Ferdinand de Lesseps

“ We encounter here one of the old distrusts of that worn-out theory, that miserable tissue of mistakes that took upon itself to teach, that a people is only rich and flourishing in proportion as its neighbours are indigent and unfortunate. ”

“ It is clear that, so long as the route to India is open and certain, that the state of the country ensures the facility and promptitude of the communications, England will not set about creating the most grave difficulties by appropriating a territory which, in her eyes, has no other value than as a means of transit. ”

“ I have already remarked with satisfaction that, in general, men of intelligence with whom I have had the honour of conversing on the subject, do not admit that an event which would advance the interests of the whole world, could possibly do injury to the power or commerce of England. ”

“ Everything that results in contributing to the extension of the commerce, of the industry, and of the navigation of the world, is especially advantageous to England, a power which stands foremost amongst all others from the importance of its navy, from the productions of its manufactories, and from its commercial relations. ”

“ A deplorable prejudice, based upon the political antagonism which so long and so unhappily existed between France and England, has alone accredited the opinion that the opening of the canal of Suez, so useful for the interests of civilization and of the common weal, could damage those of England. ”

“ The future alone can show what truth there is in this assumption; we cannot at all conceive the opposition of the Government of a great nation to a project to which the English have especially, in these latter times, drawn the attention of the commercial world and their own Government on account of the special advantages which it offers to England. ”

“ The work of cutting through the Isthmus of Suez is certainly destined, more than any other, to contribute to the preservation of the Ottoman Empire, and to demonstrate to those who have been wont to proclaim its decay and ruin, that it still has a productive existence, and that it is capable of adding a brilliant page to the history of the world’s civilization. ”

“ Now is it not evident that the opening of the Maritime Canal will greatly facilitate commercial relations, and tend to lower the price of all merchandize? the 500,000,000 of human beings peopling India and China are still sunk in ignorance and superstition. With steam navigation, which will be developed beyond all conception by the opening of the Canal, these people, brought into daily communication with European ideas, will enter by degrees into the current of science and civilization. ”

“ England, as well as France, and even more so, must wish to see a cutting through that strip of land of thirty leagues, which no one who pays attention to the subject of civilization and progress can behold upon the map, without feeling the most ardent wish for the disappearance of that only obstacle that Providence has left in the highway of the world’s traffic.
The railway, by itself, is not sufficient; it will never acquire any substantial importance, and will only be assured of its revenues when it has become the auxiliary of the maritime Canal of Suez. ”

“ A project, therefore, which, by severing two continents, proposes to change the whole course of commerce and communication between the eastern and western worlds, and approximate by many thousand miles the knowledge and industry of the west to the ignorance and barbarism of the east, presents considerations of a nature to excite the imagination, and to awaken some of our best feelings in its favour. ”

“ Let us bring the populations of Polynesia, of Australia and China, of the Indies and of Africa, nearer to Europe; let us make them participators in the blessings of civilization.
To accomplish this great undertaking, we appeal to all religious and intelligent men, for it is worthy of their sympathy and co-operation.
We invoke the support of all statesmen, because in the establishment of new and easy means of communication between the two hemispheres all nations are interested. ”

“ The results already obtained from the intimate alliance of France and England, testify sufficiently to the advantages that the European balance and civilization in general derive from that union of the two peoples. The future and the welfare of all the nations of the universe are therefore concerned in maintaining intact, in preserving from any attack, a state of things, which, to the everlasting honour of the Governments that have brought it about, can alone, with time, ensure the blessings of progress and of peace to the human race. ”

“ If Trieste participates largely, as is to be hoped, in the advantages of the Isthmus Company, if her neighbour of the Adriatic finds therein a new life, Great Britain will lose nothing thereby. Has it ever been seen that a capital city, brought into communication with a great market by a railroad, has had to regret the shortening of the distance and the amelioration of its own relations, because some secondary towns on the line were nearer to the market and participated in the common benefit? ”

“ Objections, however, which to my mind, I am proud to acknowledge, do honour to the candour of English politicians, have been made, in perfectly good faith, and without any feeling of distrust towards a friendly nation, the alliance with which, cemented by the blood of their brave armies, has been recently sanctioned by the unanimous demonstration of the English people, as it will shortly be by the people of France. ”

“ The power in possession of Aden opens and shuts at its will the Red Sea, and if it is true that the influence of nations and governments chiefly depends on the good they can do to their friends and the harm they can do to their enemies, that revolution would be of no slight advantage to England which would lead the principal current of the world’s commerce under the guns of her ships and the batteries of her fortresses. Besides, is it from the naval armaments of the Mediterranean that England [19] has most reason to fear an invasion of India? ”

“ Looking at the situation of affairs in a general way, it is scarcely to be perceived upon what ground and upon what occasion, those struggles, which so long desolated the world, could be renewed. Is it financial and commercial interests that could cause division between the two peoples? Why, British capital thrown into all the undertakings of France, and the immense developement of international commerce, have established ties between them which become closer every day. ”

“ But is the objection very serious at the present time? can the obstacle, which occasions this anxiety, resist the constructive means which are at the disposal of our engineers? We think not. To create a port without the assistance of nature; to put a restraint upon the sea; to reduce it to subjection; to impose upon it an artificial roadstead; and to maintain that roadstead, in spite of the natural causes operating to destroy it: is a problem which has ceased to terrify modern art.
“Let us take the port of Pelusium,—see how easily the difficulty would be removed! ”

“ The tongues of sand which separate the lake of Thau from the gulf of the Lion, the tongue of earth upon which Alexandria is built, those which separate the lakes Bourlos and Menzaleh from the Mediterranean, are bars of sand formed by the ground swell. The sand bank which separates from the Red Sea the vast basin of the Bitter Lakes, was, without any doubt, a ford elevated by the ground swell, which, in tempestuous weather, ascends this sea with the current of the tides charged with sand. ”

“ In his affection, his filial devotion to his father, Charles de Lesseps was a hero, and even his worst detractors have bowed down before the courage with which he exposed himself to every reproach, and accepted every blame, in order to spare the old man who remained sitting in his arm-chair beside the fire, thinking of the successes of the past, and ignorant of the tragedy of the present. ”

“ The prosperity of the East is intimately connected at the present day with the interests of civilization in general, and the most effectual means of working its welfare, in connection with that of humanity, is to break down the barriers that still separate individuals, races, and nations.
War and commerce have civilized the world. [31] War will have played out its part with that last effort which is being made under our eyes. The victories hereafter to be gained will be those of commerce only. Let us exert ourselves to open up for her a new route. ”

“ If the minimum distances which separate the ports of Europe from those of India, on the one part by the Cape of Good Hope, and on the other by the Canal of the two Seas, be compared with each other, enormous differences in favour of the latter route will be made manifest. These differences become still greater, when it is recollected that, in navigation, a straight line is far from being the shortest way from one point to another, and that navigators only reach their destination by successively following a certain number of courses, which form greater or lesser angles with each other. ”

“ We give here three photographs of Count de Lesseps and his family. The first shows the "Grand Français," with seven children; the next, Count and Countess de Lesseps, with nine children; and the third, the two parents and their whole family.
After the success of Suez, he was appointed by Napoleon III. to the rank of Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, and was created by Her Majesty Queen Victoria an Honorary Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India, and in July, 1870, the freedom of the City of London was presented to him. ”

“ Nor is it surprising that in his own country M. de Lesseps should be loved and venerated. Always delighting in acts of kindness, his generosity towards his poor neighbors throughout the district has been constant and large-handed. Never a marriage takes place in any of the surrounding villages but that a handsome present from La Chesnaye is thrown into the bride’s corbeille. The children are dressed for confirmation at the expense of the chateau; layettes are found for poor mothers, and no case of distress is allowed to pass unrelieved. ”

“ Woolridge. "I think he was a great man, and I was exceedingly sorry for his misfortunes."
"He will never receive the honor he deserves on our side of the Atlantic, I fear," added Captain Ringgold. "After rich and powerful potentates had rejected the scheme, Lesseps still cherished it. Over sixty years ago, when he was an employe in the office of the French consul at Tunis, he was sent to Alexandria on business. Here he was subjected to a residence of some time in quarantine. He was supplied with books by the French consul there, and among them was Lapère's Mémoire. ”

“ On the other side a capable and influential minority regarded de Lesseps as an enthusiast, a man of high character and noble conceptions, quite devoid of the power of strict analysis of any matter presented to him, and destitute of common sense. His financial methods and commercial obliquities were due to his overweening confidence in his own judgment and faith in his good fortune to pull him through against all probabilities. The one great success he had achieved rendered him a man not to be argued with or considered on the plane of ordinary mortals. ”

“ The battle of Abou Klea took place on January 19, and on February 5 there arrived the news of the fall of Khartoum and death of Gordon. The French were not wanting in appreciation of the gallantry shown by the British troops, but were prodigal of gloomy forebodings with regard to the future prospects of the expeditions. Prominent amongst these prophets of evil were Lesseps and Jules Ferry. Lesseps (on the strength of having once been on a tour in the Soudan with the ex-Khedive) considered that an attempt to advance would be madness, and that the army was in great danger of being surrounded. ”

“ A woman of the country one day came before him, complaining of a soldier who had bought milk of her, and had refused to pay for it. “Art thou sure of it?” asked the tyrant. “Take care! they shall tear open thy stomach if no milk is found in that of the soldier.” They opened the stomach of the soldier. Milk was found in it. The poor woman was saved. But, although his successor was not everything that could be wished, he had a good heart, and was not “the terrible Turk.”
In 1854, Lesseps met Saïd Pacha in his tent on a plain between Alexandria and Lake Mareotis, a swamp in the desert. ”

“ His superiority over his countrymen was calculated to make him be distinguished; but this circumstance has less weight than the vivacity of his temper and the mildness of his disposition. He lodges and eats at the house of major Orleankoff. The freedom with which he enters the house of the governor and other persons, would among us be thought insolent, or at least rude. He immediately fixes himself as much at his ease as possible, and takes the first chair that offers; he asks for whatever he wants, or helps himself, if it be within his reach. He smokes almost incessantly ”

“ He was followed by many of the principal officers of the town, who came one after another in the most obliging manner to offer me their [204] services. I expressed a becoming sense of their civilities, but was mortified at their having taken me by surprise. As soon as I was dressed, I hastened to return my thanks to each of them separately. I began with major Orleankoff, whom I found busily preparing for an entertainment that he was to give the next day, upon the marriage of a Pole in the Russian service, with the niece of the protapope, or chief priest. ”

“ Outside the church was standing a char-à-banc drawn by two horses, and it was in this that, after service, I returned to La Chesnaye with the children and the governesses. It was interesting to see how devoted the people of Guilly seem to be to the De Lesseps family, and how the men and women bowed and courtesied as the countess came out of church. Here, as at Vatan and in all the district, the love and respect for “Monsieur le Comte” have been increased rather than diminished by the persecutions to which he has been subjected. ”