REMINISCENCES OF M. DE LESSEPS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2055, 8 September 1885, Page 4

REMINISCENCES OF M. DE LESSEPS.

In disti Uniting the pri/cs at the Lyci'-e Heniy IV. in I'niib on a recent occasion, M. de Li sseps, an old pupil of the >-ehool, deliveied a chatty "po'di, in which he ga\c some inteicting anecdotes from his own life and expeiii nee When lie w,is examined for his Bachelors degree, lie was one of four. The examiner, he told his >oung auditors, took down n map and asked him to show wheie the north, south, c.i.-t and west weie. Neither lie nor any of his connades kntw the cardinal points, for in those da\s geography w is not taught. Yet he was now I'iesident of the Geographical Society, and, theiufore, those hnjs who were low in their classes need not despair. An a student at the University, he was not an a«sidnous fitquentcr of the classes. He had a passion for nding, and it waa at the iiding school that he passed the time which should h.we been devoted to prcpat ing himself for a diplomatic cartel, upon which c.utei he had duly cnteied after l.a\iug kept the uquisite iniinhn of tei.ns at the .School ofLiw. In 1V2.~>, thiough the inlluence of Ins uncle, who was the only sm\i\or of the De la IViouse Expedition, he went as, .in Attache to Lisbon. Fiom Lisbon he letuined to I'aiis, spent a >eai at the Foiugn Oilice, and was s-ent to Tunis just before the Algerian Expedition, in which he took pjit. lie then saw at Toulon ,")00 sailing vessels employed to corn ey an army of 30,000, them bcinjj aKo one «teamct. What a clwinge had been witnessed since then '! And he had been somev* li it instrumental in bringing it about, for last year he had passed 0,000,000 tons thtougli the Suez Cannl by steam, and only ~~> tons by a single sailing vessel. hen he came on leave fiom Alexandria, the journey on boa id a man of- war, a good sailer, took 'ft days, and theie weie 40 days' ijuaiantiuc at Toulon. Here he would say something of (|iiaiautines, and the choleia. He had often \ iolated ([iiarantnurf. foi in former daj sit was impossible to submit to them. As to the choleia, the present teiroi was oxag'^eiated. The chief thing in travelling where theie weie epidemics was to be feailess. Conragewasagre.it pievcntne, and he had seldom known a courageous man to have choleia, or the plague. These diseases began with a derangement to the stomach, which spiang fiom wcakne&s of chaiaeter and will. He stayed seven jcais in Egypt, tnen was sent in tuin to Holland, Malaga, Barcelona and Mad i id ; and, lastly, as ambassndoi to Romp. Hcie he fell out with Ins Go\ eminent, and he theieupon resigned ; devotinp himself to studies on the Sue/. Canal <|iiestion-and they know that their old fi How-schoolboy had since then doiu some useful things for the woild.

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