Читать книгу The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism (Vol. 1-4). The History of Sea Voyages, Discovery, Piracy and Maritime Warfare онлайн

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M. LESSEPS.

This gigantic work, so successfully completed by M. Lesseps, for ever solved the possibility of a work which up to that time had been so emphatically declared to be an impossibility. In effect, he is a conqueror. “Impossible,” said the first Napoleon, “n’est pas Français,” and the motto is a good one for any man or any nation, although the author of the sentence found many things impossible, including that of which we speak. M. de Lesseps has done more for peace than ever the Disturber of Europe did with war.

When M. de Lesseps88 commenced with, not the Canal, but the grand conception thereof, he had pursued twenty-nine years of first-class diplomatic service: it would have been an honourable career for most people. He gave it up from punctilios of honour; lost, at least possibly, the opportunity of great political power. He was required to endorse that which he could not possibly endorse. Lesseps had lost his chance, said many. Let us see. The man who has conquered the usually unconquerable English prejudice would certainly surmount most troubles! He has only carried out the ideas of Sesostris, Alexander, Cæsar, Amrou, the Arabian conqueror, Napoleon the Great, and Mehemet Ali. These are simply matters of history. But history, in this case, has only repeated itself in the failures, not in the successes. Lesseps has made the success; they were the failures! Let us review history, amid which you may possibly find many truths. The truth alone, as far as it may be reached, appears in this work. The Peace Society ought to endorse Lesseps. As it stands, the Peace party—well-intentioned people—ought to raise a statue to the man who has made it almost impossible for England to be involved in war, so far as the great East is concerned, for many a century to come.