belongs alike to him. With the general plan, progress, and purpose of
the Canal, the American reader has, during the past few months, been
made tolerably familiar.

He is the son of Jean Baptiste Barthelemi, Baron de Lesseps, who was
born at Cette, a French port on the Mediterranean, in 1765. Jean
Baptiste was for five years French Vice-Consul at St. Petersburg. In
1785 he accompanied La Perouse on a voyage to Kamtchatka, whence he
brought by land the papers containing a description of the expedition.
In 1788 he was Consul at Kronstadt and St. Petersburg. From St.
Petersburg he was called, in 1812, by the Emperor Napoleon, to Moscow,
as _intendant_. From the latter city, in 1814, he proceeded to Lisbon,
and was stationed there as Consul until 1823. He died at Paris, May 6,
1834.

Ferdinand, the subject of this sketch, was born at Versailles in 1805,
and is consequently in his sixty-fourth year, though his appearance is
that of a man little past the meridian of life. Early in life he evinced
peculiar aptitude for the diplomatic career in which he has since
distinguished himself--a career as varied and romantic as it is
brilliant. In 1825 he was appointed _attache_ to the French Consulate at
Lisbon. Two years later found him engaged in the Commercial Department
of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. During the latter part of 1828
he was _attache_ to the Consul-General at Tunis; and in 1831 he was
dispatched by his Government as Consul to Alexandria. Hard work and
rapid promotion for _le jeune diplomat!_ But the most eventful period of
his long and wonderfully active career lay yet before him.

Seven years subsequent to his appointment at Alexandria, and
consequently when he was in his thirty-fifth year, he was sent as