The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1880-02-26
THURSDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 2e.

life and to prevent Or relieve suffering, FREE
quently exposing his own life to rescue thai
of others during the fighting, obtaining by en-
ergetic remonstrances postponement for
some days of the bombardment of the city, and
then personally experimenting the removal
OF fugitives by vessels which he had chartered.
His generous zeal won for him sheaf of dec
orations-the rosette of an Officer Of the Le-
gion, orders from the governments of Sardinia,
Naples, Sweden, Holland and Spain, and a
commemorative medal struck in his honor by
the French residents, while an address was
sent to him from the Chamber of Commerce
of Marseilles, and the Chamber of Barcelona
set up his bust in marble in its hall. Recalled
to Paris after the revolution of 1S4S, M. de
Lesseps was sent to Madrid in April as Minis
ter, whence he was transferred to Switzerland
in February, 1S49, and to Rome in May. Only
afew weeks before upon the flight of Plus TX,
the Roman republic had been declared.
He was expected" say the records of the
time, "to fulfil, in concert with M. d'Har-
court and M. de Rayneval, the delicate task
of restoring order in the Papal Dominions and
of preventing Liberal excuses from interior
ing with the establishment of a regular gov
eminent. His instructions, it is asserted, were
far from explicit, but the true Liberalism
which he evinced in STIMULATING that the Ro-
man people should be free to choose their own
government was not agreeable to the authori-
ties at home and he was recalled in june"
HE boldly took issue with the French Minis
try" says another biographer, "and denounced
the sin and shame of the bombardment of a
sister republic in violation of solemn pledges,
refused absolutely to have act or part in such
proceedings and, finding his protest to the
Ministry and Council of State disregarded, re-
signed his position and boldly met
the denunciation not only of the Ministers but
also of the National Assembly for daring to
run counter to the action of France" The
truth of history is that NJ. de Lesseps was sent
to Rome without precise instructions or rather
with instructions which his superiors after
wards declined to avOw. A weaker man might
have been ruined by this. M. de Lesseps
boldly assumed that his conciliatory mission
was a serious one and dared to declare that
preston upon him. When he was recalled
and his action was repudiated, M. de Lesseps
claimed his retiring pension. and in two very
clever pamphlets vindicated himself triumph
antly from the charges and censure of the
Government. II go back to my obscurity
without regret" he wrote to his father little
over thirty years ago. How little he know
about it and what glory of that ephemermal
government has not faded in a day in the blaze
of his now worldwide fame The idea of q
canal through the isthmus of Suez has for
centuries past occupied the imaginations OF
mankind. Sesostris-or, according to another
authority, Sethos, his father-cut canal
between the Red Sea and the Pelusiac branch
had projected upon the same route ship-canal
though he desisted from the work when warned
by the oracles that he was preparing it for the
use of an invader. Darius Hystaspes carried
it as far as the lower Bitter Lakes and PtOlemy
Philadelphus carried it near to his city of Ar
sinoe and connected it with the sea by locks
thus increasing its length from thirty-seven
miles to ninety-two. Trajan, who found il
choked up with sand, restored it about the be.
ginning of the second century and changed it,
Clysina on the Red Sea. Drifting sands soon
rendered this canal useless, but in $40, Amru
the General of the Caliph Omar, again restored
it, but in 767 the Canal of the Prince of the
Faithful was finally destroyed by order Of the
Caliph AL Mansour. When the first Napole
on conquered Egypt he had survey made Of
the isthmus, but his engineers reported thai
the Red Sea was thirty feet above the level Of
the Mediterranean, and their error remained
uncontradicted or unchallenged till 1910, wheI
measurements the fact that the two seas b ad
about the same water-level. In 1847 commits
sion, of which the illustriouS Robert Stephen.
son was member, verified this deduction
and another examination in 1853 proved that
the seas had exactly the same mean level
an isthmian canal impractcable because of the
sand-drifts that had already so often proved ia
tai to the enterprise. While in the consular
service in Egypt M. de Lesseps had given this
great subject much thought. In 1852, foul
years after his withdrawal from diplomacy
he petitioned the Porte for authority TO form
company for the prosecution of the enterprise.
His petition was referred to the Egyptian gov.
eminent, and he received in 1854 cordial in.
vitation from the then Viceroy, Said Pasha, te
visit the Land of the Pharaohs, and was re-
quested to draw up memorial on the subject
The result was frman sanctioning 1.-THE enter
prise; his engineers went to work at once OF
the surveys and in February, 1856, letter o.
concession was granted him. The rsst iof the
story is familiar to all