Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-04-06
THE HONOR OF COUNT DE
LESSEPS.

LESSIIPS.
| A Compatliot of the Fallen French
man Says Harch Things About Him
\ French merchant who came to this
country less than five years ago and
who has kept in touch with current
| events in France tells the New York
| Sun that the reports of Il protest by
the French people against the sentence
| imposed on Ferdinand de Lessons are
| entirely unfounded. He asserts that
the Paris newspapers are protesting
! against the verdict of the court. but
| that in this case the press, instead OF
! rejecting public opinion, is trying to
| form it,
You mus not forget" said he.
mat almost every editor and propric-
tor of Il Partisan newspaper came in
for a part Of the pillage of the peoples
savings by accepting fancy prices, as
brides for suppressing news. These
men We're, at least morally, accom-
| plices, and their opinion of the sen
tence, therefore, is obviously biased and
consequently of no account
The real opinion we want is that
| OF the people of the 100000 bourgeois
| who have been almost ruined by this
| immense robbery, and of the families
| OF those, more numerous than one
would think, who have been driven to
suicide. Their opinion will be found
very different. These men cannot
| find words violent enough to assaiI
the name OF De Lesseps, nor any pun
lsnment too severe to be applied to
him. And their opinion in spite of
what the French newspapers of today
may say, will be that of history, for
when light shall have been thrown
on the truth concerning the Suez canal.
as 1t has been on the dealings at Pan
anna. DE LeSSepS will be classed among
the greatest robbers of modern times.
AS far as the Suez canal is con-
cerned the end may have justified the
means, for the time being at least.
But it is nevertheless true that as a
result of the Suez thefts, which were
even greater than those of Panama
the tonnage tax, which ought not to
have been more than francs, is now
10 francs for vessels passing through
the canal. The way in which De Les
SepS came to be connected with the
construction of the Suez canal was, 10
say the least of it, peculiar. Napoleon
l. wanted to attack England through
India, after making himself master of
Egypt, and he conceived the idea of
piercing the iSthmuS. He summoned o
commission of engineers from France
with MOnge and Laplace at the head
OF 1t. When the engineers arrived i'll
Egypt and began their investigations
they found traces of the old canal
built by Pharaoh, and they adopted
the old lines in tie plans which they
made for Napoleon. 1t was estimated
that the isthmus could be pierced for
5O,0OO0OO francs, and the emperor
ordered that the work should be be- !
gun. Shortly afteTward, as is well |
known, he was forced to return TO |
France. Kleber was assassinated. the |
course Of political affairs in the empire !
was changed, and the work at Suez i
came to 4 Standstill.
y
Louis Philippe, Ferdinand De Lesseps |
was appointed French consul at Cairo. |
and by 4 curious streak of luck he dis
covered one day, in the local archives,
the plans for the Suez canal made by
Monge and Laplace. He began his
life as a pirate by appropriating these
plans, fOreSeeing that some day he
should be able to turn them to his
advantage. When the second empire
was inaugurated. Napoleon III. mar
ried Eugene de Montijo, who was a
cousin of De I.esseps. This made an
opening for the latter. and he submit
ted his plans to Napoleon III, with ali
offer to build the canal for 1OO,0O0,OG0l
francs With the assistance of his
cousin. the empress, and Of the khedive.
ISsnail P::sha. who came in for q rom
mission of several millions. it was pos
sibe 70 borrow 6OO,00O,00O francs
The wildcat methods that were en-
p1oyed to raise this sum have become
matters Of history. Less than one