The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-15 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

POST.—No other country in the world has made
the progrrss that has in the last few years been
realised by Egypt. The trade and the revenue in
the Valley of the Nile are increasing, not only bri.
yond comparison of any other State at the same
uncture, but beyond almost any other example
that we can meet with in the reliable returns of

previous times. Indeed, the sober tables that
emanate from the Board of Trade are evidently
quite astonished at this exception to their usual
rule of steady and moderate increase, Much of this
rush, so to speak, of Egyptian prosperity is due to
the demand which has sprung up for cotton along
the Lower Nile. But it does not altogether depend
upon that couree. Before the cotton demand arose,
or the American civil war had begun, Egypt was
still one of the most rapidly augmenting countries
in the world. The lone rule of old Mehemet Ali
had been productive, on the whole, of immense bene-
fits, although they were countervailed by consider-
able evils. From efter the military events ending
with the settlement of 1840, this prince raised Egypt
to be a permanently pacific and gradually a civilised
country. He opened to it all the wealth that the
maritime communication between Europe and India
could afford; and thus Egypt regained, under him,
much of the ascendant that in the middle ages it
had possessed before Vasco di Gama doubled the
Cape, But he maintained such a restrictive system
of commerce, and so monopolised to the Government
all the departments of trade, that he was said to be
the chief baker, butcher, and corn dealer throughout
his dominions. With his death this cld-fashioned
system broke down. His successors, who have each
had but a short lease of power, adopted a compara-
tively liberal course, and left trade more or less to
itself, A great further development of prosperity
rewarded this liberality, and the increasing demand
for cotton which has since arisen has completed the
present extraordinary impetus to Egyptian trade.
Egypt, as a wealthy, fruitful, and producing couna
try, has stood the test of time more than any other
country in the world. Oar authentic records of it
go back for nearly four thousand years ; and we find
it still the same granary of the nations in communie
cation with it that it is now the sons of Jacob sent
thither for corn 18 centuries before the Christian
era, just as we are sending there for cotton 18 cen-
turies after it. The fertility of the Volley of the Nile
has never failed; and nothing but war, which has
been of rarer occurrence in Egypt than in any other
country, has ever interrvpted its harvests. Egypt,
too, is remarkable for the characteristic identity that
it has preserved amid all surrounding revolutions,
whether in dynasty or in religion. In all ages of its
history it has been one and indivisible. Whether it
were the old religion still recorded on its ancient
monuments, whether it:were Christianity, or whether
it were Mahometanism—whether governed by
Greeks, Romans, Arabs, or Turks—the same fruitful
and proiuctive Egypt has still survived, and seems,
strangely enough, to suffer nothing by each revokes
tion. No country in the eeorld ever approached it
for its intrinsic stability or its imperturbable pros-
perity. The population of the Egyptian Vice-
royalty--another name for a tributary monarchy—
is between five and six millions. The taxation even
before the cotton demand arose, was nearly twenty
shillings a head ; and the revenue amounted to
nearly £5,000,000, The increase of production
now, of course, yields' under the same pressure of
taxation, a considerably larger public income. The
trade of the Gauntry, too, is so balanced between the
domestic and the external that it may be 'aid to
rely equally on home and foreign support. The
increase of tonnage in ships entered and cleared in
the ports of Alexandria and Suez appears to have
averaged for some years past about 15 per cent. per
annum. With regard to the increase in our own
demand for cotton, the recent tables of the Board of
Trade furnish rather striking indications. We
have before us the tabular views for the seven
months ending the 31st of July, in the three last
years respectively. In 1862, the cotton importsd
into the United Kingdom from Egypt was
396,000 cwt, ; in 1863, it was 660,000 cwt. ; and in
1864 it amounted to 796,000 cwt.—the latter figure
being at the rate of about 1,400,000 cwt., or 70,000
tons of cotton in the whole year, This is equivalent
to 300,000 bales ; which, being sold in Liverpool at
£5O per bale at the least, represent a trade of
£15,000,000 with this country alone in cotton. The
other principal countries in trading communication
with Egypt are France, Austria, Italy, Tut key,and
Syria; and the export of cotton from Egypt to these
countries is increasing in a corresponding degree, eo
that the national income of Egypt from the sale of
its productions to European countries is becoming
something enormously large, and quite incelculabie
for the future. We are glad to observe that the
counterpart of the picture is. not wanting. Egypt is
freely importing British produce in return for the
cotton which we are taking of her. We have before
us the tables of the " declared" value of the produce
of the United Kingdom exported to Egypt during
the first six months of the last three years. This
value for 1862 was £953,000 ; for 1863 it was
£1,898,000; and for 1861 it was £3,031,000. These
figures are equivalent for the whole year to some-
thing under 12,000,000 in 1862, tinder £4,000,000
in 1863, and above £6,000,000 in 1864. Although
the balance of trade is still considerably against us
in Egypt, even at the prices at which cotton is
sold by the growers for the Liverpool market, it is
clear that a great reciprocal trade has sprung up
between the two countries ; and this is perhaps the

best guarantee for its durability. The Cotton which
has been imported into this country from Egypt,
during the present year, is nearly four times the
amount that has been sent here from Brazil, and
nearly eight times what has reached us from the
United States, It represents, in fact, one-fifth of
the whole import to this country from all parts of
the world, the largest shipments being, of course,
made by India, which has a population 30 times
that of Egypt; but, nevertheless, India sends us no
more than doable of what Egypt sends. The in-
crease and reciprocity of this Anglo-Egyptian trade
is becoming a marked feature in the trade, and even
in the politics, of the Levant.
DAILY NEWS.—The military news brought by
the Nova Scotian includes few items of a positive
character, but such as they are they lead to inferences
not unfavourable in the main to the Federals. Of
Sherman's progress we still learn nothing except
through Southern sources. From their silence, then,
as to his being in want of supplies, it may begathered
as a fact that his army had felt no pressure on this
account. This is a most material admission, for it
almost ensures at least his safety. If after being a
fortnight on his routs his troops have been reduced
to no straits in the matter of the commissariat, it is
tolerably clear that the data on which he under-
took his march have proved sound in this respect.
And if the provisioning of his force was thus
secured, nothing but a superior force in the field
could prevent his reaching the coast. Accordingly,
the Richmond Examiner of I)cc. 1 admits that to
reach the coast was in his power. It reports, more•
over, that he had safely crossed the Oconee
River, a stream about halt• way between Atlanta
and Augusta, upon, the banks of which the Rich.
mond papers, as late as the 29th November, had re■
ported him to be detained. They do not, however,
mention the date of the despatches from Georgia
which contained this news. It is asserted, indeed,
that Sherman had been kept in check for ten
days upon this line, being opposed by a force :n
front and harassed at the same time in flank and
rear, Hood meantime, far from dreaming that be
could follow on Sherman's track with any hope of
coming up in time to aid in his discomfiture, has
been playing out his game in Tenne,3see. Having
crossed the river of that name, driving before him
the smaller Federal force commanded by General
Schofield, who retreated in the direction of Nash-
ville, he succeeded in coming up with his opponents
at Franklin, about twenty miles. south of that
'town. Here the Federals turned tied fo le ht.
Hood's first attack was successful, and drove them
back; but they rallied, and by a vigorous charge
recovered the ground, capturing a thousand prime
loners, prea
Boners, and inflicting a loss on th •fl opponents
estimated at 3 000 or 4,000 killed and wounded.
Ia the night General Schofield withdrew hia troops
to within three railed of Nashville 'twhere teirIIOICO-