The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1879-08-20

The late Napoleon ILL.,, and the
Panama Scheme.
PARIS, July p, 1879.
To the Editor of the Morristown Gazette:

crown the edifce OF his long ant
splendidly useful life by carryin.
out that Panama Canal scheme
which, to all practical intents anc
| purposes he has made his own. Ii,
candiGly told his hearers that, as il
the construction of the Suez Canal
be himself would be solely responsi
BILE to the public. He asks for !
capital of one hundred millions OIL
francs or four millions sterling, tc
begin with; just the sum asked fol
thirty years ago by the Imperial
Pretender temporarily residing in
King. st. James. The eau.
tion money of two millions required
by the Government of Venezuela-
for to the territory of that Republic
has the venue of the projected canal
been shifted-has air been paid,
and M. de Lesseps tliAks that the
total cost of making the canal will
not exceed seven hundred and fifty
millions of francs, and that it can be
completed in eight years. M. de
Lesseps mentioned incidentally in a
recent address to the French Geo.
graphical Society that Prince Louis
Napoleon, during his imprisonment
in the Fortress of Ham, had thought
much Of a Panama Canal, and had
sent an officer devoted to the Bona
partist cause to explore the isthmus.
The officers report being favorable,
he (the Prince) wrote the French
Ministry asking to be set at liberty
in order that he might devote him
self to the relization of his scheme,
and promising never to meddle with
politics again. No reply was given
to his petition, and he afterwards es-
capped and went to London with
view to carrying out his project.
He was just preparing to start for
America when the Revolution of 1S48
caused him to alter his intentions.
Two years later the Prisoner of
Ham was Emperor OF France, and
the Canal Napoleon de Nicaragua"
was reIegated to the limbs of the
things that might have been.
Yes, that might have been. The
history of the Bonaparte family has
been a chain of such unexpected,
such astonishing, and such incon-
gruous events that speculation may
be permissible in what might have
been. Historically, had the prisoner
of 1845-46, had the exile in London
in 1847, been able to carry out his
project of Nicaraguan Canal. Any
thing and all things may be expect
ed from family which, from the
small beginnings of a petty advo-
cate and wine.grower's daughter
iu Corsica, has, in the course of
seventy-fve years, allied itself with
almost every Imperial house in Eu-
rope, which has counted among its
members two actual and two poten-
tial Emperors, Kings and Queens by
the half dozen, and Princes and
Princesses by the score, who, in
three generations. have undergone
the most extraordinary vicissitudes
this Princess keeping a boarding
school in the United States; that
Prince marrying milliner; such a
side branch as the Bonaparte Pat
5ersons becoming American citizens,
wealthy country gentlemen, or pros
porous lawyers in Pennsylvania
this grand nephew of Napoleon l.,
wearing the uniform of cadet at
Woolwich; that donning the purple
Of a Prince of the Church. What
,hings might have been had Napo,
eon III. became managing director
of the Nicaragusn Canal. The
magic of his name might have raised
him to the Presidency of a vast fed
sration of Spanish-speaking Repub-
les or, quite as feasibly, he might
nave met with Walkers and Lopez's
'ate--the garote v1. The ex-Empe.
,or might have read at Chislehurst,
IN the columns of morning paper,
hat according to the latest intelli- |
yence from the Isthmus Of Panama,
new hopes are entertained Of max
ng a ship canal across that obstruc-
lion. After failing to discover a
line for excavation in the !
larrower portion of the neck. U. S.
under the direction of
Ammen, have gone back to
Nicaragua, and now report FEAST
ole place towards the north of the
Why did not this para
graph, if he read it, recall the grand I
scheme of the Canal Napoleon de
Nicaragua" to the exile's mind?
Why did he rot think Of it in con-
nection with his young son, even
then studying engineering at Wool
wich? Had he done so the poor
Prince Imperial and his friend, Fer
dinaad de Lesseps, might have jour
neyed together to the Isthmus the