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 of the great Pasha who won for his
family the hereditary Viceroyalty of Egypt. He
himself, indeed, died at an advanced age, after hav-
ing wielded for a long 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 boldexccutor 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 oflbrahim, 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 rbut 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 th© 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. They
have abandoned all ideas of aggression, and taken
away every excuse for 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-
trigues against the Porte for so many years, abided
.t last strictly by the faith of treaties. The tribute
has been regularly paid, and even pledged to Euro•
pean capitalists for 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 hay,:
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 of his predecessor. Said Pasha, though
able and shrewd enough 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 t 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, an-1, 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 condition 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 ba able to abolish
" the fatal system of forced labour" which has
" prevented the country from taking all the de-
velopment of which it is capz.ble." 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. Wnen Mr.
Milner Gibson rose in the Town Hall of Ashton on

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Wednesday evening to present his hearers with a

concise resume of the state of England's commerce,
and the results of her commercial policy, he 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
for that very reason there are the stronger grounds
for congratulation at finding the trade of this coun-
try as prosperous as it is. With some hundreds of
thousands of operatives thrown out of employment,
the time is certainly not opportune 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
for 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-
lysed ; when direct,y 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 improvement in other
°ranches of indu ,try has redressed the balance so
seriously disturbed by the partig suspension et the