LESSEES, FERDINAND DE. 



403 



English Government interposed diplomatic ob- 

 jections to the concession of the Sublime Porte, 

 disputing the legality of the Sultan's firman and 

 of the permission given to the company to hold 

 Egyptian territory. After Said Pasha's death 

 the opposition of the English Government and 

 people was redoubled. The territorial conces- 

 sion was finally canceled, and the company re- 

 ceived 500.000,000 francs compensation by the 

 award of the Emperor of the French. A small 

 channel was opened on Aug. 15, 1865, which 

 was widened and deepened by 1867, and on Nov. 

 20, 1869, the tide-water canal, 100 miles long, 

 200 feet wide at bottom, and 28 or 29 feet deep, 

 was opened with splendid ceremonies. After 

 the triumphant completion of his enterprise, 

 which Robert Stephenson and other eminent 

 engineers had to the last declared impossible, 

 Ferdinand de Lesseps was loaded with honors 



mus of Panama along the route of the Panama 

 Railroad and Chagres river. The canal was 

 to be 54 miles in length, 54 feet wide at bottom, 

 and 27 feet deep. The chief engineering diffi- 

 culties were the Cordillera, which would have 

 to be crossed by a tunnel or a deep cutting 

 through the Calebra Col, and the regulation of 

 the floods of the Chagres river. The original 

 scheme of a tide-water canal was abandoned for 

 one with locks, and still the capital subscribed 

 was insufficient. After the work, begun Feb. 1, 

 1881, had been carried on intermittently for six 

 years, the company applied for permission to 

 issue a lottery loan. Not enough bonds were 

 taken, and on Dec. 13, 1888, payments were sus- 

 pended. The Government and people of the 

 United States were opposed to the building of 

 the canal under French auspices, and the proposi- 

 tion that the French Government should become 



RESIDENCE OP FERDINAND DE LESSEPS. 



and decorations. In 1875 he published "Let- 

 tres, Journal, et Documents pour servir a 1'His- 

 toire du Canal de Suez." In 1882 he endeavored 

 to secure the neutrality of the canal, and was 

 wrought up to the highest indignation by its 

 treacherous seizure by the English naval au- 

 thorities after he had persuaded Arabi Pasha 

 that its neutrality would be respected. 



M. de Lesseps promoted the Isthmus of Cor- 

 inth Canal, and became interested in Comman- 

 dant Roudaire's scheme to submerge a depression 

 in the Desert of Sahara and create an inland 

 sea. In 1879 he began to organize a company 

 for cutting a sea-level canal through the Isth- 



directly interested in it was not entertained, for 

 political reasons. Commissioners and expert en- 

 gineers were sent to Panama to study the proj- 

 ect with regard to authorizing the raising of 

 additional capital to protect the investments of 

 the shareholders, a large proportion of whom 

 were people of small means who had been at- 

 tracted to the enterprise by the glowing prom- 

 ises of the great Frenchman at its head. Ex- 

 perts pronounced the scheme practicable, though 

 not likely to prove remunerative. During the 

 consideration of the various plans of reorganiza- 

 tion and the examinations of official investiga- 

 tors it was found that not more than two thirds 



