But the Government did not take this step without consulting the Khedive. They were informed, in reply, by telegraph from General Stanton that his Highness appeared gratified at the announcement, and desired to express his acknowledgments to the English Government for the consideration shown to his request. The attack made, therefore, on the mission of Mr. Cave was an untoward incident in a year so disastrous in the political career of Mr. Lowe. We will not enter into the wide field of Egyptian finance. We have, we think, shown how intimately connected with Mr. Cave's mission was the Suez Purchase. We cannot but regret that the subsequent negotiations between the Government and M. de Lesseps were not more entirely left to Mr. Cave's management. The arrangement made by Colonel Stokes can only be considered of a temporary character. When the negotiations were first entered into, Colonel Stokes suggested that a compromise could be effected with regard to the surtax, provided that the Company would consent to reduce the maximum of ten francs per ton after passing a certain annual amount of tonnage. In the final arrangement we see no indication of the proposed diminution, and we have, without any prospective advantage, consented to the continuation of the surtax for a longer period than was prescribed by the Constantinople Commission. In fact, all we have gained is this, that we have been allowed, in consideration of our enormous holding, to have unquestioned ten votes at a general meeting; that one million francs are to be annually expended on the necessary works in the Canal; and that we are to submit for election three out of twenty-four Directors in the Council of the Company. Thus, except by some new arrangement, which must inevitably take place, we see no prospect of our shipping being benefited by any proceedings consequent on the purchase of the shares. Difficulties have already arisen under the late agreement between Colonel Stokes and M. de Lesseps. Laying aside the question of surtax, which will in the course of a few years come to an end, let us examine the burdens imposed upon navigation in general, and upon England in particular, by the present tolls. At present the Suez Canal is still a novelty; the shipping interest of the world is generally grateful for it; and the prestige of M. de Lesseps' name still exerts everwhere almost a romantic influence. But, as in Egypt of old a Pharaoh rose who knew not Joseph, so, ere long, a generation will come which forgets Lesseps. From the 1st of December, 1869, to the 31st of December, 1875, 6275 vessels had passed the Canal. Of these, 4347 vessels were English; and and these, irrespective of other imposts, such as barges, passengers, sundries, &c., had paid on their tonnage alone, 76,723,970 francs, or in English money, 3,069,0007. In the year 1875 alone, 1061 English ships passed the Canal, out of a total of 1494, paying 844,6802., out of a total of 1,151,000l. By the net tonnage English ships carried 1,476,775 tons, thus giving to each ship an average of about 1392 tons. Taking this average after the surtax ceases, each English ship will have to pay as a toll for passing the Canal, one hundred miles of its road to India, a sum of 5561. sterling, or rather more than onefourth of the average freight for the whole of the voyage. The progression of traffic since the opening of the Canal, has hitherto been as follows: 1870 71 72 73 74 75 Per cent. of increase in previous years 0 74 50 18 19 23 The first month of this year, if multiplied by twelve, showed a notable increase on the traffic of last year. We will not take this as the normal expansion; but assuming that the traffic increases only five per cent. per annum, the usual rate of progression in English railways, twenty years hence, at the time when our shares begin to earn dividend, the traffic will be twice what it is at the present moment. Therefore, with half the accommodation, and consequently slower progress through the Canal, we shall have to pay the same tax. The object which we must have in view, viz., the means of diminishing the tolls while improving the facilities of traffic, can scarcely be effected by a private Company. We must, therefore, aim at the establishment of the Canal on such a basis of physical strength and durability as will meet, for years to come, the increasing demands both of the old world and of those vast regions which are daily becoming populated, or increasing in population and its commercial demands. No assemblage of private capitalists could carry out these works on a scale sufficiently vast to establish this great universal thoroughfare, with such workmanship and materials as would reduce to a minimum the annual cost of maintenance, and of wear and tear. Such an undertaking can only be attempted by Governments to whom the annual income will be insignificant in comparison with the existence of the way, and the boon conferred upon trade by the reduction of the tolls. It may take some years before such a scheme can be thoroughly carried out, but it is one of those public benefits well worthy the devotion of a lifetime. We shall have to establish, by some means or other, a strait between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea as permanent and, if possible, as free as the Straits of Gibraltar. Gibraltar. We must secure to this passage an acknowledgment of international right, securing it against all the eventualities of war, and render it as accessible to the smallest nation and community as to the richest and most powerful State. For this purpose we must bear in mind two essential points: First, the interests and duties of the territorial Sovereign; secondly, the general and political interests of the world at large. Sir Travers Twiss, in the article before referred to, points out the dangers to which the traffic on the Canal may be exposed in case of war beween the Porte and any other nation. The trade of the world might be hindered by the blockade of the Canal ports on the part of any one State waging war against Turkey, and as no provision has been made against such an event by a common. understanding, no State, however much aggrieved, would have the right of remonstrance against the legitimate exercise of belligerent rights. Precedents, or at all events analogies, are, as we have seen, not wanting for the political part of the question so far as it regards. other countries, but we see a jealousy on the part of the Porte to the jurisdiction of an international Commission, and we must also conciliate the territorial rights and the well-founded financial pretensions of the Viceroy himself. We do not contemplate any serious difficulties in treating with the shareholders. If the worst comes to the worst, their rights last only the term of their lease, which, however long in the limited span of human life, is short for what we believe to be the duration of this great work. But if the Powers of Europe are prepared to make a certain pecuniary sacrifice, easy to nations when dealing with individual interests, the redemption of the Canal from the shareholders must be followed at once by a political condition, not difficult of achievement, if the Powers of Europe will only approach the question with a desire to settle it. We would refer our readers to a despatch from Sir Andrew Buchanan, dated Vienna, March 24th, 1875, giving the outline of such a scheme. To what in the despatch are called crude ideas we must add some suggestions which may call to the subject the attention of politicians at a moment when a European Congress is, perhaps, imminent. First, we will suggest a common international treaty establishing the neutrality of the Suez Canal much in the form of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty. Secondly, negotiations should be entered into with M. de Lesseps and the Company, either for purchasing the shares at once at a price, or for converting them into debentures charged on the proceeds of the Canal, to be extinguished by rapid drawings with a bonus. Thirdly, there must be established an understandin on 1 on which every country is to be assessed for its proportion of redemption, and for its share in the further works to be carried out. Fourthly, a certain annual sum should be agreed upon as a revenue to the Khedive to make up his fifteen per cent. of the profits, and as a permanent tribute for the perpetuity of the concession. This annual revenue might, if desired by the Khedive, be capitalised, by which means a large sum would be available to relieve his present financial difficulties. Fifthly, the Khedive, as Sovereign of the territory, should be held responsible under the guarantee of all nations for the repairs, police and general management of the Canal and its accessories, which should be given to him as an unencumbered property. He should be bound to publish annually an account of the expenditure; and to prepare an annual budget to be submitted to the Consular representatives at Cairo. The tolls should be charged sufficiently to cover the repairs on the Canal, the payments in respect of its present burdens, if not extinguished by common consent previously, and the annual tribute to the Viceroy, unless redeemed by a lump sum. Thus we may open to the world a work-almost a wonderwhich we owe to the genius and energy of M. de Lesseps, to the constant support of his fellow-countrymen, and to the enlightened policy of the Rulers of Egypt. Whatever arrangement may take place, the deference due to the services and character of M. de Lesseps, must be a primary consideration. We can only hope to perpetuate his achievement for the benefit of mankind by taking up the thread of enthusiasm where he may leave it. We cannot confer upon him a greater honour than to make his work an object of individual acknowledgment and world-wide gratitude, by giving to it a perpetuity and permanence with which it is not yet invested, a political condition not yet achieved, and a utility which cannot depend merely on the clauses of a private concession, or on the exigencies of a Company, however ably and uprightly administered. At present the neutrality of the Canal depends simply upon the declaration of the Viceroy of Egypt. By the statutes this declaration of neutrality is co-existent with the concession of the Company. It is personal to the Egyptian Government, and confirmed by Europe only by the possibility of force. Merchant ships alone are affected by the stipulation. The rights given are merely municipal, and no provision is made for the crucial periods of international conditions—viz., war and the rights of belligerents. No mind can imagine or foresee how great the disturbance of trade from peaceful states if war should find these problems still unsettled. Closely examined, their early solution appears not only feasible, but pressing. The task would be worthy the daring genius of Lord Beaconsfield, and the clear intellect which has won the bâton for Sir Stafford Northcote, were they to adorn their careers with the full and lasting enfranchisement of this universal roadway. ART. VI.-1. A Collection of Prints from Pictures painted for the purpose of Illustrating the Dramatical Works of Shakespeare by the Artists of Great Britain. Boydell. London, 1803. 2. The Boydell Gallery: a Collection of Engravings illustrating the Dramatic Works of Shakespeare by the Artists of Great Britain, reproduced from the originals in Permanent Woodbury Type. London, 1874. 3. Illustrations of Shakespeare. By Moritz Retzsch. 1828-1845. 4. The Works of Shakespeare edited by Howard Staunton. The Illustrations by John Gilbert. London, 1864. No painter has ever translated a play of Shakespeare into the language of the pencil as Mendelssohn has translated the Midsummer Night's Dream' into the language of music. We may account for this superficially by saying that no painter who has arisen since Shakespeare has possessed a genius at all approaching that of the poet in sublimity and comprehensiveness. But a truer explanation of the phenomenon will be discovered in the fact that we rarely find one genius in exact harmony with another. Sympathetic appreciation may exist in a high degree, but yet 'deep' may not answer to deep.' Each artist must body out his own conceptions. Originality will make a way for itself, and create forms. It cannot be diverted into channels hollowed out by another. It was well said of Hogarth that he could think like a great genius, but not after Here we have the primary explanation of the inadequacy of illustrations to Shakespeare; and until a painter shall be found possessing the sympathy with the poet which Mendelssohn proved himself to possess when he composed the 'Overture' and the Wedding March,' we may despair of a satisfactory result. Thus it will be seen we think it best to admit at the outset that the works of Shakespeare, though they undoubtedly present to the mind's eye of the reader an endless variety of glowing and beautiful images, have not hitherto proved so deep and sparkling a fountain of inspiration to the painters as we should have at first expected. But though this article must go to show that the one. translation |