74 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



having organized a French company, and also secured liberal 

 franchises from the Colombian States, he took in hand the task 

 of raising the necessary funds for its construction. Through 

 the aid of the Paris Geographical Society, he caused a series 

 of surveys to be made in the lower isthmus, all of which were 

 subsequently found to have been absurdly superficial ; then, 

 in order to decide upon the best route and to stamp the 

 approval of the world upon his choice of it, he invited the 

 political authorities of Europe and America, as well as 

 the presidents of many geographic and scientific societies to 

 send delegates to an " International Scientific Congress." By 

 extraordinary cleverness and ingenuity De Lesseps carried 

 every point in this convention, which finally decided that a 

 tide-level canal could be built at Panama for 140,000,000. 

 Hostile criticism of the undertaking in the United States, 

 foreshadowing a protest on its part against exclusive French 

 control of the work, finally brought De Lesseps to Wash- 

 ington for the purpose of overcoming threatened American 

 opposition. He managed the " preparatory arrangements " 

 for his grand scheme with marked ability, and the en- 

 thusiastic and readily excited French people struggled to 

 obtain shares in his company with as much zeal as they 

 had once before manifested in the purchase of stock in 

 the Mississippi scheme of John Law. Work was begun at 

 A spin wall in 1881, and was continued for nearly seven years, 

 when it was found that the canal, though not half finished, 

 had cost upward of 1260,000,000. Further investigation 

 disclosed the hopeless insolvency of the company. The 

 scandals connected with the enterprise were so great as 

 to compel examination by the legislative authorities of 

 France, resulting in the discovery of corruption and fraud 

 in its management, which fairly astounded the world. Many 

 millions had been spent in buying the favor or silence of 

 the press and in purchasing the support of legislators. The 

 names of many prominent officials of highest rank and posi- 

 tion in France were sadly smirched in the process of the in- 

 vestigation. The original intentions of the promoters were, 

 without doubt, honorable ; but before the work had progressed 



