Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Engineering, Transport, Efficiency

    Discusses the slow progress made by Ferdinand, vicomte de Lesseps in his construction of the Suez Canal, the slow rate being all the more difficult to comprehend since a large boring machine is being used. Wishes Lesseps would 'bore quietly' and 'not disturb the peace of Europe as though all the mountains in the world were in labour', and describes the opinion of Henry J Temple (3rd Viscount Palmerston) that the canal should be 'Cut'.