Lesseps, FERDINAND, VICOMTE DE

Lesseps, FERDINAND, VICOMTE DE, engineer, was born at Versailles, November 19, 1805. Educated for the diplomatic profession, he filled successive appointments at Lisbon, Cairo, Barcelona, and Madrid. In 1854 he conceived his great scheme for cutting the Suez Canal, and in January 1856 he received a letter of concession from the Viceroy of Egypt. Robert Stephenson and other English engineers questioned the practicability of the scheme, but De Lesseps overcame all obstacles. A company was formed, and the works were begun in 1860. The great undertaking was completed (see CANAL, and SUEZ) in August 1869, the canal being formally opened on 17th November following. The successful engineer was created K.C.S.I. by Queen Victoria, and received the honorary freedom of the city of London in 1870. The Paris Société de Géographie awarded him 10,000 francs; he was appointed a Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour; and after the publication of his History of the Canal he was awarded 5000 francs by the French Academy. In 1873 the Paris Academy of Sciences elected him a free member, and in 1881 he was elected president of the French Geographical Society. In 1883 he sought to conclude an arrangement with the British government for a second Seuz Canal. Meanwhile, work had begun on his stupendous scheme for a Panama Canal (see CANAL, and PANAMA), a scheme destined to issue in disaster and disgrace. For in 1892-93 the management was charged with breach of trust, and five directors were condemned—Lesseps, now a broken old man, to five years' imprisonment and a fine, as was also his son Charles. The sentence was ultimately quashed; but he fell into dotage, and died 7th December 1894. He wrote Documents pour servir à l'Histoire du Canal de Suez (4 vols. 1875-79; trans. 1876), and Souvenirs de Quarante Ans (1887; trans. 1887). See books by Ferrier (1887), G. B. Smith (2d. ed. 1895), Bridier (1899).