3-071-159 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Transverse section of the Suez Canal, 1883. 'The Iast week or two have witnessed the sudden rise of considerable excitement, both among politicians and among British shipowners and others interested in our Eastern maritime traffic, with regard to the terms of a proposed agreement between her Majesty's Government and the Suez Canal Company, represented by M. Ferdinand de Lesseps, the President, for the construction of a second waterway alongside of the existing Canal, to be aided by an advance of eight millions sterling from our Government'. From "Illustrated London News", 1883.