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The balance on hand for the completion of the dredging is $9,437,560. This sum will probably be sufficient to excavate the canal to the uniform depth of 26 feet.

The effect of the opening of the canal is felt in the revival of maritime interests in the Levantine ports. Port Said is the depot of seven companies, Russian, French, and Austrian. A Spanish company is organizing with the intention of establishing a line between Barcelona and the Philippine Islands, and an American company is preparing a depot in the Mediterranean.

In 1869, thirteen hundred and sixty-two ships, amounting to 637,440 tons, entered Port Said. M. de Lesseps estimates that the annual revenue from tolls on the tonnage passing through the canal will be $12,000,000.

The canal has conquered a peace. Its enemies have become its most sanguine friends. The benefits it is destined to confer upon the commerce of the world, and the changes in the present commercial equilibrium of Europe, although important in their influence and immediate in their effects, must be proportionate to the duration of the canal as a highway for the commerce of the world.