The Panama scare in Paris is not over yet. The
lottery loan was reopened on Monday, and the most desperate efforts were made to ensure success, M. de Lesseps even weeping for joy before his subscribers, because four hundred thousand of the bonds had been subscribed. They had not been subscribed, of course, because the issue price of each bond was £4 above the price at which they could be purchased in the market ; but a hundred and twenty-five thousand bonds were taken. These were probably subscribed by banks interested in the Canal, their managers remembering that if the four hundred thousand were not sold, they would all be can- celled. M. Charles de Lesseps on Thursday announced the failure, defending his father as " too young in hearts" and
intimating that reliance could now be placed only upon the State. It is rumoured that the Government will to-day place a Bill upon the table allowing a new Company to issue debentures for £30,000,000, with a preferential claim to 5 per cent. from the income of the Canal when completed. The Bill will also suspend the payment of all interest till the com- pletion of the work, the coupons remaining due, but uncut, for that period. That strikes us as very poor finance, for it makes the State responsible, yet does not guarantee com- pletion, and does not prevent the discontent which an indefinite suspension of interest will cause among the shareholders, who are immensely numerous and very poor. They were promised interest during the progress of the works. Anything, how- ever, will be done rather than that a financial crash should come before the General Election.
