'
'What is the value,' answered Tocqueville, 'of a strip of land in the
desert where no one can live? And why are the shareholders to be French?
The Greeks, the Syrians, the Dalmatians, the Italians, and the Sicilians
are the people who will use the canal, if anybody uses it. They will form
the bulk of the shareholders, if shareholders there are.
'My strong suspicion is, that if you had not opposed it, there never
would have been any shareholders, and that if you now withdraw your
opposition, and let the scheme go on until calls are made, the
subscribers, who are ready enough with their names as patriotic
manifestations against you as long as no money is to be paid, will
withdraw _en masse_ from an undertaking which, at the very best, is a
most hazardous one.
'As to our influence in Egypt, your journal shows that it is a pet
project of the Viceroy. He hopes to get money and fame from it. You
_imitate_ both his covetousness and his vanity, and throw him for support
upon us.'
_Paris, May_ 21--The Tocquevilles and Chrzanowski[1] drank tea with us.
We talked of the French iron floating batteries.
'I saw one at Cherbourg,' said Tocqueville, 'and talked much with her
commander.
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