The Sun.
London, England, 1848-11-25 00:00:00

THE SUN,

EGYPT.

That renowned and fertile country—the mother of
Grecian art and of European civilization—that country of
the Pharaohs which now, by the wonderful aid of steam,
communicates in a time incredibly short with tho coasts
of Syria, Caramania, Anatolia, and the Black Sea, with
Greece, with Italy, an 1 the northern coasts of Africa.
with the coasts of Ar.lbia, wit'i the gulfs of Persia and
Bengal, with Sumatra, Java, nay even with distant
China, and sealed, f all' Japan, can never be otherwise
than an object of interest and solicitude to the merchants,
the traders, and the politicians of Great Britain. A coun-
try so rich in natural productions, so blessed by natural
site, must in any position of political circumstances force
itself on the attention of a nation such as England. Pro-
ducing corn, rice, cotton, beans, spices, precious gums,
flax, gold dust, ivory, and a third of the drugs to be found
in the materia medice of this drug-consuming country—
questions of commerce alone would commend such a
country to any sensible Englishman's favourable atten-
tion, if its unrivalled position, with the Red Sea at its
head, the Indian Ocean behind it, the Mediterranean in
front, and the matchless Nile in its centre, did not ab-
solutely force the notice of Egypt upon the considera-
tion of the statesman and the politician. The import-
ance of this land of the Ptolemies to England, great in
every commercial and general political aspect, becomes
enhanced, nay, absolutely gigantic and colossal, when
viewed in subservience to our political and commercial
correspondence with India. From the wonderful revo-
lutions recently wrought by rail and steam, the commu-
nication by Egypt becomes now more than ever a
necessary link in the chain of connexion with our
Indian empire, and there is not a civilian of any of
the presidencies, nor a soldier of the Bengal, Madras, or
Bombay armies, nor any one of their relatives or
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connexions in England, who are not interested in the
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this age of change, rife in stand-still, hitherto unchange-
able Egypt. The reader is well aware that that re-
markable man, born 80 years ago, the son of a female
slave at Kanala, in Macedonia, whose earliest life was
spent in the humblest pursuits of a small commerce in
tobacco—who in 1800 was appointed a pacha of two
tails in Egypt—who then for the first time learned to
read and w rite—and who six years afterwards, namely,
in 1806, became governor of the country with whose fate
his name has been since indissolubly bound up—the
reader, we say, is aware that Mahommed Ali, full of years I
and of infirmities, some time since retired from the fatigues
of his Government, and that in consequence the cares of
empire devolved on his second son, Ibrahim Pacha, the
successful commander in the expedition against the
Wachabees, and who visited England some three or four
years ago. From some of the latest accounts it would
appear that this son Ibrahim—the actual ruler of Egypt
—whom the old man had looked upon as his successor,
had been confined to his bed for more than three weeks,
without hope of recovery—that no person was allowed
to go near him—and that as a last resource he was to be

conveyed to the milder climate of Upper Egypt. Other
accounts intimate the impossibility of the patient's re-
covery ; while later and probably more authentic letters
speak of his death as an event which might be instantly
looked for, if, indeed, it had not already taken place.
Under these circumstances Abbas Pacha would
undoubtedly succeed to the Government of Egypt.
But that personage had left Suez for the port of
Jedda at the end of October, on a pilgrimage to the
holy cities of Mecca and Medina, on board the company's
steamer, the Feroze. It is, however, a circumstance of
fortunate augury that, ere he assumes the reigns of
power, his Highness will have an opportunity of seeing
and learning, on board a company's vessel, of how much
importance it is to the civilization and commerce of the
world, as well as to the prosperty of Egypt, over which
he is destined to rule as Viceroy, that all those facilities
accorded long ago by Mahommed Ali should to
continued—indeed augmented and increased. Such
en influence is not merely necessary to Eng-
land, in order to give us the master-key overland
to our own possessions, but it is also necessary
to the interests of European trade—to the prosperity of
Egypt itself—to the integrity of the Ottoman empire—
to the security of Pmeie—and to the good government
of the provinces washed by the waters of the " dark-
rolling" Danube. Such an influence is necessary, to
Egypt herself, ler if anything, after thirty centuries of
slavery, can reclaim a land remarkable for its teeming
fertility, unrivalled climate, and rich natural productions,
from misery and slavery, it will bo its now becoming—
we will not say continuing, for the passenger trade is
but commencing—the high road from England and
Europe to the distant east. If this truth was teat years
ago by Mahommed Ali himself, a man born in indigence,
nurtured in adversity, and who ruled Egypt more as
a proprietor seeking a profit, than a viceroy looking
to the happiness and prosperity of his subjects, how
much more keenly ought it to be felt and acknowledged
by Abbas Pacha, a man of our own time and epoch, who
has had advantages of education, culture, and observa-
tion, denied to either Mahommed Ali or Ibrahim Pacha,
his predecessors. Every traveller who has visited Egypt
during the last twenty years concurs in stating, that,
notwithstanding the natural advantages of the climate
and country, nothing can equal the misery and wretch-
edness of the inhabitants. Nevertheless, it cannot be
denied by the most prejudiced of these travellers that
Mahommed Ali was in his way, and after his own
fashion, a con,ich!rablo reformer. That he created
an army and a navy—that he introduced telegraphs—
that he commenced and extended public works—as,
for example, the canal from Alexandria to Cairo—that

.
he introduced manufactories of sager, of saltpetre,
and of gunpowder—that he established cannon foun-
dries and excavated docks—that he improved roadsteads
and harbours—cannot by friend or foe be gainsaid. But,
on the other hand, it is rqually clear and incontestable
that the Fe'labs were ground down by a severe and
grinding taxation, and that the kingdom was in a mea-
sure contiseat, d to the personal and pccuniary profit of
the money-loving end money-making Viceroy. By such
means it was that Mahon-meet Ali, accumulated immense
treasures, and realised immense receipts—receipts a hich
rendered him a wealthy and prosperous Pasha. But,
notwithstanding these acquisitions, he must ever be
considered by the historian and by posterity as rather a 1
great in-I-chant and suece,sful commercial speculator, 1
than as a gre-;t r,ler. Under his mercantile away,
Egypt became an immense graiary and a huge fabric,
in which a species of imperial merchant, manufacturer,
and agriculturist, enriched himself at the expence of the
country, whose inhabitants he over-taxed, and whose
soil he over-farmed, alreost to exhaustion. In the present
condition of Europe and of the Eatt, it becomes the
duty of a foreign Minister of Great Britain—instead of
wasting his time in a wordy war with Sotomayor, or in
a petty personal struggle with Narvaez —to turn his eyes
towards Egypt—nearer to us now than Vienna was half
a century ago—and to seek to maintain in that country,
the necessary and ~holamme preponderance and protec-
tion of Great Britain. To other great Powers an influence
in Egypt may be useful—to us in England it is indispensa-
ble; and the Minister who, in the present conjuncture of
Continental politics, loses his hold on Egypt, deserves
impeachment in the face of the Parliament and people
of England. In the E :at there is always a disposition
to submit to an appearance of strength—and to be coun-
selled by anything savouring of the prestige of power.
As it is the nature of all power to assert and vindicate
itself, so never was the occasion fairer or more fitting
for Great Britain than at this moment. Let Abbas
Pacha be made unmistakeably to understand our fixed
will—and our earnest wishes—as a question that con-
cerns his own independent life and existence—and the
intrigues of Russia in Wallachia, Bulgaria, Servia, and
Persia, and her attempts at undue influence in Constan-
tinople may be disregarded and scorned. We have ten-
dered fair counsel to the Foreign Secretary. But that
Noble Viscount sometimes allows wise words to sleep in
his ear, and listens only to the small suggestions of a
wrathful vanity. " Tant pis pour lui, pauvre here conane
it est."—Herald.

BANK OF ENGLAND.
(From last night's Gazette.)
An Account, pursuant to the Act 7th and Bth of Victoria, cap. 32, for
the Week ending on Saturday, the 18th day of November, 1848.
ISSUE DEPARTMENT.

Government debt • . 11,015,100
Other securities .... 2,084,900
Gold coin and bullion 12,690,926
Silver bullion .. • . • • 507,t09
X 27,193,835 I X 27,198,835
M. MARSHALL, Chief Cashier.
Dated the 23d day of November, 1848.
BANKING DEPARTMENT.

Notes i55ued........ 27,08,833

Proprietors' capital .. 14,553,000

Rest ..... 3,421,579
Public deposits (in-
cluding Exchequer,
Commissioners of
National Debt, Sav-
ings-banks, and Di-

Government seenri-

vidend accounts).. 5,149,495
Other deposits • • . • • . 10,014,544
Seven day and other
bills .... 1,036,211

£34,174,825

ties(including Dead
Weight Annuity).. 13,329,012
Other securities •• •• 10,769,002
Notes .. •• •• •• •• •• 9,355,690
Gold and silver coin • . 721,125

bated the 23d day of November,

£34,174,829
M. MARSHALL, Chief Cashier.
1848.

EMIGRATIONP
f.— LYMOUTII, Nov. 22.—. There are
in the Sound,itte Government Emigration ships, Stead-
wast, with
ith 264 ad
adults,
fur atute adults, all well, and the Osprey,
convicts for Hobart
Town ; and the Americas two-top-
sail
rmsttelln°Zear Crocus,
emigrants
Sturtebanks, with 150
York; she was' in the
the Burgundy, with Downs on the 13th inst., when
The Crocus took emigrants
nfrom Bremen, was lost.
Plymouth Sound on the 21st. Torbay on the 19th, and
ships—Britannia, for Port Adelaild) private emigration
for Adelaide and Port Philip, sailed from
the Diamond,
the 19th inst. Plymouth on
THE MURDER AT ST. LEONARD& II frn,.
Nov. 24. This morning the first public examination---
John Pierson, who has been in custody since Sunday
of
week on suspicion of being the murderer of mar i.
Newman, cook in the family of Miss Moore, of 6atan
rina Villa, St. Leonard's, took place at the Town-hall,
before A. Burton, Esq., mayor; J. Masningtoo, Esm
Dr. M`Cabe, F. Ticehurst, Esq.; and F. Smith, Esq.,.,
borough magistrates. The hsll was densely crowded.
Soon after eleven o'clock the prisoner was placed in the
dock. He is a young man of 23, was formerly waiter at
the Royal Oak, and subs,equently coachman for nine
months to Miss Moore, who discharged him on the 31st
October for irregular habits and neglect of duty. His
demeanour was calm, but his eye had an anxious ap-
pearance. Mr. Langham attended as his legal adviser.
Evidence having bent received which went to confirm
that already given, the prisoner, who, on being asked
what he had to say in defence, replied, " Not at present
—not till another time," was formally committed for
trial at the assizes.
SCOTTISH RAILWAYS.—The Parliamentary notices in
connexion with Scottish railways for next session indi-
cate that, with trifling exceptions, no new works will be
promoted, and most of the measures sought for will be
for internal mutual arraugemony, I