The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-12 00:00:00

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THE EGYPTIAN SYSTEM.

Thc Pacha knew noticing of cotton-spinning, but
!
every body arcund him was willing to humour his whim,
and profit by his ignorance. He paid like a prince for
old lead, and worthless French machinery, which was
perpetually going out of repair, and which there were
no arrangements for mending. Poor Fellah peasantry
in the lowest state of ignorance were seized on en mane
to work them and imprisoned in the factories till two
kind-hearted kinsmen or friends came forward to go bail
for each, that they would not run away. Those who had
no friends suffered perpetual imprisonment there, and the
whip was employed asprimum mobile. They were allowed
nominal wages of about 3i d. per day, but their accounts
were only settled about every 12 or 13 months. Mean-
, time they were advanced one-third in the shape of
bread as an allowance for subsistence on account at the
rate of about I
,id. per day. The poor wretches were
noirly ; givenowe (i
the
oahegmrsoe bread
nopoly ofrom
supplytlieP;bicrbta'ilsebnaoktenri,ntavilio w
profittis
of their
~07 Theytit:).lih(r!'ss'; virilt.fillien:rprateeetlia:di ao7ll;ineilikaai;
t,:r1:1,13(11,1.:1 o,,isisebt'aill
r'ititoielii,r,etckyaloti :oar titrxi,
tgeeliselreetedeagsi articles,
starvation,
fibetlatblmftiiolgoierie:'sl,'ide ilsaft3ooanarrenich,kttiall:elen'i
external
otprice."etis%rlro,leneirnrsralea
thoroughly dependent on the baker for suhaistence ; and
tshen lie was out of fuel or flaur, or, p•radventure, ;vas
oe a journey, they were left. to .uffer the pains of hun-
ger as they plied their loom';. lam assured that in one
cif the best regulated factories under English superin-
tendence, it has been no uncommon thing to find them
left without food froth breakfast time on Monday till
supper time on Tuesday ! When the managers found
the shuttles or mules moving faintly, and inquired the
cause, they would perhaps find the poor patient
wretches starving! Bat they could not mend mat-
ters ; complaints were useless. They were working trl
the Paella's system, and, if they wished to keep their
men naive, they must put their hands into their own
purses, and send to their own baker for a letskst full to
distribute in charity among theni. Of course, Dr. Bats-
ring was not permitted to see such sight's, Neither did
he see how the poor workmen were provided for per-
force, when they were getting naked, by the distribution
of pieces of calico among them at " Paella's price ;"
nor how they were supplied tv:th beef at prime cost
when a mill ox caught the plague or the stasgers, and
after years of labour became insensible to the lash!
The Nazir must square his accounts at all events ; arid
the most approved plan was to cut the deceased bul-
lock's throat, cut bins up into fragments, and charge
these to the workman's accounts at a rate that would
repay the Pacha for what the animal cost years
ago. This is a point in the Egyptian factory SI seem
to which English civilization hes not yet attained. The
happy result is, that the cattle may be neglected, over-
driven or starved in the work, and still the Nazir's he-
lance-sheet shall exhibit no defalcation ! Dmilatless
your manufacturing readers will stare at the mention of
cotton spinning mechinary impelled by oxen. Mais pc
voulez eons ? The Pacha would have man efact ores ;
but he had no fuel in Egypt for steanaengines, and
no fall for water-wheels, except in the very bed of the
Nile ; so he was obliged to content himself with oxen,
although the act of changing or stopping for an ins; snt
altered the cards and spoiled the work. Tne Paella,
too late, found that he was riding a very expensive
hobbyhorse, and so economy became the watchword in
the factories. No time was allowed to clean the ma-
chinery ; even wiping it was declared a dead loss, for so
much oil was carried away thereby (independent of
what teas stolen and eaten by the hall.famishNl work-
men,) and at last it became a point of emuiation
1 to work the driest and most squeaking in ichinery.
The managers, who complained of this to " the
Council of Public In 4 ruction," got the charac-
ter of wasteful fellows. If they found a good worktn in
or an industrious hand in their factorier, .arel recom-
mended that his wages should be increased, to make
a distinction between him and the idle and incompe-
tent, they were censured as innovating spendthrifts.
Then to mend the matter, when recruits were wanted
the pressgangs were sent to the cotton-mills, and often
took away those who had learned something of the
management of the m ichinery. Various practical re-
forms were suggested by the English managers and en-
gineers, which all stuck fast in tho " Council of Pub-
lic Instruction," or in one of its subordinate divans,
composed of men who knew no more of manufactures
or machinery than so many donkeys. The result
was that everything got gradually worse and worse,
until at last the Paella's 44 manufactories died a natural
death. Despite all the expenses bestowed on the manu-
facture, he never could produce one article fit for the
market,and I know, as afact, that his cotton-twist sent to
Bombay, and thence to Calcutta, was returned to
Cairo as unsaleable. " They wouldn't have it at no
price." We need not wonder at this. The cotton had
been wrought from the first amid dust and dirt, damp
or sunshine,
,lust as It • hazogued,-, Grid the waste was
worked up with it by order. of the Council of l'ubli.:, ,
Instruction and its fihere of Divans, on economical--
grounds. Not the slightest attentioe was paid to tem-
perature in the manufactories, and the working popu-
lation were left in such a destitute condition, that the
superintendents were occasionally obliged to keep a
pig's foot lying in the oil for the machinery, to pre-
vent its being used for food by them. Toe manu-
facture of silk stuffs has been similarly abandoned,
and the factory of Houdsel-Marsoud, in Cairo, is the
only place where muskets and small arms are now
fabricated. The citadel there, and the arsenal here
in Alexandria, rested from their labours in that hear
(except to execute repairs) even before the recent visit
and convention of Commodore Napier.

NOTES-1711071f PARIS.

FEMALE SCAv ENGERS.—:STIa7r,e upon France, lilscly
styled bythe i
ftes r briai
caen tiss
leg Trial "he
Para
do
icsceu poaft i oWn nl
unut,"
England never imposed on her most worthless daughters.
Only the young and bard), of the stronger sex are em-
ployed in the paria traie of scavenger in England,
none others being fit to cope with the discr)mfort of
stifling dust in summer, and continual mud in winter.
The streets of Paris, however, at this moment offJr-
the most distressing spectacle of age I and decrepit
women, toiling by dozens in the wet, heavy mud, with
hich their miserable clothing also is saturated ; a drip-
ping broom or shovel is alternately placed in the
girdle on their backs, and their wrinkled tcatures aro
scarcely discernible through the splashings of crowds of
carriages, which, whirling rapidly among these feeble
old creatures, seem continually to threaten the miserable
remnant of their days. There can scarcely be imagined
a more deplorable spectacle than these aged women
toiling at such heavy work without the assistance of
men, and held so low in the consideration of the* volatile
crowd that they arc not unfrequently thrown deign by
heedless drivers.

Another class of work which frequently falls to the lot
of aged women is the fatiguing and chilly labour of carry-
ing water, during the severe weather, to houses whessi
the fountains and pumps are frozen. As some of the fa-
milies supplied live on the fourth or filth floors of the tall
houses, the treadmill task of the infirm poor creatures
is hardly paid by tho two sous charged per bucket.
A this d class of severe labour, often imposed on womens
here , is the sawing and cutting up of wood for fuel,
which they do in all weathers in the exposed and
windy court-yards. At the wood-stores purchasers can
only procure wood in large pieces as it conies irons
the forest ;it is therefore a trade to cut up the blocks.
into convenient lengths for the fire-places, and near
the wood stores is generally seen a collection of men
and women, waiting to be engaged for that purposo•
The women are singularly expert with their slurp little,
saws, which glide rapidly through the logs placed on
a cross•legged stand like a portable garden chair ; they
then, unassisted, carry heavy loads of the cut wood to
its destination in the cellars or up the eternal stairs,
and finally, with a few sous, and the mighty perquisite
of the saw-dust, they set off happy and singing to seek
a similar toil.
FASHION OF BEARDS.—The hideous aisguise of men
wearing their beards unshaven is becorn!rig very pre,-
valsnt in France. At all times mustachios and %yids-
boutt aotf present the
use of the razor is goiainage,
or by a public'."ail
kers have been cherished here ; .
dubal
if you go to a p
at least half the men with ia' cryle
fashion may be I passable passaahe ire
allowed to grow. Now this
d, never having
veyance, you will fin-
I been cut, is
the East, where
theofbear uniform
flexible, flowing; sind one me with the hair ,
different is the. case. among Europeans, whose
but far into bristles
beards are converted from having been early
shaved,
and these bristles are of every tint from black,
brown, red, yellow, drab, to white. In the a
rusts-,army
there is no regulation on this point, and in the same re-
giment you will see some officers with small mustachios
only, some with long pointed ends like awls, others
with merely a tip on the under lip, others with a fringe
of whiskers entirely round the chin, and some faces iii
which one may look in vain for mouth or chin, so com-
pletely are they buried in the whole beard. Then, there
are peaked beards, and squared beards, and rounded
beards ; smoothed beards and curled beards ; beards
"dressed with oil" (like Fontenelle's asparagus); beards
polished with blacking, called cirage de Loan? ; [was ds
steeped overnight in sugar unel water to snake them
crisp ; in fact, from the abomination of the long beards,
and the abomination of the equally long hair behind, it
is sometimes difficult when the hat is on to distinguish
1 the front from the back I—Morning1—Morning Chronicle.

raitlreiclkia,swbeene,nAtdriaurme,plza:ilttil,ykesaulec,cetsiFle-
TRANQUILLISATION- OF THE COUNTY Ow
LimMr:K.—Mr. Steele has just returned in a chaise =a-
pt down tile distui be: s. Thie
nisulteir.tiatenliatev:;rrioieoornllialicuroefl.
&n. &e., organized themselves into
n(l)iinngelart''dary7ll:re:a kl,othe iirillt; ten frotn a person in the
of Croom, were re,turned, and
at that town, he will
Limerick Reporter.
egitp.
aloismyticol
ci
all
that
t.sitlii
have
~a,Oetil
h3o,
2net;:sttlit.
.......,
DF,ATII PROM COLD.-A report reaclicd town
oil Wednesday, that a murder had been committed near
Silettleston. Immediate inquiry was made by the autho-
rities, when it was ascertained that a man had been found
en the rose} near that village dead ; but on examinatieti by
A bl‘fr;CCl(l, we Undi,rrtati the d•-tili opt,lerrd in ticao boot
caused by expoKre to cold....6eotgish Guardian.

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