Well! this event, which must have been the design of Providence, is now within the reach of man. It may be brought about by human skill. It is to be realized by the cutting of the Isthmus of Suez, an undertaking to which nature opposes no obstacle, and wherein English capital, as well as that of other countries, will certainly take part. Let the Isthmus be cut through, let the waves of the Mediterranean mingle with those of the Indian Ocean, let the Railroad be continued and completed, and Egypt, in acquiring an increased importance as a productive country, as a country of internal commerce, as a general storehouse and common transit, loses its dangerous pre-eminence as an uncertain and contested passage of communication. The possession of its territory being no longer an object of interest to England, ceases to be a possible bone of contention between that power and France, the union of the two peoples is for the future unalterable, and the world is preserved from the calamities which a rupture between them would produce. This result affords such securities for the future, that it is sufficient to point them out, to attract to the undertaking destined to produce it, the sympathy and the encouragement of the Statesmen whose efforts are directed to the settlement of the Anglo-French alliance upon an immoveable basis. You, my Lord, are one of those Statesmen, and you have too large a share in questions of high policy, to which I am a stranger, for me not to entertain the wish to communicate to you my aspirations. FERD. DE LESSEPS.” [2] These very sensible observations are taken from a correspondence which appeared in the “Times” of the 13th June last. [3] The other two were Mr. Stephenson for England, and M. Négrelli for Austria. [4] As the work of the Viceroy’s Engineers will be published, an extract only is here given, which will suffice to make known the importance of their labours, and show the practical results of their investigations. [5] Extracts from _Communications with India, China, &c. Observations on the Practicability and Utility of opening a Communication between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, by a Ship Canal, through the Isthmus of Suez. By Arthur Anderson. London, Smith, Elder & Co. Cornhill, 1843._ [6] Since writing this, an article on the “Suez Canal” has appeared in the Foreign and Colonial Quarterly Review, which, although containing some inaccuracies of minor importance, and professing only to take a general view of the subject, the writer would exempt from the above description. [7] Extracts from _Inquiry into the Means of establishing a Ship Navigation between the Mediterranean and Red Seas_. _By James Vetch, Capt. R.E., F.R.S. London, Pelham Richardson, 23, Cornhill, 1843._ THE END. CHISWICK PRESS: PRINTED BY C. WHITTINGHAM, TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE.