St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1889-01-24
A COLOSSAL FRAUD.
Editor PfxIey,s Estimate of De Lesseps

question WflGlIlCI liz 10 a SlNoN NASi
neer or a colossal fraud. Since the
wear 1919, about which time De Les
seps began to revive the idea OF re-
constructing the Suez canal, con-
Meeting the Red sea and the Medlter-
ranean, his name has been proml-
nentlv before the world as a success
full engineer. We use the expression
of "reyiving'' the idea of a Suez ca
nal, because that canal had been con-
structed six hundred years before the
birth of Christ. and operated for
fourteen hundred years the ninth
century,, when the age was dark,
when commerce and navigation IAN
guished, and enterprise was dead, n
Suez canal fell into disuse, and h
sands of the Egyptian desert blotted
it out as a navigable channel from
the map of the ancient world The
idea of its reconstruction IS attr1but-
ed to the first Napoleon, as In the
conception of the Nicaraguan canal
to the third Napoleon, when prisoner
in the fortress of Ham, although the
original suggestion of connecting the
waters of the Atlantic and Pac1t1c
oceans bv canal dates back to the
sixteenth century. To how many
vicerovs of Egypt, engineers, and
commercial adventures is ascr1bed
this project of reviving a highway OF
commerce acrOSs the sandy lsthmus
of Egypt may not now be known,
but to Mahomet Said Pasha must be
accorded the acknowledgment of the
first practical modern aid. To his
assistance he invited the French en-
gineer, gave him and his company
concessions of lands, money, credit,
and the enforced labor of his EgyP-
tan fellahs. The work was begun
in 1860, and in 1870 four hundred
and eightv-six vessels had passed
through it. 1t was a success, and
cost 500, 600, 900. From the Khe-
dive Disraeli purchased for the Brit
ish government a controlling interest
in its shares, which cost the English
exchequer the sum OF "a, OOO
That it was a great feat of engineer
ing we are not quite prepared to adj
nit. when we consider the age III
which it was built and the physical
geography of the country through
which it passes. The two seas were
at the same level; there were no
mountains to tunnel, and scarce a
hillock to displace; no harbors, save
inexpensive breakwaters, and Its
work was done by unpaid labor.
Why it should have cost 500, OOO,-
600 would be difficult to explain. 1T
was the excavation of a sand-dr1tt
that lay in the commercial highway,
int~ercepting intercourse between the
richest kingdom of Europe with the
richest colonial empire OF Asia. 1t
was numbered by nc difficulties;
most of the soil a removed by
dredgers; except for concrete at its
sea-entrances there was no work
save of the cheapest and simplest
kind; its course was through shallow
lakes and inexpensive sand-cuttlng;
with its original building, when the
world was Young and trading vOy-
ages rare, there could be no compar-
isOn. 1t was constructed IN an age
of monev commercial activity, and
of enterprise. 1t was a necessity sug-
gested bv e. and made profitable
because its practicability was dem
o%nstrated by screw proPellers. Oth-
err and more difficult engineering
works had preceded it, for, consider
ing the age in which this work was
done, it is not comparable to the
railroad work accomplished by our
own citizens-Stanford, Huntington,
Hopkins. and the two CrOckers. n
building of the Amsterdam canal IN
Holland. the Caledonia canal Scot
land. the Grand Erie through New
York. the Languedoc in France, were
all superior to the Suez, more d1fh-
cult of construction, and when we
consider the conditions surrounding
their accomplishment, altogether
more creditable to the men who pro-
iected them and carried them to sue
cessful conclusion. AS compared
with the RAILROADS.&C. dar1ngly pro-
iected by our Own citizens, and SO
successfully accomplished by them,
uniting not only the w great
oceans of the world, but bringing the
interior of a vast continent to the
! borders of the seas, saving so many
thousands of miles of circumnav1ga-
ton, opening up to settlement, CIV
ilizatiOn. and wealth an interior en-
pire greater than the known world
in Roman times-and the clearing
out of the Suez ditch was child
play. Why, in this age of science,
commerce, money, and daring enter
{ prise, NJ. de Lesseps should have
won such applause for a scheme ne
did not originate, and only aided as
a st~ock-broker and Spectator tC
build, we have not been able to con
5 ceive. When his success at Sueze EN-
5 boldened him to undertake a real en-
: gineering exploit, he demonstrated
his utter incapacity, II not his reck
less and criminal design, to reap to
e his own Golfers the hard-earned saw
n ines of his countrymen and women
He looked upon the map of the
: world, and at the Isthmus OF Dar1e1
he saw where the waters of two vas
c oceans were separated by the mar
V rowest strip of land. He knew thai
5 Europe could exchange her commerce
T with Asia only by circumnav1gat1ns
; a continent. He recognized the vas
dimensions, increasing population
and unbounded wealth of North ant
l. South America. He saw great cite
d margining the Atlantic shores anC
V cities growing great upon the Dor
-" ders of the Pacific; with needless
d unintelligent, and criminal prec1p1ta
? ton he conceived a gambling specu
n lation. He was too self-Opinionate'
q and careless to investigate wha
n science had ascertained since the be
# ginning of the sixteenth century
what every Spanish voyager knew
what every intelligent traveller ha
:, informed himself of; what half tn
citizens of California had observe
by transit of Panama and N1cara
* qua; what the government OF tn