The Express.
London, England, 1851-09-29 00:00:00

EGYPT.

The following note, addressed by the Sublime
Porte to his Highness Abbas Pasha, governor of
Egypt :

Some time ago it reached the knowledge of the imperial
government that your highness had the intention of con-
structing a railway. Although the certainty was felt that
the authorisation of the Sublime Porte would have been

demanded before putting into execution an enterprise so
considerable and of so much importance, yet it was thought
proper to remind your highness of the obligations of right
and justice relative to this affair. Accordingly, on the de-
parture of the envoy furnished with powers.hy your high-
ness, Mouktar Bey, charged with a mission to Cairo,
it was expressly enjoined to him to announce of-
ficially to your highness that in case the design
of so great an enterprise were seriously entertained
it would be indispensable to demand the authorisation of
the Sublime Porte. By the return of the said functionary
the government learned that, contrary to all expectation,
your highness, leaning upon certain consideration., had re-
solved to execute this work without haying previously de-
manded and obtained the requisite authorisation. In can-
sequence the imperial government found itself, to its great
regret, obliged to recall this affair anew to the attention of
your highness. Au official despatch had been prepared to
this effect, when his excellency Sir Stratford Canning, am-
bassador of England, having obtained communication
thereof, begged that the transmission should be suspended
until he wrote and received an answer from his court. The
Sublime Porte haying objected to him that sonic difficulties
might arise if any derision whatever were taken in Egypt
relatively to the construction of the railway while be cor-
responded with his government, the said ambassador took
upon himself to procure the adjournment of the conelusion
of the affair of the railway, and promised to write on the
subject to the consul.general of her Britannic Majesty in
Egypt in the most precise manner. The result of his
proceedings was being awaited when information arrived
that your highness had signed a contract with
the English engineer, Stephenson, containing the
conditions relative to the construction of the railway.
This news was followed close by a letter from your high-
ness, informing the Sublime Porte of this affair. An event
so unforeseen caused extieme surprise. The engineer in
question is, according as we are informed, an instructed
and honourable man, and, ae it was nut his business to ea-
, rify the attributions of your highness, the Sublime Porto
can have no observation to address to him; but the case la
not the mme fur your highness.
Even supposing as of no effect the communications made
to you by the channel of Mouktar Bey, as well as the
notices of the English ambassador, there exists an article in
the imperial firmau serving to regulate the privileges of
the succession in the government of Egypt, which says, in
very precise terms, that 't for all important affairs the go-
vernor of Egypt shall demand the authorisation of the
Sublime Porte.' Instead of demanding without delay this
authorisation, your highness alleges in your favour that
the bridge of Medjidie and the fortifications of Alexandria
were constructed by your grandfather without any authori •
sation. To take as examples these precedents in order to
execute with your own authority an enterprise of so much
greater importance is a question of the gravest kind, to which
we deem it our duty to answer that the fortifications had been
commenced before the promulgation of the imperial finnan
which settles the succession, and that,considcring the public
utility attached thereto, and not wishing to leave unfinished
• work undertaken with so important an object, the impe-
, rid government has made no opposition to its contiuuation.
As to the bridge of Medjiili.!, it is very easy to prove that
its foundations were solemnly laid at the end of the month
of Itebit-ilAhir 1263, and that eight months before this
period, that is to say, in the month of Redjeb 1262, his High-
Mle Mehemet Ali Pasha, having arrived at Constantinople,
had verbally demanded from our august sovereign his high
authorisation. This demand of authorisation did not eon-
sist, as has been pretended, in giving to this work the
glorious name of the Sultan , it concerned the work itself.
Such is the veracious statement of the circumstances which
relate to the examples and precedents iuvukeil by your
highness. It is besides acknowledged by men of sense that
no comparison can be established between so important an
enterprise as a railway and the above-mentioned works, or
others still less considerable, which have been executed
since the promulgation of the firman relative to the succes-
sion, or which are actually under execution. Superfluous
though it may be to dwell more upon the im-
portance and greatness of the enterprise in question,
still, us this is en affair which, by the gravity which it has
acquired, is susceptible of various interpretations, we deem
it useful, in order to remove every kind of doubt and ambi-
guity, on this subject to enter into the following explana-
tions. This runway cannot be compared to ordinary roads,
of which the construction requires comparatively only slight
expense, and considerable sums must be employed to obtain
the end proposed. If the annual revenues of the treasury
of Egypt, after the payment of the fixed tribute to the
Sublime Porte and the other expenses of administration,
left a surplus sufficient to cover the annual expenses which
such an undertaking would necessitate, there would not be
in this case any administrative inconvenience. But it would
be an infraction of the laws and regulations established by
the Sublime Porte to create a new tax, in case of the insuffi-
, ciency of this surplus, or to augment the actual taxation, or
Ito oblige the inhabitants of Egypt to labour gratuitously on
the said railway. The imperial government, in its equity
and justice, cannot tolerate such things. Even if, in ease of
the insufficiency of the surplus, instead of having recourse
to one of these three expedients, it should be deemed pos-
sible to resort to a loan, or to abandon the enterprise to a
foreign country, since in the first instance a portion of the
states of his imperial Majesty might be mortgaged, and in the
second a system would be introduced which has no prece-
dent, the Porte could not accede to either. For these mo-
tives the government finds itself obliged to exact solid and
solemn guarantees, and will always persist in the mainte-
nance of its high dmiaistrative rights. In like manner as
your hi Aness, in justice conforming to the provisions of
the firman relative to the succession, can make no pretention
beyond its stipulations' so the Sublime Porte cannot permit
the limits prescribed by the said imperial document to be
transgressed in any manner whatsoever.
We hope strongly that your highness will recognise the
nece-sity of demanding officially the authorisation of the
Sublime Porte fur this affair, and of giving the requisite
assurances. You will also easily understand that it is not
only in the case in which this railroad should be constructed
from Cairo to Suez that political reasons would require
that authorisation should be demanded from the Sublime
Porte. In whatever part of Egypt the authorisation is ri-
gorously necessary, as well by the reasons above-mentioned
as by the duties and attributions invariably assigned to
your highness by the Semen relative to the succession. In
all events, in order to repair the error committed in ex-
ceeding the limit of the privileges established, it has been
resolved to announce officially to your highness that all the
arrangements made for the said railway, before having de-
manded the requisite authorisation, shall bo considered as
null and void.

We deem it our duty likewise to remind your highnen
that it will be equally indispetuahle, in demanding the
authorisation of the Sublime Porte, to prove that the an-
nual revenues of Egypt present a surplus sufficient to meet
the expenses necessary for the construction of the said rail-
way. Moreover, your highness ought to give the most
formal assurance that now taxes shall not be created for
this object,—that the actual taxation shall not he aug-
mentcd—that the inhabitants shall not be forced to work
gratuitously, and, lastly, that no recourse will he bad
either to a loan or to foreign companies. All the ministers
of the Sublime Porte have decided with one accord to com-
municate the preceding to your highness, in conformity
with the express order of his Imperial Majesty.
Constantinople, S Zileade, 1267 (Sept. 4, 1851).

THE SHIPS BOUND FOR SYDNEY, in New South
Wales, the nearest port to the Ophir gold regions, are re-
markably on the increase. The Omura]. Post-office adver-
tised on Saturday nearly twenty vessels by which letter
bags would be sent to Sydney. Nothing like such a num-
ber for that port has ever before been advertised at con