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PANAMA. 



PipT is with great sorrow that I have been reading, day by 

 H^ day, all the accounts published on this unfortunate affair. 

 As one greatly interested in this gigantic enterprise, for the 

 salvation of which I am doing all I possibly can, I am very 

 much distressed with the events which have lately taken 

 place, leaving no possible doubt about the mismanagement of 

 the Direction from the beginning. It reads like a romance ; 

 but unfortunately there are thousands of victims, ot which a 

 large number have been completely ruined. 



It is not my intention to incriminate any one, which is 

 the work of Justice ; but, nevertheless, I think that so many 

 have incurred great responsibilities in contributing, one way 

 or another, to the Panama disaster, that I can only see 

 one w^ay to deal with such a calamity. The French 

 Government, which is partly responsible for what has hap- 

 pened, ought to find the means to indemnify the victims of 

 their losses in a certain measure. This could be done easily 

 by authorising a grand Lottery, from whose proceeds 

 half should be put away to repay, little by little, in its totality 

 or in part, the losses sustained by the thousands of honest 

 people who have subscribed the Panama Bonds, carried away 

 in so doing, by the moral support given to the Panama 

 Company by the Government, as also by the famous promises 

 constantly repeated by the Directors of the Company. 

 Another way should be for the Government to propose to the 

 Parliament to vote a certain sum to that effect. 



Some other means must surelv exist to attain the same 

 end ; but what is certain is this : that the thousands of victims 

 will not be satisfied until something of that sort is done in 

 their favour. It will be quite impossible for the majority of 

 them to understand why, as I said before, a Government, 

 partly responsible for the loss of their economies, should not 

 find the means to reimburse their losses in totality, or in a 

 certain measure. I have every reason to believe that if such 

 a step was taken by the French Government, it would be the 



