The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-28 00:00:00

EGYPT.

A letter from Alexandria, dated March 18, says ;
The Bairam was held by the Viceroy at the citadel
in Cairo on the 9th. The main streets leading from
the Eybekeyals were admirably kept by the
Turkish police, and no accident occurred. The
scene at the citadel, without any great display of
troops, was imposing, and a great concourse of
Europeans was present to congratulate his High-
ness on the occasion of the festival.

The holyday was not kept long, and the Viceroy
was soon attending to business with his usual
assiduity. Various new schemes are formed or in
preparation; among them two nigh akin—an
Egyptian company, styled the " Societe Agricele
at Industrielle." with a capital of four millions ster-
ling, whose statutes have been submitted to Ismail
Pasha, and have received his sanction by especial
decree; Its object is to supply the natives,
whether individually or collectively in villages,
with the machinery which they may require ;
allowing them a period of years to pay off
the cost by annual instalments; to establish
workshops for effecting necessary repairs; to plant
powerful pumping engines at the mouths of the
irrigation canals, so as to keep them always full,
whereas in summer they now run dry, and along
their banks to put other smaller engines to raise
the water to the different estates in the quantities to
which they are respectively entitled :—in a word,
to assist the fellah in improving his system of agri-
culture and extending the area of cultivation. The
other is an English company, with a capital of
£2,000,000 sterling; the promoters I understand
are eight :Manchester houses. The intention is
also to furnish steam ploughs, pumps, cotton gins,
&c. ; to erect at Alexandria great workshops for
the repairs not only of land but als3 of marine
engines ; to establish cotton ginning establishments,
flour mills, and oil seed crushing mills, brick and
tile factories ; and to execute orders for the pur-
chase and shipment of cotton and other produce.
There will be ample scope for both, as, while
one will address itself especially to the natives, and
work incalculable good, the other looks chiefly to
the Europeans, and will find full employment. To
the fleets of fine screw steamers, always in port, it
will afford great convenience and economy, by pro-
viding them with anything defective in their en-
gines, and enabling them speedily to resume their
voyages.
An extraordinary revolution is rapidly proceed-
ing in this country. Europe has finally under-
stood the immense future of Egypt, and is eager to
develope her yet budding resources. Every steamer
is pouring a new population and a golden stream
on our shoree ; energy and capital are taking pos.
session of the land, and urging it forward in the
path of civilisation and wealth. Not only are
the cities of Alexandria and Cairo receiving so great an
influx of inhabitants that, although whole quarters are ris-
ing on every side, house room is still insufficient, and rents
are always increasing; but the inland towns and villages
are overrun, and factories with high chimneys and long
lines of black smoke cut the clear sky of our fiat landscape
through the length and breadth of Lower Egypt. Gradu-
ally, but surely, the tide is creeping upwards, and will soon
people the shores of the Thebaid. Englishmen, lam glad
to say, are not behind in the race, and their numbers must
always increase in a corresponding ratio to the amount of
machinery employed.
The effect of all, this is telling on the natives. I late!y
heard that Halim Pasha, in conversing with his farm-
labourers, had found the intellect of the lads who have
grown up since the introduction of the new mechanical ap-
pliances was greatly in advance of that of the men who
had reached manhood under the former primitive system of
cultivation, when the ox was the all in all to the fellahs.
The Viceroy has also expressed his conviction that, although
the cattle murrain has been a grievous present calamity, it
will confer a lasting benefit, by compelling the adoption of
an improved system, which will civilise his people while
enriching them.