MY ATTACHED FRIEND M. FERDINAND DE LESSEPS, OF HIGH BIRTH AND ELEVATED RANK. I have made myself acquainted with the report which you addressed to me on the 30th of April, and I approve the document which is to serve you in place of instructions. I appreciate the zeal which you have displayed in this affair, and the friendly interest you have taken in it has afforded me real satisfaction. 3 Ramadan, 1271. (_The Viceroy’s Seal._) A true translation of the Turkish text. KŒNIG BEY, Secretary of Mandates to His Highness the Viceroy. Alexandria, May 19, 1855. APPENDIX. No. VII. OPINION OF MR. ANDERSON. OPINION OF MR ANDERSON.[5] The interest which has recently been manifested in the improvement of our means of communication with India, China, &c. _viâ_ Egypt and the Red Sea, seems to have revived the speculations, first broached during the occupation of Egypt by the French forces under Napoleon, as to the feasibility of opening a communication between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean by a Canal through the Isthmus of Suez. Various statements upon this subject have lately appeared in the newspapers and periodicals, both of this country and the Continent, and a kind of prospectus proposing the formation of a Company to execute the undertaking, has just been put in circulation in London. These statements and speculations, in so far as they have come under the cognizance of the writer of the following pages, are, in a great measure, superficial, crude, or erroneous,[6] and, therefore, calculated to mislead rather than inform the public in regard to the practicability and utility of an enterprise, whose importance it is scarcely possible to overrate, considering the nature and magnitude of the interests which would be involved in its successful accomplishment. The writer has had the means of obtaining information relative to this matter, which he considers may be relied on, and having devoted much of his attention to this Canal question, he deems the present time opportune for submitting to the public some facts and observations tending, he ventures to believe, to lead to more correct conclusions on this very interesting subject than any which have as yet been published. These facts and observations will be found arranged under the following heads:— 1.—_The physical practicability of the enterprise._ 2.—_The political arrangements requisite for effecting it._ 3.—_The advantages or disadvantages of navigating by the proposed Canal route, as compared with the route by the Cape of Good Hope._ 4.—_Financial considerations._ 5.—_General observations as to the political, commercial, and moral benefits which would be derived from the accomplishment of the undertaking._