4 DECEMBER 1875, Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

THE Due Decazes is publishing a number of despatches from the French Ambassadors in London on the Suez Canal. It appears from them that the safety of the Canal was a subject of earnest discussion with the Liberal Government, though no mention is -made of a project, said to have been considered and rejected, of -buying the Canal, and that Lord Derby from the first pressed on M. d'Harcourt the importance of the Canal to British interests. He intimated, indeed, that he should not be sorry to see the Canal in the hands of a Syndicate of the Powers. He re- peated this impression even after the purchase, and this may be the proposal ultimately pressed on Great Britain. As we have endeavoured to show elsewhere, it is a most dangerous one, and may lead to complications infinitely more dangerous than any -which will arise from the annoyance of France at the purchase. Englishmen cannot manage either States or business under a supervising Committee of foreign Powers.