Lord Sandhurst has intervened in the Canal affair as deus
ex machind. Everybody being quite content that the Government -should hold the shares, Lord Sandhurst advises that Sir Stafford 1Vorthcote should at once sell the shares, "merely backing the Khedive's paper,"—that is, affording a British guarantee to the Egyptian security. By " such simple means the security is elevated at once to the rank of Consols," and the " shares would be spread over a large surface in English society." Lord Sandhurst's idea in this astounding proposal, which is to guarantee £4,000,000 to the Khedive in return for nothing, not even a vote in the Canal management, is that the present " appli- cation of State resources is mischievous and anomalous." Why is it mischievous, if it adds to the State's power without injuring its resources ; and why is it anomalous to own a Canal, when it is not anomalous to own a Railway? We own two or three in India. To suppose that the Government would sell its shares, is to suppose that it would abandon a policy just settled because it vas approved by a large majority of both parties.
