- LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE SUEZ CANAL AND SELFISHNESS. (TO THE EDITOR OF TILE "SPECTATOR.)
SIR,—It appears that the Government have made the best bargain they could with bard-headed monopolists in the matter of the second Suez Canal. That it is a monopoly they had to deal with was confirmed by the beat opinions at their command; and they were bound, therefore, to act upon those opinions, whatever opinions Conservative partisans may have given to the contrary.
England is suffering in this matter from her excessive selfish- ness, just as she did from the same cause in the late Russo- Turkish Eastern Question. In the latter case, the majority of' our upper classes did all they possibly could to secure impunity to Turkey in her inhuman government of her Christian sub- jects, lest by restraining her she might be made weaker to resist problematical designs of Russia ; and by thus, on account of remote possibility, backing up and identifying themselves with fiends, they landed us in the very situation they most dreaded, namely, the territorial aggrandisement and increased influence of Russia. In the present case, that of the Suez Canal, the same cause, excessive selfishness, caused groundless suspicions and fears of France, so that our Government, with the whole body of ship-owners behind it, did all they could to hinder the inception and execution of the work, and so confirmed the pre- ponderance of French influence in it. How different would it have been had we cordially co-operated with M. de Lesaeps from the first in furthering the maritime communication of the world ! We would then have been in a position to acquire and maintain an influence in the undertaking equal, if not superior, to that of the French.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Anaroth, S. Wales. A. BOYLE.
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