THE PANAMA CANAL SCHEME.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3593, 2 July 1880, Page 2

THE PANAMA CANAL SCHEME.

The most wonderful fact about the verdint and übiquitous M. de Lesseps is his age; at 75 years he commences to illustrate the theory of Flourens, that man ig then only arrived at the.threshold of youth. What a fund of,energetic earnestness, dogged resolution, and belief in his work, the venerable and plucky engineer possesses! To set at rest the legends respecting the climate, the physical difficulties and the political rivalries connected with the cutting of the Darien capal, he visit i and surveyed the proposd route, and told the story of his travels to a crowd of deservedly edmiring friends on last Saturday evening at the Sorbonne. Nearly 2,500 persons were packed like sardines, and more than that number could not find admission. Indeed the lecturer bad to forego his table and chair, and deliver his address from amidst the crowd on the platform. The causerie was illustrated by dissolving views, each furnishing a text, a joke, or a n<cy anecdofe, interspersfd with impromptu sallies of wit.. To demonstrate the healthiness of the climate, M. de Lesseps brought out his wife and young family to share-the pseudo dangers ; they all returned in the most perfect health, and, like himself, stouter ; more, he introduced them to tho audience. His pretty little daughter, Ferdinande, aged five, commenced the canal, by firing tue first mine. The climate was favorable to births, as the average number of iufants'per family was from li to 15. Grandmothers wore still juvenile, though countiog progenies of 52 children. The climate, too, was.favorable to,matrimony,- as one. of liis'eugihcers was married during the trip, and- the 'bride, a most beautiful brun, was introduced. Theßishop of Panama was ihe leader of the. party of independence and liberty. M. de Lesseps, as the result of his technical iavrsti.u[atiouß, concludes the task of cutting the caual is loss difficult than he supposed ; it consists in f'ollu'iving the*: railway track. The route proposed comprises two valleys divided b^-a^lYfil; audif,^ took three centuries to discover tHe simple path nature herself had • prepared.-'" He estimates that sis years will be sufficient to complete the work, aud legitimately boasts it will be accomplished for the glory of F-ance, and the. benefit of the vrorld. He claims to have a legal concessioa from tlie free and independent States of Columbia, as aa engineer to cut' a canal, and he wilt do so, with or without Uncle Sam, bat the '.latter hti now believes is not opposed to the. project. The impression in financial circles is, that De Lesseps w'.U obtain all the money he requires.—From our Paris Latter.