The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-23 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—Lorg reigns have not been granted to
the successors ol the great Pasha weo won for hi-
family the hereditary Viceroyalty of Egy pt. H
himself, indeed, died at an advanced age, atter hay
ing wielded for a tong term of years a power that
at one time brought the Ottoman empire to the
brink of ruin. But his son Ibrahim—his counsellor,
and the bold executor of his design—though he suc-
ceeded his father in the Viceroyalty, did not sur-
vive him ; and since the death of Ibrahim two more
Viceroys have passed away. Abbas Pasha was the
son of Toussoun, the second brother of Ibrahim, and
on the death of Abbas the late Viceroy, Said, son of
Mehemet Ali's old age, succeeded to the Govern-
ment. It is but a few months since this Prince was
in England, and we asked for him the complimen-
tary reception that was due to his station and his
personal merits: He, too, is gone, and the expecta-
tions of those who are concerned with the East are
now directed to the fourth successor of Mehemet
Ali, the Viceroy Ismail Pasha, son of Ibrahim,
whose first speech on taking possession of the Go-
vernment we publish to-day. The telegraph that
brought us within a few hours the accession of an
Eastern Prince beyond the borders of Christen-
dom now tells ms of his policy and prospects,
as unfolded by himself at an audience of the
Consular body. In Egypt the Consuls-General
have really the power and the importance of En-
voys ; it is their duty to conduct the diplomatic
business of their respective countries, and from the
geographical position of Egypt, the relations in
which the Viceroy stands to the Porte, and the
rivalry that has always more or less prevailed be-
tween the leading European States, the Consuls
—those of England and France especially—are of
far more real importance than our Ministers at
many European Courts. Nor is the Viceroy him-
self really less than a Sovereign. He is but in
name the subject of the Sultan. It is possible that
when his grandfather was recognised as a semi-
independent Prince there was some hope
among the counsellors of the Porte that
Egypt might be one day restored to its direct
authority. But if so, this hope has been disap-
pointed. The Viceroys have kept themselves strictly
within the limits of their stipulated rights. Tney
nave ab Andomed all ideas of aggression, and taken
away every excuse tor an invasion of their own pri-
vileges. The Porte has in vain waited to see them
make a false step. Whatever may have been their
ambition or their secret aspirations, they have ever
been ostentatiously loyal. Even the first two of
the race, who had been carrying on war or in-
:rigues against the Porte for so many years, abided
.t last strictly by the faith of treaties. The iribute
has been regularly paid, and even pledged to Euro
pean capitalists tor the support of Turkish credit.
Egyptian troops fought against the Russians in the
late war, and the European nations that were for-
merly the most opposed to the designs of Mehemet
Ali and his ambitious race are now the firmest sup-
porters of their prerogative. Egypt is universally
recognised as virtually an independent State, and
any undue assumption of power by the Sultan would
be checked by common consent. By a policy pru-
dent beyond what could be expected of Princes so
educated, the Viceroys have gained a position which
makes their opinions more important than those of
many Christian Kings. As is necessary in the
present age for a ruler who would conciliate public
opinion, the Viceroy declares himself a friend of
financial reform. He will govern, he says, with all
the perseverance and energy of which he is capable.
" The basis of all good administration is order and
economy in the finances. This order and economy
I shall follow by every possible means." We can
conceive that when the Viceroy had gone thus far
no particular excitement had as yet been awakened
among his hearers. These, they might think, were
words of course, and would come from the mouth
of the most reckless Sovereign who ever sauntered
along that smooth path which is paved with good
intentions. But the next few words must have
startled them, and we can well believe what the
telegraph tells us, that the Viceroy's speech has
produced a great effect. He was not content with
a mere vague homage to the virtue of frugality, His
purpose is to do it a far deeper reverence by sub-
mitting himself and his household to its laws. "In
order to give an example to all, as well as a proof of
my firm intention, I have resolved on abandoning
the system of my predecessors, by fixing for myself
a civil list, which I shall never exceed." This is,
indeed, a triumph of economy and of constitutional
principles. For the first time, probably, in the his-
tory of the East, it is acknowledged that the poor
man, and be that toils for his bread, has a claim on
the self-denial of the ruler, and that the great can
gain honour and admiration by other means than by
building useless palaces and nourishing hordes of
slaves. The present Viceroy, it is probable, has seen
with alarm the extravagant projects and the expen-
sive tastes o his predecessor. Said Pat, though
able and shrewd enoug, to increase his own fortune
very largely, was more magnificent in his ideas than
the resources of Egypt would warrant, and his suc-
cessor, engaged for years in the prudent manage-
men c of his own private estates, seems anxious to
check enterprises and to decrease outlays which
have sorely pressed on the country. To place a
barrier between the wants of the Sovereign and the
public Treasury is no easy thing in any despotically
governed country, much less in an Oriental State,
and in this case it is certainly true that at any time
the Viceroy can return to the old courses of his pre-
decessors. But yet there is no reason to doubt that
he is at present in earnest, aril, as he is a man of
mature age, well versed in business, we are inclined
to hope that his good intentions will be firmly carried
out. Another matter of much importance mentioned
by the Viceroy is the abolition of forced labour, by
which the unhappy fellahs have hitherto been kept
in a conditi3n not far removed from slavery. He
says that his economy will enable him to devote to
the development of agriculture all the resources of
the country, and that he will thus be able to abolish
" the fatal system of forced labour" which has
" prevented the country from taking all the de-
velopment of which it is capable." Such a change,
easily made by an earnest Sovereign, will sweep
away one of the worst evils of the country, and
forbid for ever such injustice as has been committed
on the peasantry whenever great works have been
undertaken. Whatever may be the enthusiasm of
the French for the Suez Canal, they must yet be
glad to learn that its construction will not, under
the new Viceroy's reign, be carried on by the en-
forced labour of thousands of helpless peasants.

POST.—A Minister, whenever he meets his con-
stituents, possesses many signal advantages over his
less fortunate brethren in the House of Commons on
similar occasions. Success is, after all, the touch-
stone with which, in the political world, as else-
where, the great mass of the community contents
itself with testing the merits of men. When Mr.
Milner Gibson rose in the Town Hall of Ashton on
Wednesday evening to present his hearers with a
concise resume of the state of England's commerce,
and the results of her commercial policy, ho felt no
apprehensions respecting the reception he would
meet with. It is certainly true, as he observed,,that
" the times are not favourable to the discussion of
what may be called domestic politics ;" but perhaps
tor that very reason there are the stronger grounds
for congratulation at finding the trade of this court-
try as prosperous as it is. With some hundreds of
thousands of operatives thrown out of emplo3 merit,
the time is certainly not oppat tune for discussing
the question of Parliamentary Reform ; and at a
moment, when they are in want of bread, it would
certainly not be decorous to canvass the propriety
of granting them a franchise. In this sense the
present is certainly not a favourable opportunity
tor the ventilation of what, in more prosperous
times, constituted the staple of our domestic poli-
tics. But, on the other hand, now, when an im-
portant branch of British industry has been para-
plied ; when directLy or indirectly the great bulk
of the population of one of our hitherto most
flourishing seats of trade is reduced to want; when
one portion of the community is subsisting on the
charity of the other, it is a fitting time to inquire
how far the general policy which has governed our
domestic relations has been productive of beneficial
results, and to what extent improvemfait in other
branches of industry has redressed the balance so
seriously disturbed by the partial suspension of the

cotton trade. Of course Mr. Gibson could not do
otherwise than follow the example set him by his
colleagues, in taking advantage of his appearance
;n public, to say something about America. It
ought, perhaps, have been as well had he dismissed
rho topic with a few generalities. This, however,
did not chime with his views. Instead of following
n the footsteps of an eloquent fellow-minister, and
venturing on predictions which would be univer
sally received as indications of a coming policy, he
confined himself exclusively to the consideration of
the past. The causes and not the results of the war
furnished Mr, Gibson with his theme. We cannot
congratulate him on the success or accuracy with
which he discussed them. He has been astonished,
he says, " to hear that slavery had nothing to do
with the war," and forthwith proceeds to demon-
strate that it must have occasioned the war, since
the Southern States seceded because Abraham
Lincoln was exclusively elected by the population
of the Northern States, and because his opinions
and purpose " were hostile to slavery." It cer-
tainly may be conceded that if slavery did not
exist in the Southern States, the present war never
would have arisen; but it is not therefore correct
to say that it occasioned it, much less that its main-
tenance or abolition constitutes the Lane between
the belligerents. The Southern States withdrew
from a Federation in which a chief magistrate
had been elected in whom they had no con-
fidence, and who, they feared, would direct the
power and influence of that Federation against
some of the States composing it. Mr. Milner Gib-
son does not deny, nor could he in the face of the
American Constitution, that the seceding States
possessed the right, if they so pleased it, of with-
drawing from the Union. The right has been more
than once asserted since the establishment of the
Republic, and never disallowed, although now acted
upon for the first time. All the Southern States
desired was to part in peace ; nor did they resolve
upon the separation until the proposals made
through their commissioners to the Cabinet at
Washington had been definitively rejected. They
then asserted their independence, and then did the
North proceed to levy its armies to reduce them to
subjection. Is slavery now at issue, let us ask Mr.
Gibson ? The proclamation of the Ist January
emancipating the slaves of the rebellious, but leav-
ing the rights of the loyal slaveowner unaffected,
affords sufficient reply. No ; the w ris not a war
for slavery ; it is a war in which the liberty and in-
dependence of millions are at stake. To vindicate
them the Southern States drew the sword, and
when at length it is sheathed we hope to see them
not less firmly established than when both North
and South rested from their labours after the first
great war in the cause of American independence.

COUNTRY MARKETS.

MANCHESTER-JAN. 22.

This morning at our market there was a fair attend.
ance. English wheat and flour a quiet sale, at the curren-
cies of last week. Oats and oatmeal a fair sale. Beans
were unchanged.