A remarkable little discussion took place on the Suez-Canal agreement
in the House of Lords on Tuesday, Lord Granville remarking that the opposition of Lord Palmerston to the Suez- Canal scheme had given a great stimulus to the raising of the capital in France, and that it would now be most unbecoming and dishonourable in us to use our position in Egypt to diminish the fair returns of an enterprise which our Government had opposed and run down, when it was a doubtful adventure. Even if we had conquered Egypt, it would have been impossible so to abuse our position as to interfere forcibly with the rights of M. de Lesseps and his Company,—as impossible as for an English nobleman who had granted to one hotel proprietor the sole right of building an hotel on his estate, to offer like terms to a com- petitor without the former's consent.
