given in
his own words, used ten years afterwards:--

"In 1847, in conjunction with a French and Austrian engineer,
he investigated the matter, feeling how important would be the
establishment, if possible, of a communication between the Red Sea and
Mediterranean. The levels given by a French engineer, who visited Egypt
in 1801, during the French invasion, indicated a difference between the
Red Sea and the Mediterranean of something like thirty-two feet. It was
suggested that if the old canal of Ptolemy were opened again, a current
might be established between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, which
would not impede steam navigation, and would at the same time scour
the canal and enable a perfect channel to be maintained. However, after
investigation, he and the other engineers found that, instead of there
being thirty-two feet difference of level between the Red Sea and the
Mediterranean, there was no difference at all, though the notion of that
difference of level had been entertained for upwards of fifty years.
While that notion existed it was believed by professional men that a
canal, or a new Bosphorus, as it was called, might be maintained between
the Red Sea and the Mediterranean; but the difference of level being
found to be _nil_, the engineers with whom he was associated abandoned
the project altogether, and he believed justly. Since that time he
had walked over the district, at some considerable inconvenience, and
investigated the feasibility of opening a canal between the two seas,
assuming them to be on a level, and supposing the canal to be supplied
with water from the higher level of the Nile, but he had come to the
conclusion that the thing was, he would say, absurd, were it not that
other engineers, whose opinion he respected, had been to the spot since
and declared it to be practicable. He coincided in opinion with the
first lord of the Treasury. Money, it was true, would overcome any
difficulty, but, commercially speaking, he must frankly declare that
he believed this scheme to be unfeasible. Whatever its political import
might be, he believed it to be an undesirable scheme, speaking as an
engineer. In his opinion, the railway now nearly completed would be more
effective, as far as India and postal arrangements were concerned, than
this new Bosphorus between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean."

POLITICAL AGITATION IN ENGLAND.

The commercial distress gave an opportunity for certain political