A Tour Through South America

by A. S. Forrest

The originator of the lottery idea received three million francs, chiefly because he was a big speculator on the Bourse and his hostility would have been mischievous. The necessary amount of subscriptions for the lottery bonds not being forthcoming, the company suspended payment on 14 December, 1888.

Although not unexpected, the news caused a severe shock in Paris, and the whole situation became so serious that a meeting of the French Cabinet was held to consider the best course to be adopted. In order to gain time and to prevent wild speculation it was proposed to permit the company to suspend for three months only, and a Bill for this purpose was introduced, but was rejected by 256 votes to 181.

M. de Lesseps immediately resigned and proposed liquidation. The excitement in Paris was intense, and strangely enough, in spite of the fact that millions of pounds had been lost and thousands of shareholders ruined, the anger of the crowds vented itself, not on De Lesseps, but on the Government of the day. The Boulangists seized upon the opportunity to attempt a political revolution, and the cheers of the populace were divided between De Lesseps and Boulanger.

At a great meeting of shareholders which was held it was agreed to forego the payments of coupons and annuities until the opening of the canal and the raising of more capital. A resolution professing continued confidence in the veteran De Lesseps was also passed.

But the attempt to form a new company for the completion of the canal failed, owing to the lack of subscriptions, and the Panama Canal Company went into liquidation, the work being gradually suspended.

The Panama Canal Bill, to promote the continuance of the work, was now passed by both chambers, and a Commission of Inquiry was appointed.

The Commission, which visited the isthmus with De Lesseps in 1880, had estimated that the canal could be completed at a cost of 843 millions of francs, whilst up to the time of the suspension of the company no less a sum than 1329 millions of francs was expended. The report of the Commission of Inquiry, when issued, stated that a further sum of 900 millions of francs would be required to complete the canal.

Meanwhile a great fire occurred at Colon, in which the railway buildings and a large part of the town were destroyed, and although an arrangement was come to with the Colombian Government for an extension by ten years of the time in which the canal might be completed, the scheme totally collapsed and a legal investigation was proposed.

In consequence of the official liquidator’s report and the painful disclosures which took place at the sittings of the Committee of Inquiry, a prosecution was commenced against M. Ferdinand de Lesseps, his son Charles de Lesseps and other directors, for bribery and corruption. After a trial lasting nearly a month, during which the speech of the counsel for the defence occupied four whole days, M. de Lesseps and his son were sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, whilst the other directors were fined and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. The news of the sentence caused a great sensation, many thinking it savoured of harshness. Ferdinand de Lesseps was lying ill at his country house during the whole of the trial, and although the news of the verdict was telegraphed to Madame de Lesseps, it was carefully kept from the aged invalid. Two days afterwards Charles de Lesseps paid a visit to his father and had a most affecting interview with him. On his son’s departure the old man relapsed into a condition of unconscious stupor. He never regained vigour or recovered from the shock which the failure of his plans and the scandals attached to that failure occasioned. Great care had to be taken lest news from the outside world of the second trial of his son and his colleagues (resulting in fines and imprisonment) should reach the enfeebled intellect and shattered frame and snap life’s thread; and it is said that the papers of the previous years recounting the progress of the work on the isthmus were read to him as if of current issue. Through two years of careful nursing and watching his life was prolonged till on 7 December, 1894, in his ninetieth year, there passed away one who, in spite of the clouds that overshadowed the close of his career, remains one of the most illustrious of Frenchmen. He was neither an engineer nor a financier, but had such magnetic personality and persuasive eloquence as enabled him to enlist the co-operation of practical men whom he inspired with his own enthusiasm, and his reputation outlives the jealousy and intrigue that brought about his ruin, for his name is indelibly inscribed on the roll of fame.

The Official Receiver appointed to administer the affairs of the Panama Canal Company was faced with a grave responsibility. It was his paramount duty to safeguard, as far as possible, the interests of the shareholders by saving from the wreck anything that might remain of their investment. The principal asset, however, was the work already accomplished at so great a cost, and the value of this was necessarily contingent on the completion of the enterprise. On the other hand the experience of the company, with regard to health and labour difficulties, the ever-varying estimates as to cost and time for completion, the continual alterations as to the detail of the work, and the particular level at which it was best to construct the canal; and