On the 15th December the Chamber of Deputies, acting upon the Report of the Committee appointed to consider the Bill, resolved by 256 votes against 81 to throw out the Bill. This decision created intense excitement, not only in Paris, but throughout France—aye, and throughout Europe. The shareholders in the company, 870,000 in number, were threatened with disaster, many of them with ruin. The newspapers contained reports of the condition of panic that prevailed in the capital, which recalled the similar episodes of the South Sea Bubble and Law’s Mississippi Scheme. The canal company’s offices in Paris were besieged by eager and demonstrative crowds. They did not, however, vent their anger and disappointment on M. de Lesseps. It was the Government that was condemned. Lesseps was still the favourite of the people. “Vive Lesseps” and “Vive Boulanger” were the cries of the hour. There were not a few who regarded the occasion as one that justified the country in getting rid of so pusillanimous a Chamber. The opportunity of the Boulangists appeared to be at hand.[186] The greatest but one of European Powers seemed likely to be drawn into the vortex of revolution by the obscure problem of the cost of constructing a waterway in a territory over which it had no control, at thousands of leagues from its shores. The mutability of human affairs had surely never a more striking illustration! According to a statement which appeared in the _Standard_ of the 17th December, 1888, a _Figaro_ reporter called on M. de Lesseps, and was received by him in a drawing-room, where seven of his younger children were having a romp with their mother. The following is a description of the scene that took place:— “You know the vote of the Chamber?” “No,” he replied very calmly, stretching out his hand. “The Government Bill is rejected; your application is defeated; the majority against you is nearly a hundred.” M. de Lesseps suddenly became very pale, but remained silent. His hand, quite cold, let mine go. He carried his handkerchief to his lips, as if to stifle a cry. Then, resuming all his calmness, and drawing himself up to his full height, he murmured, “It is impossible.” “It is infamous,” exclaimed Madame de Lesseps.