A CONVERSATION WITH M. DE LESSEPS.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2169, 7 February 1881, Page 3

A CONVERSATION WITH M. DE LESSEPS.

A correspondent of the “Pall Mall Q-azette” writing from Paris on December 6th says : Before this is published in London Panama Canal scrip will already have been launched on the Bourse. The sayings of the French nation show a tendency to pour into this last enterprise of M. de Lesseps. Prance likes to take the lead in great international undertakings, and splendid profits are being held out to investors, who believe they will be realised because the Suez Oanal scheme has brought wealth to all those who had faith in it. M. de Lesseps, with whom I have had a long conversation, assures me that his wellwishers are nowhere more numerous than in the United States, and that American capital flows freely into the hands of the Panama Company. All misunderstanding has_ been removed. M. de Lesseps, who was in the French consular service in Mexico, when the Monroe doctrine was first propounded, was able to clear away the haze by which it has since been surrounded. He does not desire anything more than the neutralisation in fact and theory of the Panama Oanal, which he wishes to make for the whole world, and with funds raised by universal subscription. M. de Lesseps gave me a short sketch of his life. He was led to do so by a question which I put, namely, how it came to pass that the empire tumbled with such a crash when a man of his (De Lesseps’) energy, ability, and lucid mind was so near the throne. He replied that although a cousin of the Empress, and much favored by her in the Suez enterprise, he was in reality very far from the throne. The Empress was the Isabella the Catholic of the Suez scheme. But for the Spanish ardour with which she sustained it, the Isthmus would still divide the Red from the Mediterranean Sea. Your head, she said (speaking of course in a figure) to Comte Walewski, depends on the skill you show in helping my cousin to cut his canal. M. de Lesseps, to show on what small circumstances great events hinge, went into some details of his family history, and that of the Empress Eugenie. His father, who was descended from the architect of the Cathedral of Edinburgh, was sent with Lucien Bonaparte to Madrid, because he had been brought up at Bayonne, and could talk Spanish as well as French. Lucien was the first Ambassador named to the Court of Charles IY. by Napoleon. His mission was to obtain the retrocession of Louisiana, which Louis XY, had allowed to slip from his hands, and to make friends of the notables in the southern ports of Spain. M. de Lesseps the elder went about always with him, and was the soul of his diplomacy. The Now Orleans affair brought him into relations with the United States consuls, the most intelligent of whom was Mr Kirkpatrick, who was in business at Malaga. M. de Lesseps proceeded to that town, and, assisted by Kirkpatrick, who, like himself, was of Scotch origin—but less remotely—studied the resources of Andalusia and the political condition of the south of Spain. They were drawn closer together by a romantic affair which sprang up, A notable of the province, Scnor Q-revigny, had two very pretty daughters, with one of whom _ the consul fell in love. The French diplomat became enamoured of the youngest, and as Lucien Bonaparte was in high favor at the Court of Madrid her father allowed her to marry M. de Lesseps, with whom she meant to reside in Paris, where, in 1804, she gave birth to Ferdinand. Her eldest sister became Mrs Kirkpatrick, and the mother of the Oomtesso do Montijo, who was drawn by her De Lesseps kindred to winter in Paris when her daughters had grown up. “Thus you see,” observed M. de Lesseps, “ what a number of great events have in Venchainement del chases depended upon my father’s early knowledge of the Spanish tongue.” Another “ hinge which led to the execution the Suez Canal iohema was the elder Lesseps

[ having divined in a poor and unlettered Turkish officer, Mehemet Ali, a vast genius and the man who was to break down the power of the Mamelukes. The French diplomat reported in tlis sense to ms Government, and was instructed to be guided by his own judgment in bringing the officer forward. M. de Lessops invited the Turk to his house, and showed himself in various ways his friend. But suddenly the officer withdrew from his company and kept out of his way. When Mehemet was a great man he said to M. Ferdinand de Lesseps, “ Your father must have been puzzled to think what my reason was for keeping aloof from him after I had accepted so much kindness from him. It was this. A silver knife and fork, I heard the servants say, had been stolen from his table at a dinner to which I went. I was so poor that I fancied I would pass in his eyes for being the thief, and never dared after to return.” Soon after Mehemet had related this anecdote he asked M. Ferdinand de Lesseps to allow Frinoe Said, bis son, to pass his afternoons at the French Consulate, in order that he might pick up the French that was spoken there. _ The boy grew fondly attached to the intelligent and very kind-hearted diplomat. When he was Viceroy and the Suez concession was asked for, he gave M. de Lesseps a carte blanche. M, Ferdinand de Lesseps entered the consular service as soon as he quitted the Lycee Henri IV. He was sent to Central America when Humboldt was airing a scheme for an inter-oceanic canal at Panama and the Spanish States were struggling for independence. Successively he was transferred to Lisbon, Tangiers, and Tunis, and witnessed the taking of Algiers by French troops. Alexandria was his next consular station, and there he distinguished himself by his courage when the plague was raging. How the Suez Canel came to be realized and against what obstacles the world well knows. M. de Lesseps quite pardons Lord Palmerston and Downing street all the annoyance they caused him, and he laughs heartily when he relates how “ Pam ” believed that the corps of navvies recruited in France for the Suez works were disguised Zouaves, cunningly sent by Louis Napoleon to get hold of the overland route. M. de Lesseps takes a kindly view of the world. Humanity in the lump he thinks excellent. A crowd is always taken by an heroic action or a fine sentiment backed by a strong conviction. A high-hearted man can do what he pleases with a multitude.