The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-03-01 00:00:00

countries will be likely to examine sharply the recent
little episode in Grand Oairo, when the reforming
Nubar Pasha was in danger of having his house
pulled down about his ears, and Mr, Rivers Wilson,
the Egyptian Minister of Finance supplied byEngland,
was threatened with personal violence. There are
some countries which, having arrived at a certain
stage of progress, seem utterly incapable of making
a single step farther in advance. Such a land is China,
where art and civilization flourished when David was
contending against Goliath with a sling and with a
stone; but which possesses scarcely a line of railway
to this day. Take again the case of Egypt. Thirty
centuries have paned over the heads of the children of
men since the construction of the Pyramids which to
this day cast their vast shadows over the land, and
seem built to defy the levelling influence of Time.
Egypt was the first country in the world to produce
anything like paper; it was the great civilizing agency
upon the continent of Africa. But few would be bold
enough to assert that it had fulfilled the promise of its
early youth, or rendered that assistance in the onward
advancement of the world which might reasonably have
been expected from it. Its climate is a splendid one, its
soil is a frrlitful one, and its resources are abundant;
all that the country requires are capital and skill in
order to make it rich and prosperous, and when these
desiderata are supplied by two European Govern-
ments, it is rather discouraging to learn of such
incidents as those of the military riots at Grand
Cairo.

There are few more unostentatious persons occupy-
ing a higher position than the Crown Princess of
Germany—our own Princess Royal of Great Britain
and Ireland, who has been over here on a visit to the
Prince and Princess of Wales. When her Imperial
Highness, with the Crown Prince, was over here
rather more than half a year ago, their stay was cat
short amid mournful memories. On Friday, the 31st
May, the Grosser Kurftirst, a German ironclad, was
run down off Deal by a sister ship, the Konig
Wilhelm, and 284 lives were lost. Forty-eight hours
afterwards a very serious affair happened in the city
( f Berlin. While the aged Emperor was driving
along the rater den Linden, he was fired at and
wounded by Nobiling ; the Crown Prince was tele-
graphed for, and, accompanied by the Princess, left
Charing-cross Station on the same evening on their
return to the German capital. The Prince was ap-
pointed Regent of the empire, it being feared at that
time that the shock to the nervous system and the
burden of eighty-two years might have disastrous
esects upon the venerable monarch. When the Crown
Princess is in London, as she has lately been, she
moves about the -metropolis with very little state
or ceremony; and few visitors to West-end picture
galleries would assume that the quietly-dressed
lady, so intent upon an examination of come
of the paintings, is the Queen's eldest daughter,
and the future Empress of the greatest militiry
monarchy upon the continent of Europe. Respecting
another member of the Royal Family—Prince Leopold
—it may be stated that his speech at the Mansion
House in support of a scheme for the extension of
University education has been very highly spoken of.
It had been carefully prepared, was well thought out,
and was sufficiently long to enable the speaker to lay
his views before his audience in a succinct and practical
way. The Egyptian Hall, in which the meeting took
place, is the largest and most ornate in the civic
palace, and is only brought into requisition on occa-
sions of importance. Such an occasion would be that
mentioned, with a speech from Prince Leopold, and
another from Mr. Gladstone.