vested in an enterprise in a distant quarter of the globe, was found to be an impossibility. And in 1860 they were at the end of their resources. But the project was not to be abandoned. The company had already borrowed from the Khedive 2,394,914 francs. This money was all gone. Then they set to work upon him in earnest, and they persuaded him to subscribe for 177,662 shares of stock of the company. Now, the entire number of shares was only 400,000, so that, one may say, the canal which was to have been dug through Egyptian territory, not only at no cost to Egypt, but from which she was to receive fifteen per cent. of the profits derived therefrom, and four fifths of the cost of which were to be paid out to Egyptians, was now to be largely built with Egypt's money.

The Pasha did not have the money in hand with which to pay up his subscription. But this did not matter: the affair could easily be arranged, for at that time Egypt had no debt to speak of, and her credit was good. So it was agreed that he was to be charged on the company's books, to date from January 1, 1859, with the proportionate amount due on his stock-viz., 17,764,200 francs, from which was to be deducted the amount already advanced by him, 2,394,914 francs, with interest thereon (1,211,242 francs), so that his actual indebtedness on his called-in subscription was 15,248,042.88 francs; and, as he had no money, he was to, and did, give Treasury obligations, payable—2,305,175 francs on December 8, 1863, and the balance in three equal annual installments of 4,314.305.96 francs, all bearing interest at the rate of ten per cent. per annum from January 1, 1860.

Therefore on the first amount he paid:

10,000,000 francs. The rest of his subscription was to be paid at other intervals.

The success of this negotiation gave to the company a new life, and they pressed forward the work, not only on the main canal, but also on the sweet-water canal, which was to start from the Nile.

Saïd Pasha died in January, 1863; Ismail Pasha succeeded him. The company now needed more money, and they pounced upon him at once. They represented to him that the supply of water in the canal from Cairo to Zagazig (on the way to the marine canal) would not be sufficient to supply the canal which was to be dug from the point where that canal was to touch the maritime canal to Suez with water. They persuaded him that the construction of this canal, particularly in respect of the appropriation of lands belonging to individuals, would give rise to questions of interior administration which might prove difficult and serious, and which it was important to the Government to have under its exclusive control. To prevent such an unhappy possibility, the company agreed to renounce the right to construct their canal from the Nile to the maritime canal; to make the canal from the point where it touched the maritime canal to Suez of sufficient dimensions not only to serve the purposes of irrigation, but also to answer the purposes of navigation. At the same time they retroceded to the Government the lands which had been given them. The plain English of which was, that they could not comply with their engagements, and that, notwithstanding all the assistance which they had received, they were unable to complete the work which they had agreed and had commenced to do. The ground upon which they placed their request to be freed from that part of their contract which is now under consideration was a mere pretext. It was simply ridiculous in them to say that they could not complete the sweet-water canal; and the idea that questions of "interior public policy" would have been seriously considered by the managers of the enterprise, if their private interests had not made it convenient for them to do so, will not certainly be entertained for a moment by those who have any knowledge of Egyptian affairs or the methods of Egyptian government. Still they were sufficiently clever to obtain from the Khedive a release from this part of their contract. This done, they commenced the attack upon him.

They had already excavated the sweet-water canal from Ouady (the point where the canal from the Nile was to touch the maritime canal) to Suez. In consideration of the retrocession above mentioned they compelled the Government to agree to complete the canal from the Nile to Ouady as it was to have been built by them, but

the work was to be done under the supervision of their own engineers. The canal was to be completed by the 1st of March, 1864; when completed, it was to be kept in repair by the company, but at the cost of the Government; it was to be properly supplied with water at all seasons; was to be subject to all the services which had been established upon it in their favor by the original contract, and its water was to belong to them!—that is, the Government was to build the canal, give it to the company, keep it in thorough repair, and always well supplied with water!

Let us consider for a moment what a grant this was. The company embarked upon their enterprise under the express stipulation that all the work was to be done at their own expense, with the further obligation to complete, also at their own expense, important works connected therewith. They were to allow the Egyptian Government fifteen per cent. of the profits which they might derive from the work, and four fifths at least of the laborers who were to be employed upon it were to have been Egyptians. See how completely, in a few years, the positions of the parties were changed! Instead of nothing, the Government had contributed £8,000,000 to the enterprise (exclusive of the interest heretofore alluded to); had agreed to construct important works and to keep them in repair, the company to derive the sole benefit therefrom. From being the beneficiary, the Government became the benefactor. It was to do the work; the work, when completed, was to belong to the company!

It would appear that the company had now obtained everything they could possibly have wished for. The Khedive could reasonably have hoped that the war was over, and that he would not be called upon for anything in addition to what had already been wrested from him. He does not appear to have known the extent to which engineering skill can be carried. The war which he thought at an end had scarcely begun!

We must bear in mind always that the sine qua non to give to the different concessions from the two Khedives to the company validity and vitality was that they should be approved by the Sultan; that the Sultan withheld it; and that, notwithstanding this, the work was commenced and prosecuted as rapidly as the company's capacity for raising money would permit.

In the mean while England had seen with great and natural concern that a short route was being opened to the Indies, over which she was not to have a controlling influence. She could not but feel apprehensive lest large French possessions in Egypt, situate as were the lands which had been ceded to the company, might result to her disadvantage. The work as it progressed

was talked about the world over. The moral sense of the British people took offense at the character of the labor which was employed upon it, and the manner by which it was controlled. Accounts, not exaggerated, reached them of the "corvées" which were driven to the banks of the canal (for the Khedive, when he stipulated that Egyptians should be employed, also agreed to see that they should be forthcoming). The work was distasteful to them, not remunerative, and unhealthy. They were driven to it by force; they were perishing by thousands. Does the reader know how their tasks were performed? Those who carried the earth away from where it was dug were not furnished anything in which to carry it. They were required to stoop, to place their arms behind their backs, the left wrist clasped in the right hand, and then as much earth was placed in the hod thus made as it would hold. They were forced to walk away with it up a steep acclivity, and, when they reached the dumping-spot, they let go their hold, straightened up, and, shaking themselves like a spaniel who has just come out of the water, relieved themselves of their burden. A large proportion of them were under twelve years of age. Englishmen almost fancied they could hear the thud of the "courbash" as it fell upon the more than half-naked bodies of these wretched and defenseless people, as it forced them to and kept them at these dreary tasks. The Sultan was urged to withhold his consent, and it was a long time before it was finally obtained. Backsheesh" at length prevailed, and his consent was given, but it was coupled with the express proviso that the work by the "corvées" should cease. It was time; for, as has already been said, thousands of these creatures had died miserably, and had been buried in the sand.

In the mean time, while diplomates were negotiating at Stamboul, excavating had been going on at the Isthmus, the parties in interest never seemingly having taken into consideration the possibility of any interference on the part of the Sultan. No one entertains the smallest idea that the Sultan's course in this regard was dictated by any humane consideration; whether twenty or a hundred thousand Arabs died mattered little to him; neither could he have supposed that suppressing the "corvées" would be anything but a benefit to the company, as it would enable them to use the machinery which they had already in readiness and were then employing; it was nothing more on his part than a concession to English public sentiment. He felt obliged to grant something to the British ambassador, and so he granted him this.

But, unhappily for the Khedive, when the decision of the Sultan was made known, the com

pany's chronic state of greed had increased, and out of this simple modification made in their concession they invented a scheme which produced marvelous results. They had suffered a grievance! The Khedive had agreed to see that they were furnished with laborers. As the Sultan had prohibited him from carrying out his agreement in this regard, when without his consent nothing was binding, the Khedive must pay! And immediately they cried, "Havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war upon him.

For the suppression of the "corvées" they demanded heavy damages; and, while they were about it, they claimed the amount which they had already expended on the canal which was intended to connect the Nile with the maritime canal, and which, as we have already seen, they had abandoned to the Government. Then they claimed the amount which they estimated it would cost to complete that canal; then the value which the canal would have been to them if it had been completed; then the value of the lands lying along the banks of the canal, and which were to be irrigated from it, which had been given to them, and which they had retroceded to the Government when they declared their inability to complete it; then the value of the water which the canal would have furnished them.

The Khedive protested against these demands. His protests availed him nothing. The claims were there, and they had to be settled. The more he protested, the more they insisted. He was threatened; he was not in a position to fight. He was negotiating with Constantinople to have the Mohammedan law of succession, by which the eldest of the family inherited, changed so that he might secure the viceregal throne to his own children; but these demands upon him were so unconscionable that he opposed them as far as he dared. Finally an arbitration was proposed, and to this proposition he, in an unlucky moment, consented.

The arbitrator called upon was Louis Napoleon. In his hands the Khedive considered himself safe from oppression at least. Louis Napoleon was his beau-idéal of a man; he was his exemplar as a sovereign; he imitated him, as far as he could, in all things. His mode of life was fashioned after the French Emperor's; his soldiers were uniformed after the French pattern, and were drilled on the French system; his palaces were furnished with the product of French labor; his equipages were copied after those in use by the French Emperor; even the railings which inclosed his public buildings and the places of public resort were tipped with a golden tint in imitation of the Tuileries and the Bois. His capital was to be remodeled and rebuilt by an

other Haussmann; it was to be made to resemble Paris as much as possible. Life there was to be of the same character, and was to be kept up with the same display. In short, one of his many ambitions seems to have been that he should make Cairo the most beautiful capital in the Orient, as Louis Napoleon had made Paris the most beautiful capital in Europe; and that he, Ismaïl Pasha, should, in splendor and in power, be in his country what Napoleon III. was in France. Into the hands of such a model prince he could, he thought, safely intrust his interests. Napoleon's sense of justice would protect him from being despoiled; he was sufficiently powerful to do right without the fear of consequences; and, although the organizer of the raid upon him was a member of the Emperor's family, he consigned his interests into the Emperor's keeping without fear. In quick time came the award. It must have taken his breath away.

His Imperial Majesty decided that the stipulation contained in the second concession, to the effect that four fifths, at least, of the labor upon the canal were to be done by Egyptians, was a contract between the company and the Khedive, by which the latter bound himself to furnish the labor; the violation of which on the part of the Khedive made him liable in damages, notwithstanding that everything relating to the concession was subject to the approval of the Porte; and notwithstanding that the form of labor had been changed by the Porte-all of which the Emperor admitted.

Upon this item, however, he mulcted him in damages 33,000,000 francs for labor on the canal, and 5,000,000 francs for labor which should have been furnished for the completion of buildings which would be necessary to enable the company to carry on their works. Suppose the Sultan had refused his assent to the entire scheme, and, at the time his refusal was made known, the company had expended $50,000,000, or any other sum thereon, would Egypt have been responsible for the sums which had been expended, in the face of the express stipulation that the validity of the entire agreement depended upon the Sultan's consent thereto? If so, then Egypt would have been responsible, not only for the amounts which had been already expended, but also for the profits which the company might have hoped to make during the ninety-nine years of their charter! Apart from the absurdity of the proposition, from a legal point of view, what man, in his senses, could be made to believe that it is more economical to use hand-labor than to use steam, upon such a work as the excavating a ship-canal large enough and deep enough to float vessels of the greatest tonnage? But that was the conclusion, or rather the decis

Consider that, when these different changes in the concessions and retrocessions were made, not a word was said about compensation, and then say what are we to think of judgment by arbitration.

Certainly the French Emperor was enlightened upon the company's legal rights by very many French lawyers, who found no end of reasons to show that the company were entitled to a great deal more than they asked for. I have read them all-a volume-but the most conclusive argument in the batch is contained in one of five words: "Contre avanie Turc, justice française,"

The Turkish affront consisted in the Khedive having given to a French company everything it asked; the French justice consisted in making him pay 84,000,000 francs for having done so !

But this was not all the decree contained. The 84,000,000 francs was cash, which was to be paid. In addition to the money, the exclusive use of the Ouady Canal, from Timseh to Suez, was declared to be in the company; no water was to be taken from it except with their consent (that is, Egypt was to furnish them with the water, and they were to sell it). Government was to complete the Zagazig Canal, joining it to the Ouady Canal, so as to insure to the latter a constant supply of water; Government was to complete the canal from Ouady to Suez, according to the original plan; the company were to keep this canal in perfect order, but Egypt was to pay the expenses thereof, either by giving them 300,000 francs per annum, or by refunding the actual cost, according to the bills which might be furnished by them, as Government might prefer, the indemnity for this work to be revised every ten years.

The height of the water in the canal was to be, at high Nile, about seven feet; at mid Nile, about six feet; and at low Nile, three feet; the company at all times to be furnished with three hundred and twenty thousand cubic feet of water per diem (a physical impossibility), thus opening out to them another boundless field in which to sow the seed of future damages, which they could cultivate and harvest at their leisure, and which they did not fail to set to work upon immediately.

For, as soon as the award was made known, the company discovered that their just demands had not all been included in their original claim. Several items had been omitted. It would be tedious and unprofitable to enumerate them all. One was the value which the take of fish from the sweet-water canal would have been to them. And these new claims they pressed with the vigor which springs from success. The Khedive resisted, protested, refused. Finally, the company suggested "arbitration."

It is related that on one occasion Voltaire had invited a number of the celebrities of Paris to dine with him. During the dinner a violent storm arose, which continued beyond the time when his guests should have taken leave of him. Drawn in a semicircle in front of the fireplace, it was suggested that each person present should recite some incident of a lugubrious character. He who related the most doleful one was to be awarded the palm. By chance Voltaire was the first upon whom the lot fell to speak. Rising, he said, "Gentlemen, once upon a time there was a tax-gatherer," and he resumed his seat. During the remainder of the evening there was kept a profound silence. There was not wit enough in that assembly of wits to banish the horror which the pronouncing of that one word "tax-gatherer" had conjured up.

So with the Khedive. The bare word “arbitration" was enough. Like Zaccheus of old, he came down from his tree, and surrendered. In his turn he sued for peace, and begged for mercy, and finally agreed to pay 30,000,000 francs if the company would go away and never come to him again for more. To this the company finally agreed, but they rounded him off by making him pay them 10,000,000 francs for a piece of property which they had purchased not a very great while before for 1,800,000 francs!

To pay this last amount, being without money, the Khedive gave the coupons which were attached to his canal bonds, running down to the year 1895, the face value of which runs up to 125,000,000 francs! These bonds his necessities compelled him subsequently to sell to England. He was obliged to assume the payment of the coupons which he had taken from them, which amounts to nearly £200,000 per annum! Add these different sums together, and it will be seen that (inclusive of the subscription to stock) the Suez Canal will have cost Egypt some 500,000,000 francs, or largely over what it was estimated the entire work would cost, and which it did cost! Now, if you reflect that when the Khedive, who first consented that the canal should be excavated, did so upon the express condition that the entire work was to be done at the cost of the company; that four fifths of this cost were to be expended upon Egyptians; that, when completed, fifteen per cent. of the profits which the work might produce was to go to the Egyptian Government, and that, instead of these benefits the result was over-expenditure, made and to be made, of upward of 500,000,000 francs, I think ample justification is to be found for the statement with which I started out, that the Suez Canal is the greatest scheme of plunder that was ever conceived, or, if conceived, that was ever carried to such successful execution.