zz6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



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with lottery drawings attached. It -was by just this method a lot- 

 tery loan that the Suez Canal was finished, but the French legislators 

 of 1886 hardly took the degree of interest in the Panama scheme 

 which those of 1868 did in the Suez. Only eight votes were cast 

 against the bill of 1868, and this enactment carried the work through 

 to its completion.* The result in the present case has been that De 

 Lesseps was obliged to go upon the market and raise about one third 

 200,000,000 francs the amount asked for, upon comparatively oner- 

 ous terms. This sum, added to 75,000,000 francs, the last quarter of 

 the stock capital, called in in September, will enable him to continue 

 the work for one or two years. It remains to be seen whether, prior to 

 the expenditure of these sums, a renewed application to the French 

 Government will meet with better success. It should be remembered, 

 after all, that the French Government favored the application of the 

 company. It inti'oduced a bill based in its essential features upon the 

 bill of 1868. Opposition existed not in the ministry but in the Cham- 

 ber, and it is possible, to say the least, that upon a subsequent occasion 

 the ministry and Chamber may find themselves in accord. 



It may, perhaps, be considered doubtful whether the present com- 

 pany is to complete the work, and whether the French are to maintain 

 the financial control they at present possess. But it can not be denied 

 that powerful incentives must influence the French Government and 

 the French people toward the support of the company, and the keeping 

 of the work in De Lesseps's hands. In no way can the weight of such 

 considerations be shown better than by the following extract from the 

 late report of Rousseau, the commissioner of the French Government. 

 lie inspected the work in February, 1886, and at the close of his report 

 says : 



" In fine, I consider the cutting of the Isthmus of Panama a pos- 

 sible work, and that at present it has been carried so far that it can not 

 be abandoned. . . . 



" Such an abandonment," he goes on, "would be in fact a veritable 

 disaster, not only for the stockholders, who are nearly all French, but 

 as regards French influence all through America. . . . 



" It does not seem to admit of doubt that, if the affair failed in the 

 hands of the French company, it would be immediately taken up by a 

 foreign company to prevent the fruits being lost of the enormous sac- 

 rifices made and the results obtained. . . . 



* It is true that the amount of the loan asked for in 1886, 600,000,000 francs the 

 calculation of the company being that 600,000,000 added to the 600,000,000 already 

 spent or still disposable would complete the work much exceeds the loan obtained for 

 Suez, 100,000,000 francs. But we may remember that the commerce and wealth of the 

 world have vastly increased available capital ; and, moreover, the astonishing financial 

 success of the Suez Canal ought to serve as a powerful stimulus. According to the 

 estimate of the Paris Congress, Panama was to cost double what Suez did. But the 

 commerce of the world will have more than doubled, reckoning from 1869, before the 

 work at Panama is completed. 



