Napoleon III. and the Nicaraguan Canal

Abstract

AT p. 249 of NATURE, vol. xx. it is made to appear as if the circumstance of the connection of the late Emperor of the French with the scheme of Central American canalisation through Nicaragua, was quite unknown to the public. But it is well known that Prince Louis N. Bonaparte, whilst at Ham, was in communication with Don Francisco Castillon, envoy to Louis Phillippe from the Nicaraguan Government upon this subject. After the escape of Louis Napoleon from France, he publicly advocated the project of the Nicaraguan Canal at the Institution of Civil Engineers, London. (Vide Proceedings I. C. E., 1847, vol. vi. p. 427; vide “The Gate of the Pacific,” by Commander Bedford Pim, pp. 118, et seq.)