THE NORTHBROOK MISSION. 401 contention that the Suez Canal is a French enterprise under French protection, are illustrated by an incident which occurred about this period, and which, I believe, is not generally known.

As I have explained, the Suez Canal, though carried through Egyptian territory, though constructed mainly by funds furnished by Egypt and by unpaid Egyptian labour, contributes nothing whatever to the revenue of Egypt. It always has been felt a grave grievance by Egypt that no share of the enormous profits of the Trans-isthmus Canal is allotted to her, and that while all other countries benefit more or less by the water highway between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, Egypt is the only country which has been actually a loser by its construction. Tewfik Pasha held, I know, very strongly that whatever might be the legal force of the contracts entered into between his predecessors, Said and Ismail, and the Suez Canal Company, these contracts were contrary to justice and equity, and ought by rights to be set aside, should any opportunity present itself. Such an opportunity seemed to present itsplf in the year of the London Convention.

The extraordinary financial success of the Canal had naturally led to an examination of its charters ; and as the examination was conducted by Egyptian financiers, who were intimately acquainted with the inner history of its construction, they came to the conclusion that the various concessions, on the strength of which thp Canal was made, conferred no kind of monopoly upon 2 D