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All Ferdinand de Lesseps's explanations were in vain; he was unable
to convince Palmerston of the advantages which England might win
from such an enterprise. In May and June 1857, he undertook a
tour of England in an attempt to win over the opinion of the British.
He covered England, Ireland and Scotland, and chaired nearly two
dozen meetings organised by local chambers of commerce and associations
of ship-owners, merchants and industrialists. All those who attended
came away converted. However, on 7 July 1857, when the question
of the Suez Canal was raised in the House of Commons, Palmerston
vigorously dug his heels in:
"[...] for the last fifteen years, His Majesty's government has been exerting all the influence in its power to prevent this project from being carried out. It is one [...] of the wildly fanciful ideas put forward from time to time to test the credulity of ingenuous investors [...] It surprises me that M. Ferdinand de Lesseps could have imagined that, by taking a trip round various counties, he might succeed in collecting British money for a project which in every sense contravenes British interests. [...] However, I dare say it will not be necessary for the project to have been brought to a successful conclusion in order for M. de Lesseps and some of his promoters to have achieved their objectives."
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