termed Corvē. The conscription is limited to the period of one month, at a fixed rate of wages. The company engaged to pay higher rates than usual, and to supply food, lodging, medical attendance, and half pay when sick. No sooner had twenty thousand men been collected on the excavations, than a “howl went up from Exeter Hall.” Lord Stratford de Redcliffe demanded of the Sultan “to stop the scandal.” The British Government were instantly seized with one of those sudden spasms of morality, or humanity, which Lord Macaulay affirms has been observed periodically to afflict the British people. The Sultan, who appears to have been a pliable tool in the hands of English Envoys, issued an order abolishing the system of compulsory labor, and disbanding all the fellahs employed by the company. This arbitrary and unjust interference had but one meaning, and seemed likely to have but one result. The plea of humanity, advanced by a Government which had overlooked the sacrifice of 1000 men in one day, when that sacrifice had been made by their own injudicious advice, and for their own benefit, could be nothing more than a manifest subterfuge. This vigorous handling of the political puppets on the diplomatic chess-board proved how serious were Lord Palmerston’s apprehensions. It was the old question which every age revives. In the past, the issue had again and again been brought to the arbitrament of the sword. With such antagonists as Palmerston on one side and de Lesseps and the Silent Emperor upon the other, the duel was necessarily _ā l’outrance_. It was now evident that war alone could arrest the completion of the maritime highway between the two seas. Was it the death of Palmerston or the progress of peaceful arts that kept this question confined to the field of diplomacy? Opposition only stimulated the energy and confirmed the determination of de Lesseps. The controversy was referred to the decision of the French Emperor. A smile, half machiavellian, must have flitted over the face of his reticent Majesty when the question was submitted to his Imperial arbitration. By his decision the Egyptian Government were called on to pay, not unwillingly, an indemnity to the company for a release from the obligation to furnish compulsory labor, and for the retrocession of certain land grants and privileges of navigation. “The indomitable Lesseps did not despair.” After months of delay, he collected laborers from all parts of Europe, and the work was resumed.