The French Government has decided that the Procureur- General shall
prosecute the directors of the Panama Canal Company for misuse of the funds entrusted to them, the sub- stantial charge being, in fact, one of waste. Certain con- tractors, both for machinery and for carriage, have, it is alleged, been unduly favoured, and there has been an expendi- ture of more than two millions sterling for "advertisement, 8m.," which appears to justify strict inquiry. As the elections are approaching, the Government felt compelled to take this step, the shareholders having never forgiven their loss of more than fifty millions sterling, for which they have nothing substantial to show. The prosecution includes M. Ferdinand de Lesseps, founder of the Suez Canal ; and the correspondent of the Times declares that, owing to this fact, the prosecution is un- popular with the better classes, who think that the credit of France is bound up with that of her most successful citizen. That is bad reasoning, surely. M. de Lesseps, having succeeded in one grand undertaking, was bound to be doubly careful, lest his great name should be used to cover either a doubtful speculation or extravagant mismanagement. Nobody accuses M. de Lesseps of stealing. The charge against him, whether true or false, is that, being trustee for subscribers of £70,000,000, he let £50,000,000 slip carelessly through his fingers without taking the precautions or using the watchfulness made obli- gatory by his fiduciary position. To say that he was incapaci- tated by extreme age, is only to say that he ought not to have accepted the position.
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