Some signs of a possible financial panic are apparent in
Paris. The Panama Lottery Loan has failed, the advantages offered to subscribers not being sufficient, and lotteries not attracting the cool-headed peasantry. There has been a severe fall in the value of the shares, and it is believed that banks which have advanced money on them are pressing for repayments. M. de Lesseps, however, is not dead, as was reported ; his energy- is inexhaustible, though he is eighty-three, and he may compel the Government to give him further aid, say.by a guarantee limited to five years. The reluctance will be great, as the scientific departments doubt the success of the Canal if con- structed with locks ; but the reluctance to permit a crash which will embitter half-a-million of voters may be greater still. The absence of confidence shown by investors is a new incident in M. de Lesseps's later career; but the truth is, he is suffering for his own ascendency. The French investor believes in M. de Lesseps personally, and him only, and his great age begins to tell against all investments in his undertakings. His death, it is clear, would produce a most alarming panic, which might affect all the greater Exchanges of Europe.
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