Do but establish at another point of the Ottoman Empire a similar, and a yet more important position; do but make Egypt the highway of the commercial world by cutting through the Isthmus of Suez; and thereby you will create in the East another immoveable seat of power; for, as far as the new passage is concerned, the great powers of Europe, from fear of seeing it one day seized upon by one amongst them, will regard the necessity of guaranteeing its neutrality, as a question of vital importance. M. Lepère fifty years ago required 10,000 workmen, four years’ labour, and from 30 to 40,000,000 francs for the construction of the Suez Canal, but upon a plan which would now be insufficient for the demands of commerce and navigation; and his idea was the possibility of a direct cutting through the Isthmus towards the Mediterranean. Prior to the year 1840, some skilful English Engineers, who were employed in levelling operations in the Isthmus, had the honour of first ascertaining that no difference existed between the levels of low water in the Mediterranean and in the Gulf of Arabia. M. Paulin Talabot, one of the three distinguished Engineers chosen in 1847 by a society for the investigation of the Isthmus of Suez,[3] (and who also had important operations in levelling executed by M. Bourdaloue,) had adopted the indirect route from Alexandria to Suez: availing himself of the barrage for the passage of the Nile, he estimated the entire cost at 130,000,000 francs for the Canal, and 20,000,000 for the port and roadstead of Suez. M. Linant _Bey_, who for the last thirty years has ably conducted canal works in Egypt, has made the question of the Canal of the _two Seas_ the study of his life on the spot itself. He was appointed in 1853 to direct fresh levelling operations, and has proposed to cut through the Isthmus in an almost direct line at its narrowest part, establishing a large inland port in the basin of Lake _Timsah_, and making the channels from Pelusium, and from Suez, into the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, available for the largest vessels. The General of engineers, Gallice _Bey_, on his part, submitted to Mehemet Ali a proposal for a direct cutting across the Isthmus. M. Mougel _Bey_, director of the Nile barrage-works, and chief engineer of bridges and highways, also submitted to Mehemet Ali the possibility and utility of cutting through the Isthmus of Suez; and, in 1840, at the request of Count Walewsky, at that time an envoy in Egypt, he was instructed to take preliminary measures which political events did not allow to be carried out.