The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-12-08

seps died this afternoon at the Chateau
la Chesnaye
Viscount Ferdinand de Leseps, dipo-
matist and engineer, was born at Yer
sailles Nov. ls, 1905. Educated for a
diplomatic profession, he filled success
sively appointments at Lisbon, Cairo, Bar
celona and Madrid. During the bonn
bardment of Barcelona in 1912 he devoted
himself to the protection of French life
and property, besides affording an asy-
lum to Spaniards and others aboard Of
French ships. His fame rests chiefly on
his scheme to pierce the isthmus of Suez
by means of a canal, and in success
fully carrying it out. The scheme was con-
ceived in 1854, and in January 1856, he re-
ceived letter from the viceroy of Egg
ypt granting the requisite concessions.
Robert Stephenson and other eminent
English engineers questioned the prac-
ticabilitX of the canal scheme but with
energy Leseps overcame their objections
and finally demonstrated that his ideas
were correct. The works were begun
soon after the company was formed, in
1853. Large sums were expended and the
pacha of Egypt was induced to take
large number Of shares in the undertake
ing, besides permitting NJ. de Lesseps to
employ native laborers. British inter-
ests at first favored the canal scheme,
but later, when John Bull found he could
not control the enterprise he affected to
look upon the whole scheme as a political
enterprise, and the canal got no help from
the British government. The ruling pacha
of Egypt died in 1868, and with his sue
cessor de Lesseps had considerable trouble
Terms were finally agreed upon, however
and on Aug. Is. 1865, a canal with suf-
ficient water to admit of the passage of
steamboats, was opened. But the canal
lankn0 u111ch Of hafno Hpfehad
dredging for two years opened a passage
for small ships, and two years more of
digging brought the Mediterranean and
the Red sea together. The opening of the
completed canal was formally celebrated
with grand fetes at Suez on Nov II, 1869
These fetes were attended by the ruling
monarchs of Europe and by representa-
tives from our own government. A few
days after the Inauguration of the canal
NJ. de Lesseps married Mile. Autard de
Brapard, young creole of English ex-
traction. Distinction and decorations fell
fast upon de Lesseps after the completion
of his Suez canal scheme. He was given
the grand cross of the Legion of Honor
by his government, was elected a free
member of the Academy of Sciences in
Paris, was elected president of the French
Geographical Society, was knighted by
Queen Victoria and received decorations
from the Italian government During the
Egyptian expedition of 1882 NJ. de Lesseps
violently opposed the policy pursued by
Great Britain, and regarded Arab Paeha
as noble patriot. In 1888 he entered into
a preliminary arrangement with the Brit
ish government for the cutting of a sec
ond Suez canal, but as the scheme failed
Of the sanction of parliament it fell
through. He then turned his attention
to the cutting of canal across the 18TH
mus of Panama, the outcome of which
was the loss of a great part of his own
fortune and more that 600O00,00O francs
put into the scheme by the French peo-
pie. In Panama de Lesseps found great
mountains to be pierced. Such difficulties
he had not known in Suez; and his esti-
mates of the cost of the Panama canal
were overreached. The company formed
for the purpose of building this canal
went into liquidation-the scheme was n
failure. In settling up the companys
affairs the great Panama scandal was
brought to light. 1t was shown that there
had been frauds and bribery upon a gi-
gantic scale almost from the beginning
of the work. So rotten was the whole
scheme, and so far reaching was the cor
ruption, that the whole of France was
shaken by the disclosures, and the very
stability of the government was threat
ened. Men in high official places were
shown to have been guilty of gross frauds,
and many of the leading journals of
Paris were proved guilty of having black
mailed the company. Not even de Lesseps
escaped unsmirched from the scandal He
and his son, along with a number of
other prominent men, were sent to prison.
NJ. de Lesseps, then an old man, was pros
trated. He partly lost his reason. and
for a long while his life was despaired of.
After time the government did what it
could to remove the blot from his name
But the old man never recovered the
activity of either mind or body.