The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-22 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, JANUARY 22, 1868.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THIS DAY.—Morning, 3h. 56m.—Afternoon, 4h. 15m
Ta-monitovr.-Morning, 4h. 35m.—Afternoon, 4h. 59m

tree, and that not an uncommon one, which mea-
sured 327 feet:in length, and 11 feet in diameter. For
200 feet of its length there was not a single projcct-
ing branch. The cedars of Columbia dwarf the far
famed cedars of Lebanon, and other woods are
equally plentiful. As the lecturer observed, a soil
which produces such trees cannot fail under cultiva-
tion to produce the lesser fruits. The two objects
which brought him over were the desire of the
Columbians to obtain a representative Government,
and the proposal to open a line of communication be-
tween the several provinces of British North Ame-
rica. There is little fear that any English Govern-
ment of the present day will follow the example
of Lord NORTH, and if it is shown that
the colony is really sufficiently advanced
for representative government to prove advantage-
ous, we cannot doubt that it will be accorded to
them. All that a single man could do has been
done, says Mr. CAMERON, by Governor DOUGLAS,
but the time has arrived when self-government
under a free constitution, is indispensable to the
prosperity of the colony. A constitution has been
accorded to Vancouver's Island, which is of so much
less extant, and one half the population. It cannot
therefore be justly withheld from a people who pro-
claim so distinctly their adherence to the old eoun-
try and their allegiance to the Crown. With regard
to the principal object of Mr. CAMERON'S embassy
there can be but one opinion. All must see the im-
portance of securing an unbroken line of communi-
cation between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans
through British territories. Those best qua-
lified to judge—Governor DOUGLAS, Captain
PALLISER, and others—give their unhesitating
opinion as to the feasibility of road-making through-
out these regions. "So far as the territory of Bri-
tish Columbia is concerned," says Mr. CAMERON,
"a line of communication has been opened up
' through its centre, and the Rocky Mountains pre-
sent no impediment to their being surmounted by
an ordinary road, owing to the existence of a natu-
ral pass. From the mountains to Red River and
to St. Paul's, Minnesota, or to Fort William, Lake
Superior, via Rainy Lake, though a rough country,
it presents no real obstacle to the construction of a
railway." The difficulties attending the opening
of means of communication appear to have been
very much overrated, the immense area occupied by
water saving so much expense and labour.
Canada has now nearly two hundred miles
of railway completed which will probably
be extended to Halifax, and then, "by making
available the lakes and rivers of the West, and add-
ing cheap and easy roads, we shall be able for
eight months in the year—and soon for the whole
year round—to cross the continent in fifteen days."
The advantages which the opening of such a line
of communication would offer to British commerce
are incalculable. There is no reason, said the able
advocate, why the whole correspondence of the
great East and Europe should not pass over this
new American route, while the construction
of the electric telegraph would open the
shortest route for messages to China, Japan, and
our Southern colonies. All that is needed to
realise these splendid prospects is the application of
British enterprise and British capital to the deve-
lopment of the resources of our own possessions.
The settlers are cordial in their feelings towards the
mother country, and eager for our assistance in a
scheme that will benefit ourselves as much as them.
Nature, though wild and rough, is yet favourable,
and science, in the shape of engineering skill, is at
the highest point. The securing of a passage
through British territory, from the one great ocean
to the other, will, with the aid of our naval supre-
macy, preserve unbroken our communication with
the East in the face of every opposition, and render
us independent of one of the greatest evils of war-
war—the interruption of our commerce.

lAfter all the clamour we have had about garot-
ting it is surprising how small a portion of the po-
pulation came to grief in this way. Certainly
not one in a hundred. Why so much stir
about so few persons? Could they not take a
broken head or a sore throat quietly, and not want
to entail on the rest of the community the expense
of doubled police rates, and the cost of maintaining
idle fellows in prison for double the usual time ?
Indeed the question might well range more widely.
We may reasonably ask why, for the sake of the
small minority who suffer from punishable thefts or
frauds, we should uphold such a costly system of
administration of justice and of penal establish-
ments. There must always be a certain proportion
of the community who will suffer hardships from
the violence and roguery of their fellow -creatures,
but are we all to be saddled with, say, fully half
the amount of our present income-tax, and, all
things included, with much more, merely to protect
or indemnify, as far as we can, the very few, rela-
tively to the whole community, who would suffer
from violence and fraud ? Are we all to make sacri-
flees that here and there a man who has been robbed
may see the thief, at an enormous expense to the
country, sentenced to several years of penal servi-
tude

Let no one scout such questions as absurd. We
have merely applied to one kind of larceny, fraud,
or felony, the reasoning one of our principal con-
temporaries has applied to another. It has been a
favourite argument of late against the Ballot that
so few persons can be found who suffer from the
want of it. Ask your acquaintances, it is said, and
you will find that every one says that other people
,
need it, but he himself does not. And who do you
hear complaining that they have been coerced or
bribed to vote against their convictions P The man
who has been robbed of his franchise by a landlord
or creditor is, after all, a rare being. There may be
such a person, but who of us knows him P The
inference is, why compel us all to vote secretly
in order that a very small minority of
the country may not be compelled to vote against
their will. Vote-robbery is a thing respecting
which a great deal of noise is made by the disap-
pointed party, but where are your robbed indivi-
duals ? The worth of the argument is just the
same as in the case in regard to property with
which we started. We have no doubt the numbers
who really need protection are /very large; but,
granting tLem to be but few, why should not the
rights of those few be vindicated ? If we possessed
any means of preventing the few from being robbed
of property at all comparable with the 11111,,t in
reference to vote-robbery, we should assuredly at
once adopt it, and that without hesitation. We
should be thankful enough for what would be infi-
nitely cheaper and more effectual than punitive and
deterrent systems.

The truth is, in a question of justice, we do not and j
ought not to consider the mere number of sufferers
at all ; since no wrong, it is confessed, ought to be
tolerated without a remedy. Admitting, there
fore, far argument's sake, that the numbers were
few who were coerced into a vote for one candidate
when their preference and judgment would have
given it to another, as a case of clear wrong, we
ought at any reasonable cost to see that the few
had their rights. The law of the country has created
for them the right, has made it, therefore, painful
to be robbed of it ; and, though the robbed were but
few, the State would still be bound to protect those
few from robbery. We hardly need add that, in

this case, the protection would be afforded at no
cost at all, but at a considerable saving. The ex-
pense of an election by ballot would be much less
than that of an election in the ordinary way; much
less to both the candidate and the public. Further,
no one would he called on to suffer in any way to
protect the supposed few. It cannot be called a
hardship, by any honest man, that he should be re-
quired to give his vote so that no one knew how he
gave it at the time of voting. If he wishes to
make it public, he is in no way restricted from doing
so. We are sometimes, indeed, told that it is unfair
to compel all to give, whether they wish it or
not, a secret vote. We reply, no man
whose word would be taken can make such a com-
plaint: The voter can always, if he wish it, tell
how he intends to vote, or how he has voted. The
liar, indeed, conscious that no one believes him, is
the only man who can complain that the ballot
enforces secrecy of the vote. It compels to secrecy,
indeed, in the actual voting ; hence it enables those
whose vote might be garotted by a landlord or a
creditor to avoid his grip, but it leaves men at
liberty to make their vote as public as they please.
As to those whose word would not be believed, it
is not the ballot, but their own character, which
deprives them of the publicity they covet.
We have been led to these remarks by perusing
the answers to questions sent by the Ballot Society
to Southampton and to East Rent, after the two
recent closely contested elections there. There was
no doubt of the bribery and intimidation in the
borough, or of the intimidation in the county ; but
the cases confidentially communicated were few.
This is almost always the case. Until a commission
seises a constituency by the throat, puts it to the
oath,.and compels it to confess, we are always told
by the winning party that " there may have been
cases of corruption, but they were unauthorised,
and really few." We are told the same respecting
the coercion of dependents. But the latter and
more cruel form of bribery—the appeal to the
voter's fears and necessities—does not permit of
verification except privately. The cases which
could be ascertained by a commission itself would
not be many. Indeed, no one would have the
cruelty to think of subjecting a body of county
voters to such a test, as asking them whether they
should have voted for the Whig or Tory member,
as the case may be, had they at the time been living
under a landlord of the same polities.

We are told, indeed, at Southampton that in the
afternoon the Tory bribery was both extensive and
direct, but that it was the coercion which was
chiefly relied on. It is notorious that the contest
lay between two great companies, and it is asserted
that all the numerous employes of the winning com-
pany voted for the Tory candidate. There is
another large company in the town, with 120 elec-
tors in their employment, all of these, it is also con-
fidently said, with a single exception, voted for the
Tory candidate. No one, with any knowledge of
Englishmen, will believe for a moment that all
these dependents of two powerful commercial com-
panies were really Tories, or could prefer a London
corporation nobody to an intelligent and well-known
Liberal. The coercion of great companies is likely
to become another of the facts which will strengthen
the demand for the ballot. The cases of landlord
coercion in East Kent are quite of the normal type.
Of the whole it may be :safely affirmed that the
ballot would have redressed all the evils complained
of at both elections. Fifty open public-houses,
direct bribery in the afternoon, and the intimidation
by employers of labour, would have been utterly
useless at Southampton, and the usual intimations
of landlords would have been of little avail in East
Kent. The Totnes election is another case in point,
the influence of a noble Duke having twice returned
the member for that borough. We hope, therefore,
the Ballot Society will persist in its praiseworthy
efforts to keep their subject before the consti-
tuencies.

Last night Mr. GIBSON addressed his constituents
at Ashford. The right hon, gentleman's speech
was received with many demonstrations of applause,
but on critically examining it, it does not appear to
contain much. He said that it was his duty and
privilege to appear before the electors and render
an account of his doings in Parliament. He said,
truly enough, that of late men's minds had been
diverted from what he might term domestic poli-
tics by the unfavourable state of the times at home
and abroad. With watching the civil war in
America, and regarding the distress in the cotton
districts, they had not had sufficient leisure to
dwell upon those minor points which, in quieter
and happier times, would have assumed an import-
ance and significance. Mr. GIBSON paid a just tri-
bute to the admirable conduct of the distressed
population of Lancashire ; but the following pas-
sage comes rather strangely from so influential a
personage. It seems to presage an amount of in-
difference or else few resources on the part of the
Government that is incredible to conceive or else
strange to contemplate : " They have acted
throughout like men knowing that the cause of suf-
fering was beyond the control of their own country,
their own Legislature, and their Government, and
these distresses had arisen from circumstances for
which no one here could be blamed." This sounds
rather hopeless, but when Mr. GIBSON tries to be
encouraging the result is not much more satisfac-
tory. He holds out, as a panacea for the dreadful
ills that these men are underg)ing, the prospect of
their conduct now coming under consideration
should the question of Reform come under the notice
of the Legislature. Really, this seems like a
mockery of woe, in every view of the case, when
we reflect on the very slight chance there exists of
the question being taken up by Ministers, those
who have had the promise will most probably have
to wait long for the performance. Again, this is not
the sort of thing to suggest in connection with the
subject of a great calamity, the good mentioned
does not partake of the nature of the evil. Mr. GIB-
SON'S ideas on this subject remind one of a facetious
speech made some time ago by a gentleman who
was satirizing Mr. BRIGHT. He said that the lat-
ter gentleman always considered public questions
to the total ignoring of the private burdens of the
community. If any complained of poverty he
would tell them of the franchise, and to those who
wanted the necessaries of life he dilated on the ad-
vantages of political existence. Another thing that
is noticeable in this portion of Mr. GIBSON'S speech
is the style in which he talks about Reform.
Really the assurance with which some public men
can talk of their own misdoings is quite surprising.
If the Ministers had not the honesty to keep their
promises they might at least have the grace not to
charge others with their own shortcomings. When a
Cabinet Minister has the effrontery to speak like this
to his constituents, it isenough to make men despair
—"aLl'ehr et
most
Governmente
ndt
odu
snl oyt,
tlhreya
rocfccpiorlit, iTealaraholineersetyt-o.
offered a measure of Parliernentary eyfowrniii.e:
much encoura,gement from the counittr
Government silent on this point, surely expediency
sense of propriety did not keep the members of thedi
might make them abstain from these absurd and un-
founded statements. If what they persist in saying
is true, for it is only the other de)-- that Sir CHARLES
WooD, at Halifax, said very much the same—why
did they aesurac, the serious responsibility of pre-
venting their opponents from completing what they

had undertaken, The only charitable solution that
can be found for these extravagant asseverations,
is that that they feel their case is bad and are
trying a desperate mode of disarming criticism
by sounding their own praises, or at all events
screening their own culpabilities at the expense of
others, and also at the cost of a little veracity of
statement. Mr. GIBSON glorified himself and the
ministry for the repeal of the paper duty, and con-
tended that all he had prophesied of good had come
to pass, and many additional advantages had like-
wise accrued from this measure to the community.
It is one chief characteristic of those who have a
particular plan of their own that they can never be
moderate in their views, and in speaking of the ad-
vantages of cheap newspapers, Mr. GIBSON exag-
gerates so greatly that he does not do himself or his
cause any service. Those who most appreciate the
cheap press will not believe overdrawn accounts of
their achievements, and it is no want of respect
to them that forbids us to credit what their advo-
cate so unhesitatingly affirms. Exaggerated lan-
guage makes one doubtful of sincerity, and the
opening sentence of Mr. GIBSON'S remarks on this
point seems to hint that there is a suspicious secret
of personal pique in the background of this excited
eulogy. He states with some warmth that when
the Government repealed the Paper Duty they
were told that "it was a reckless sacrifice of re-
venue, with the view of pleasing somebody who
had a crotchet." Perhaps it was the wrongs of that
nameless martyr who goes by the name of some-
body that fired the speaker with so much zeal and
energy. The right hon. gentleman concluded his
speech with some remarks on America, stating that
so deeply had we studied the case, that we had
almost made the American question an English
one. Mr. GIBSON denied the assertion that had
been made that slavery had nothing to do with the
war, and observed that in his opinion it was the
primary cause of it :—" Secession had taken place,
and the consequent war for the purpose of per-
petuating, cherishing, and extending slavery. I
don't believe that an empire having slavery as its
basis can be a prosperous, happy, and enduring
empire; and, therefore, I cannot desire to see such
a one established in any part of the world." Mr.
GIBSON'S views on this case certainly do not repre-
sent the general feeling of the country. It is not
understood that slavery is the foundation of the
quarrel, nor the cause which is perpetuating the
war. Slavery may be " hateful, infidel, and pesti-
lent," as Mr. GIBSON asserts it to be, but it will
not be put down by the mode which the North are
adopting. Altogether, if this speech is the earnest
and forerunner of the policy about to be adopted
by Government next session, the aegury is any-
thing but a happy one. Time must prove the
efficiency or non-efficiency of Ministerial measures,
but we are free to speculate, and the result of this
venture cannot be otherwise than doubtful as regards
the strength and stability of men who can say no-
thing better for themselves than is met with in these
wordy speeches which, after all, only come to very
lame and impotent conclusions.

UNSTAMPED AGREEMENT3.—A question arose on
two different eases in the Bail Court yesterday
illustrating the working of the stamp laws. In both the
point in the argument turned upon the form of agreements,
which, not being stamped, cou2d not be produced in evi-
dence, and could not be stamped except on payment of a
fine of £lO. In the one case the action was compromised ;
in the other the fine was paid and the document produced
in court. Mr. justice Blackburn observed that it would be
well if the Chancellor of the Exchequer could be persuaded
to alter this part of the law, as the injury often fell on the
wrong party.
THE NEW GAME ACT.—The Court of Common
Pleas delivered judgment on an appeal case yester-
day, which is of considerable importance in the construction
of the new Game Act. The magistrates of Essex convicted
several persons of an offence under the new act whom a
policeman found walking along a high road, one of them
having rabbits in his possession and the others bearing
evidence on their persons that they had been engaged in
rabbit-poaching. The prisoners appealed on the ground
that they were not seen trespassing on any land. Chief
Justice Erie delivered the judgmen; of the Court that it
was not necessary prisoners should be seen in the act of
trespass ; it was enough if, as in this case, there was evi-
dence from which the trespass could to reasonably inferred.
The sentence was therefore confirmed,

PROFITABLE PREACHING.—On the first Sunday
of the new year the Rev. Remy Ward Beecher
announced to his congregation (Brooklyn, New York) that
the pew-rents for last year amounted to 18,649 dols. Notice
was given that the sittings for the present year would be
let at public auction that evening.

THE ACTON MURDER.—The inquest on the police-
man Davey, who was so barbarously shot at his own
door in the village of Acton, was begun yesterday after-
noon, when the widow of the deceased man and the surgeon
who made a post-mortem examination gave their evidence.
The poor woman, who went to the door to answer the knock,
said that when she opened it there Was no one in front, but
a man's voice &am behind a pillar asked if her husband was
at home. She had heard the voice once before, when her
husband, with whom the man was then speaking, told her
it was young Brooks. She thought she could identify the
voice if she heard it again, and the inquest was adjourned
till she should have an opportunity of doing so.

neigh-
bourhood of Ottawa, Canada, have been startled
SINGULAR OCCURRENCE.—People in the
lately to find that soon after dark, at intervals of about half
an hour, the ground beneath thew has been felt perceptibly
to shake, accompanied with a rumbling sound somewhat
resembling that of an earthquake. Nervous persons were
naturally somewhat alarmed, and many were under the im-
pression that the phenomenon was the effect of an earth-
quake. Its lug continuance, however, and its repeated
recurrencemindsof
at short intervals, forbid such an idea in the
intelligent persons, and the theory advanced by
them is that the very severe frost which has prevailed has
so far penetrated the earth, owing to the absence of snow,
that it bascaused the ground to move. In support of this
view large cracks appear in the ground, extending to the
length of nearly a quarter of a mile. They have been ob-
served to extend even under the hones._Quebec Mercury.
THE COTTON SUPPLY ASSOCIATION.—At the
weekly meeting of the executive committee of this
association, held on Tuesday last, grants of cotton seed
were made to cultivators in Brazil, Costa Rica, and Now
South Wales. A cotton gin was also granted to an appli-
cant in Qu3ensland. A letter was read advising the pur-
chase of a quantity of New Orleans and Sea Islands cotton
seed in New York on account of the association, the
bulk of :he New Orleans seed being intended for
distribution by the Turkish Government in its do-
minions. A. letter was also read from a gentleman in
Tobago, suggesting that cotton cultivation should be car-
ried on them on a large scale by the aid of freed negroes
from the United States, and giving an estimate of the cost
of cultivation, showing a aandsome profit to those en-
gaging in the proposed undertaking.
ONE GAMEKEEPER SHOT BY ANOTIIER.—A
shocking aff‘ir took pla2e on Saturday last, on the
estate of Sir Thomas 'Whichcote, Bart., at Aswarby, near
Sleaford. The head gamekeeper and the under gamekeeper
were out shooting rabbits, eke former taking the line of the
bottom,
o hedge,ttom na thed th
the
h latteread o
keeper
ec
eupp:g a position in the field some
distance away. Suddenly rabbit started from the hedge
nfired, killing the rabbit. Some
of the shot struck the root a a tree, and one glancing off at
an obtuse angle, entered th( eye of the under keeper, pene-
trating to the bra n, and kil int; him on the spot.
THE BISHOPS AND TUE SUNDAY EXCURSION
TR A
fleeting was held last even-
ing at IN
Cambridge .—A crowded
hall,earnan-street, Oxford-street, Mr.
Loaden in the chair, for the purpose of publicly protesting
against the recent attempt cf the episcopal bench to induce
directors of railways to discontinue the running of excursion
trains on the Sunday. The Tjhairman havimg briefly opened
the procet dings, the roeutin; was addressed by Dr. Rafitt,
Messrs. Medland, Slack-, Ronny, Morrell, and other gen-
tlemen, and a resolution \las adopted, with three dissen-
tients, c mdemnatory of tee proceedings of the bishops.
A memorial to railway directors was also adopted, pray-
ing them to continue the Sunday excursion trains during
the ensuing excursion seasoa. A vote of thanks was passed
to the committee of the Sunday League for convening the
The long-Announce
meeting, and to the chairmul for presiding.
-Muerte do Portici was re-
vived at the Grand Opem, Paris, on Monday even-
ing. The housewas crowdodAnd the rept esentation of Auber's
work was, it is stated,
in the highest degree successful. The
Tcmps says :—" The celebrated duet ' Amour sacre de la
Patric' produced as usual an immense effect : it aroused the
enthusiasm of the entire house, and the patriotic emotion
which filled the audience was a long time in subsiding."
The scenery and dresses, it is reported, are very splendid. 1

FRANCE.

PARIS, JAN. 22.

The Illonsteur of this morning publishes a report,
signed by MM. Persigny and Rouher, which is fol-
lowed by a decree of the Emperor opening credits
of 5,000,000 f. for the Ministries of the Interior and
Public Works.

These credits are destined for the subvention of
works of communal utility, for the assistance of
benevolent institutions, and for the execution of
works of an industrial character.

The 'Paris papers of this morning publish tele-
grams from Lisbon, dated January the 21st, assert,
ting that the Duke de Saldanah will take the
Presidency of the Council, and that he will be re-
placed at Rome by the Marquis de Louie.
The Pays adverts to the rumours prevalent with
regard to the French successes in Puebla. It states
that the accounts are satisfactory, inasmuch as
they come from a quarter which would not will-
ingly give credit to any news at all advantageous to
France. It expresses a hope that General Forey
has purposely delayed the departure of the expected
steam vessel, in order that on its arrival it might
convey the decisive intelligence of success to the
French arms,

The same journal announces the death of Madame
Cardinal, who had for forty years held an academy
for young persons. The highest testimony is ac-
corded to her merits, and the zeal with which she
aided the cause of literature.

The Constituttonnel mentions the marriage of
the Marshal Canrobert to Miss Macdonald, who
counts among her ancestors the celebrated Flora
Macdonald, who was of so much service to Charles
Edward. It also mentions that the Princess Ma-
thilde has arranged to give a grand entertainment
in the artistic style for which she is renowned.
L' Opinion Nationale, of this morning, discusses
the effects of the possible election of the Duke of
Saxe Coburg to the throne of Greece. Prince
Alfred, it remarks, would then become a member of
the Germanic Confederation, with a voice in the
Diet, and, being supported by British influence,
would greatly increase the influence of his small
principality. Prussia and Austria, who perform
alternately the parts of Jean gui pleure et Jean gui
rit, will take opposite sides in this matter. Prussia
will rejoice, inasmuch as the family ties and the
common religion will favour them, while the late
despatch of Earl Russell will render Denmark
very reluctant to see such an arrangement. Austria
will look with a suspicious eye on the change, and
would much prefer the accession of Prince Augus-
tus of Saxe-Coburg. This, however, is impossible,
as the constitution does not allow a Catholic prince.
France herself would not view with satisfaction
any increase of English influence on the banks of
the Rhine, which might arise in the uncertain times
in which we live. The Grecian question is thus
complicated in the extreme, but it appears impos-
sible to rely on the protocols of 1829 to exclude
from the throne of Greece the Duke of Saxe-Coburg
Gotha.

BOURSE, Jan. 21.—The market has not been
animated. Threes (for the Account) were at 69f
950. The Railway Share market has been heavy.
Towards the close the market became very buoy-
ant, Stock was in demand, and business left off as
follows :

4i per Cents ..
Do. mid
3 per Cents
Do. end month 7O 05
New 3 per Cents
Do. end month -
Credit Mobilier 1167 50
Do, end month 1168 75
RAIL'

Bank Shares 3400 --
Credit k oncier l4BO
Piedmontese Fives
Italian Loan . 70 70
Russian

Austrian
Spanish Threes 53
Home Debt

'AYS.

Cash. Account.
Orleans 1690 .. 1086 25
Northern
Nevi ditto
4ons and Mediterranean 1170 .. 1165
Oeneva 4lB 75 .. 416 .
Southern B3l 25 .. 835
Western
Eastern
Sardinian -
Austrian
Lorpbard
North of Spain
Saragossa 662 50 .. 660
Ditto to Barcelona

MADRID, JAN. 21.

It is stated that Marshal Serrano is desirous of
re-establishing a good understanding between
France and Spain.

EGYPT.

ALEXANDRIA, JAN. 21.
The Consular Body was received by the new
Viceroy yesterday, and presented the following
address :

"The Consular Body has the honour to present to your

Highness its sincere felicitations upon your happy accession

to the Viceroyalty. Each of us has had the honaur to know
your Highness in private life, and on more than one occa-
sion to appreciate the eminent qualities which led your
Highness to avoid, with a reserve as dignified as it was wise,
taking any part in public business during the late Govern-
ment. Your Highness knew how to obtain respect
by respecting the rights of others. By devoting all
your activity to improve the condition of your
vast estates, your Highness afforded a model of
good Government. During the Regency which your
Highness was called upon to assume you were able, despite
the difficulties of the position, to secure the earnest sympa-
thies of the people whose destiny was committed to your
charge, and in dealing with the foreign representatives your
Highness gave proofs of firmness and justice that inspired
the profound respect of the whole colony. Such ante-
cedents offer the best guarantee for the future of Egypt.
The European Powers all have the same interest in the
progress of a country, as important by its geographical
position as by its fertility and wealth, and in the develop-
ment o: its commerce, the source of prosperity as much for
the different nationalities which we represent as for the

inhabitants of the country which your Highness is called
upon to govern. That this common interest cannot be
more surely attained than by the serious and enlightened
mind of your Highness, the Consular Body is deeply con-
vinced, and, therefore, unites in one and the same wish that
Heaven may preserve your Highness during many long
years for the well-being and prosperity of Egypt."

After having thanked the Consular Body for the
good wishes expressed in the above address, the

Viceroy said :

" I am deeply impressed with the task which God has
imposed upon me by recalling my uncle, and placing me at
the head of the Government of Egypt, and I hope, under the
auspices of his Imperial Majesty, my august Sovereign, to
be able to worthily fulfil it.

2" I am firmly resolved, gentlemen, to devote to the pros-
perity of the country which I am called upon to govern all
the perseverance and energy whereof lam capable. The
base of all good administration is order and economy in the
finances. This order and economy I shall follow by every
possible means, and, in order to give an example to all, as
well as a proof of my firm intention, I have resolved upon
abandoning the system of my predecessors, by fixing for
myself a civil list, which I shall never exceed.
" This measure will enable me to devote to the develop-
ment of agriculture all the resources of the country. I shall
thus also be able to abolish the fatal system of forced labour
(corvees) hitherto followed by the Egyptian Government in
its works, and which is the principal, and I may say, the
only cause which has prevented, and still prevents, the
country from taking all the development of which it is
susceptible, Due consideration shall also be paid to the
system of free trade in Governmental measures, which will
cause comfort to be diffused among all classes of the popu:
lation. As regards moral questions, public instructions,
which is the basis of all progress, and a good administra-

tion of justice, which is the basis of public security, Rill
have all my sr licitude, and from order in the finances
and the public administration and the good administration
of justice will result greater facility and security in the
relations of Egypt with European Powers. I hope, gentle-
men, that, convinced of the sentiments by which I am
animated, you will always afford me your loyal and en•
lighted support."

M. Beauv4l, the French r9cirfientative, then
spoke, and said that the French Government had
always recommended that the system of forced