But towards the end of 1875 there came the occasion for the display of some spirit, in which may be traced the beginning of reaction against the "Little Britain" school of politicians. When a singular opportunity presented itself of strengthening our communications with the East, Disraeli fearlessly seized it. The Suez Canal had been open since 1869, and Great Britain, though she was the Power which made most use of it, had no pecuniary interest in it. The funds necessary for the work had been subscribed almost entirely by the Egyptian Government and by private speculators in France. Of the 400,000 original shares, the Khedive of Egypt held 176,000; but the Khedive's expenditure had been for years far beyond his revenues, and his shares were thrown upon the market in 1875. Disraeli was struck by the proposition advanced by Mr. Greenwood, a journalist of some note, that these shares should be bought by the British Government, and the purchase was completed on November 25, the price paid being £4,000,000. Sir Stafford Northcote, on whom fell the duty of asking Parliament for the money, was opposed to his chief's policy in this matter, and must have felt some misgiving in repelling the attacks made upon it by the Liberals, but he did so effectively. Mr. Gladstone emerged from his retirement to fling himself into the debate, and declared that to spend the national funds in such an object was "an unprecedented thing";--"So is the Canal!" retorted Northcote. It is only just to Disraeli's statesmanship to notice what an excellent investment, in a monetary sense, was made for Great Britain by the purchase of these shares. The original sum of four millions has been entirely paid off out of income derived from the shares, which, for a number of years, have been paying from 17 to 21 per cent. The shares purchased have risen in value from four to eighteen millions, and the proportion of British tonnage to the whole tonnage of all nations using the Canal is 75 per cent. It would, however, be claiming too much for Disraeli's commercial acumen to suppose that he realised what should become the ultimate monetary value of these shares. What he perceived was the importance of Great Britain acquiring a voice in the management of the new and dominant highway to India. The public had received recently the means of estimating the stupendous responsibility resting on the shoulders of those charged with the administration of British India. The results of the first census ever taken there were published in 1875, showing the total population of the British dominion in India to consist of twenty-three distinct nationalities, amounting to 190,563,048 souls--nearly five times that of the United Kingdom. This did much to dispel an idea dimly present in the minds even of educated persons, that the Queen's Indian subjects consisted of one dusky race, speaking one language and divided into two religions--Mahomedan and Hindoo. [Sidenote: The Prince of Wales Visits India.]