M. de Lesseps should go to America, get the aid
of Jay Gould,. " finance " a Pasha for Nicaragua, and cut the Darien Canal. It wants cutting to shorten the voyage of English vessels. He will make nothing of his grand plan of going from Russia through the steppes to Calcutta. Russia cannot do the work with her- money, the wild tribes concerned will cut the line, and we shall certainly not advance a farthing to help Russian troops over their long marches, without giving ourselves any new independent access to India. Our line of railway, if we build one, is through Asia Minor to the Persian Gulf, and even, that is hardly required while the Canal is open. Indeed it is by no means certain that with the Sultan and the Pasha and the Shereef of Mecca on our side, we could not run a railway length- wise through Arabia, the most convenient communication we- could possibly have.
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