ISMAIL IN HIS GRANDEUR. 73 y As I have pointed out, Said Pasha deserves the credit of having first rendered possible the construction of the Canal by the concessions he granted to M. de Lesseps. In the early days of his reign, Ismail took up an attitude of hostility towards the enterprise so favoured by his predecessor. But when the award-.giyeix by the Emperor of the French had , enabled the Company to surmount the difficulties raised by the action of the Sultan, and when the feasibility of the Canal's construction had been placed beyond reasonable doubt, Ismail resolved to identify himself with the grandest industrial enterprise of the nineteenth century, the grandest, that is, in its results rathe than in the natural obstacles it had to encounter.

During the years which intervened between the commencement and the termination of the works, the Company was on more than one occasion in financial difficulties. Money had to be raised, and Ismail's assistance was readily forthcoming. "Finally, in pursuance of the same policy, the Khedive j "- *" took upon his own shoulders the cost of thev,/ y: gorgeous festivities by which the opening of the(j\~\j. new ship Canal between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean was to be inaugurated. A story was current at the time, which illustrates in a remarkable manner the curious mixture of shrewdness and folly exhibited by Ismail's progress on the road to ruin. As the Sovereign of Egypt, he caused circulars to be sent to the leading purveyors of feasts — in other words, to the Gunters of the Levant — asking