England, as well as France, and even more so, must wish to see a cutting through that strip of land of thirty leagues, which no one who pays attention to the subject of civilization and progress can behold upon the map, without feeling the most ardent wish for the disappearance of that only obstacle that Providence has left in the highway of the world’s traffic. The railway, by itself, is not sufficient; it will never acquire any substantial importance, and will only be assured of its revenues when it has become the auxiliary of the maritime Canal of Suez. The completion of the railway, so useful to travellers, and so justly desired by England, will then become a necessity, and will no longer be a heavy charge upon the Egyptian Government. Germany will also hail all the efforts for the construction of the Canal across the Isthmus. It will be to her the complement to the free navigation of the Danube. Prince Metternich, who for more than twenty years has interested himself in the cutting of the Canal of the two Seas, and Baron de Bruck, one of the promoters of the investigations made in 1847, saw that in this question lay the aggrandizement of Trieste and of Venice, as well as the opening of important outlets for the produce of the Imperial provinces, and of the kingdom of Hungary, where the projected canal from the Danube to Kustendje, on the Black Sea, in the line of the ancient trench or rampart of Trajan, will facilitate exportation. Russia will find in the opening of the Canal of Suez a just satisfaction of that national aspiration towards the East which led her on one occasion to extend the limits of her vast Empire to the confines of British India, and, on another, to threaten the integrity of Turkey. The mission of civilization devolving upon the Czar over the numerous tribes of whom he is arbiter, may yet suffice the noblest ambition; the new outlets which will be pacifically thrown open to their activity and to their necessity of expansion, will be more profitable to them than a policy of conquest and exclusive dominion which it is now no longer possible for any one nation to carry on triumphantly. The United States of America, whose traffic with Indo-China and Australia has for many years immensely developed itself; Spain with the Philippine Islands; Holland with Java, Sumatra and Borneo; the towns formerly so flourishing on the coasts of Italy; the ports and islands of Greece; all the nations in short which have held or hold a high maritime and commercial position; will hasten to take part in a work which will augment their wealth, or create new sources of it, and to the success of which I believe I can promise His Highness Mohammed Saïd the active and energetic co-operation of the enlightened men of all countries. (Signed) FERD. DE LESSEPS. APPENDIX. No. II. FIRMAN OF CONCESSION. FIRMAN OF CONCESSION.