Two years later, when he was about forty-five years of age, he was elected member of the Academy of Sciences by a unanimous vote. He was a man of great personal magnetism, and all those who came in contact with him learned to like him for his straightforward character and for the absolute righteousness of his life. Few men have made firmer friends than Coulomb, as few have ever shown more unselfish devotion to duty and to conscience than he, though under circumstances that were neither spectacular nor theatrical. It was harder to face the deadly climate of Martinique than it would have been to take one's place at the head of a forlorn hope in an outburst of enthusiastic courage; and Coulomb was to have other trials of quite as deterrent a nature, and was to meet them with the same imperturbed sense of duty. Graft is sometimes supposed to be temptation peculiar only to our own times, but the opportunities for it have always been present in such work as Coulomb had to oversee, and the army engineer of all ages has had to stand or fall before it. It was proposed, about this time, to build a system of government canals in Brittany. Such a canal-system would, as is easy to understand, cost an enormous sum of money and give magnificent opportunities for speculation of various kinds. No small objection had been made to the project, on the score that it would not confer all the benefits on the region that were claimed for it, and Coulomb was commissioned by the Minister of Marine to determine the question of the advisability of constructing the canals, and of the probable effect which they would have on the commerce of the country. After careful investigation, he came to the conclusion that the advantages which were expected to accrue from the project would not compensate for the enormous expense that would be entailed. This decision aroused the angry protest of a strong political faction, who expected to reap wealth and personal advantages of many kinds from the scheme, and who protested bitterly against Coulomb's report. He was able to support his conclusions in the matter, however, with such unanswerable mathematical and engineering arguments, that his opinion prevailed and the project was given up. As a consequence, instead of the opportunity to serve a political party with every avenue to preferment and, above all, to wealth open for him, he found himself, for the time being, deprived even of the opportunity to devote himself further to his favorite occupations in military engineering. The excuse given for this interruption in his career, for there has always been an excuse for such action, was that proper representations for permission to make the report had not been made to the Minister of Marine; and instead of commendation, Coulomb received what was practically a reprimand.