28 JULY 1883, Page 1
Contemporaneously with Mr. Gladstone's speech, a letter addressed to him
by M. de Lesseps was published, asserting in the strongest way the monopoly of the existing Company in the Isthmus of Suez for the ninety-nine years ending in 1968, and explaining his regret that the agreement for extending the com- merce and diminishing the dues of the Canal, received so well in France, had been so hastily judged in England. M. de Lesseps, anxious not to foster in any way the international jealousies which heated discussions of this kind might excite, waived with high French magnanimity all claim to the raising of the issue in Parliament, and professed his undiminished zeal for complete accord in the extensions he means to give at once to his under- taking between England and France.
