The English in particular strenuously opposed his scheme; he had only to put in an appearance in England to rally all suffrages.
In later years, when he passed Southampton, the bells were rung on his passage; and at the present day a movement is on foot in England to raise a statue in his honour.
"Having vanquished whatever there is to vanquish, men and things, marshes, rocks, and sandy wastes," he had ceased to believe in obstacles, and wished to begin Suez over again at Panama.He began again with the same methods as of old; but he had aged, and, besides, the faith that moves mountains does not move them if they are too lofty.The mountains resisted, and the catastrophe that ensued destroyed the glittering aureole of glory that enveloped the hero.His life teaches how prestige can grow and how it can vanish.After rivalling in greatness the most famous heroes of history, he was lowered by the magistrates of his country to the ranks of the vilest criminals.When he died his coffin, unattended, traversed an indifferent crowd.Foreign sovereigns are alone in rendering homage to his memory as to that of one of the greatest men that history has known.[20]
[20] An Austrian paper, the Neue Freie Presse, of Vienna, has indulged on the subject of the destiny of de Lesseps in reflections marked by a most judicious psychological insight.Itherefore reproduce them here:--
"After the condemnation of Ferdinand de Lesseps one has no longer the right to be astonished at the sad end of Christopher Columbus.If Ferdinand de Lesseps were a rogue every noble illusion is a crime.Antiquity would have crowned the memory of de Lesseps with an aureole of glory, and would have made him drink from the bowl of nectar in the midst of Olympus, for he has altered the face of the earth and accomplished works which make the creation more perfect.The President of the Court of Appeal has immortalised himself by condemning Ferdinand de Lesseps, for the nations will always demand the name of the man who was not afraid to debase his century by investing with the convict's cap an aged man, whose life redounded to the glory of his contemporaries.
"Let there be no more talk in the future of inflexible justice, there where reigns a bureaucratic hatred of audacious feats.The nations have need of audacious men who believe in themselves and overcome every obstacle without concern for their personal safety.Genius cannot be prudent; by dint of prudence it could never enlarge the sphere of human activity.