The Sun.
London, England, 1851-10-15 00:00:00

lextx,r/rt atilt

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1851

We are not surprised at the great agitation at pre-
sent prevailing among all classes of the community
on the subject of the suspension of the construction of
the projected railroad between Cairo and Suez. The
maintenance and the improvement of the overland
route to India is a matter in which almost every in-
dividual in the United Kingdom must feel a personal
interest, for there is scarcely to be found a family in
any class of society, the members of which have not
*her relations or friends or correspondents in some
portion ofcur Oriental dominions. As was well ob-
-I,evi,,i-,ue,'' 14Y the chairman of the meeting of merchants,
consider Was Yesterday held at the London Tavern to
(13,,enceer. the means to be adopted to avert the conse-
construction of
likely to ensue from the stoppage of the
the •
ing the safety railway, and from the endanger-
existing facilities and
the continuance of the
sengera and parcels across the
transit of pas-
" the interruptien of rortthe Isthmus of Suez—
way would be calamitous to thecommunication in any
igreat interests of the
commerce of this country anEa prejudicial to the
8 ministtern Empire,i
government of our immense
trem
ss.-
barrassing to her MAJESTY'
io.ag to thousands of families, who haves'thand and friends so far from them ;" and there ir s
that this most necessary communication by
dangerh
terrupted, and that we may be startled byy thee
an-
nouncement of the stoppage of the overland coalman--
-nication to India. The following extract from the
speech of Mr. BARTON, the chairman of the meeting
held yesterday, gives a summary view of the present
state of the question. lie says—" This line of com-
munication has been carried on most satisfactorily
for more than ten years. It was established by the
great ruler of Egypt, that wonderful man, MEHEMET
Azy, whose penetrating mind foresaw that great

THE SUN,

prosperity was sure to accrue to his country by
making it the highway for all the world. Under
his successor, Ina Alum PAcHA, this state of
things continued, and our relations with
his Government were satisfactory. Up to
the present moment, also, under his Highness ABBAS
PAULA, not only have those relations been in a satis-
factory state, but the PACHA, emulating the energy of
his grandsire, now proposes to improve that com-
munication by introducing into his country the
greatest of modern improvements--a railway across
the desert. The SULTAN, to the consternation
of all parties in this country, has interfered and
has prohibited the construction of that railway." We
do not believe that this prohibition is the act of the
SULTAN. ABDUL-M!SCRID has always shown him-
self liberal-minded, honourable, honest, and chival-
rous; he is no obscurantist, no bigotted opponent of
civilization and progress. The protector of KOSSUTH
is not of his ewn free will the opposer of the railway
across the isthmus; he is the victim of the false
and fraudulent misrepresentations and intrigues
of the Austrian and Russian representatives, who
desire nothing so much as the dismemberment of the
Turkish empire, and who having succeeded as they
hope in having raised the wrath of the SULTAN
against his vassal, have dispatched an Austrian
agent to Egypt for the purpose of endeavouring to
inflame the anger of ABBAS PACHA against the Porte.
As regards the abstract right of the Porte to inter-
fere for the purpose of prohibiting the construction
of this railway across the isthmus, it is clear that by
the treaty of 1841 the Porte has no such right. The
opinion of Mr. MACGREGOR, who, as a member of the
Board of Trade in 1841, assisted in negotiating this
very treaty, is decisive on this point. The Hon.
Member for Glasgow, in addressing the meet-
ing at the London Tavern yesterday, said,
that with respect to the interference of
the Porte for the purpose of preventing the con-
struction of the railway, "he was decidedly of
opinion, having been for several years one of the
Board of Trade, and a member of it when
the treaty of 1841 was negotiated, and having
had the whole commercial interests of the British
empire and of the world perpetually under his view,
and especially all treaties which might in any way
interfere with the usual channels of British trade and
navigation—it was, he repeated, his decided opinion,
and he could also say it was the opinion
of the Government that succeeded that which
ratified the treaty of 1841, that the Porte had no
right whatever to interfere in the internal affairs of
Egypt. The Government then thought that
the treaty of 1841 merely demanded, as a
quid pro quo, that the hereditary rulers of
Egypt should pay out of their revenues a certain
sum to the Porte, thereby acknowledging that the
Porte had no right to interfere with the internal
affairs of the Viceroy of EGYPT. That was his (Mr.
MA coaEcoa's) decided opinion, and be was very much
mistaken if that was not the opinion of Lord PAL-
MERSTON, not only at the present time, but at the
time he ratified the treaty of 1841. Ten years had
now elapsed, and, as his Hon. Friend the Member
for Orkney had stated, that which had been done in
practice had become binding by usage, and showed
what the effect of that treaty was. He believed that
this movement did not emanate from the Porte, but
from sources not friendly to British commerce and
navigation." There cannot be a doubt as to the cor-
rectness of this last assertion of Mr. MAC-
GREGOR, the movement does not emanate
from the Porte, and when the matter shall
have been properly explained to the SULTAN and his
Ministers, they will at once perceive that, to use the
words uttered by Lord PALMERSTON in the House of
Commons on the sth of August last—" The Pacha of
EGYPT was entitled to make the railroad out of his
own funds according to the firman which was granted
to him in 1841." That Lord PALMERSTON has
already taken up this question we cannot for a mo-
ment doubt ; neither can we doubt but that he will
bring it to a satisfactory and honourable conclusion ;
in the meanwhile, however, it would be desirable, in
order to strengthen his position, that the demonstra-
tion made yesterday by the merchants of London
should be followed up by similar demonstrations in
every town of the United Kingdom.

The views of the veteran Reformer, JOSEPH Hume,
on any contemplated or suggested amelioration, must
at all times be received with respect and attention.
Time has been, before it was fashionable to be a Re-
former, when he stood, if not alone, at least with but
few coadjutors, to insist upon the constitutional rights
of the people, and the removal of the glaring abuses
that had sprung up during successive ages. The
most bitter attacks were made on him. Assailants
sprung up on every side,
" Thick as leaves on Vallombrosa."
And why ? It was believed that the most
acceptable service that could be rendered to
the Ministry for the time being, was a for-
midable onslaught on " the Radical," par excellence,
of the House of Commons. Ridicule was freely
resorted to, but the barbed arrows fell harmless on
the sevenfold shield with which the intended victim
was protected, or recoiled on those by whom they had
been transmitted. Honour and honesty, sound
common sense, great practical experience, a thorough
appreciation of the wrongs of those of whom
he was the champion, a clear knowledge of the
causes to which those grievances might fairly
be ascribed, and, above all, a zealous and
unflinching determination to devote all his energies
to the removal of these causes, were the materials of
which his buckler—more impenetrable than that pos-
sessed by the son of TELAMON—consisted. He was
equally impregnable to the other methods of taming
refractory Members. All the persuasions of the
whipper-in of the day were as useless as the per-
sonal attacks. He could not be silenced either by
bullying or cajolery, or by the more substantial re-
wards at the disposal of the " patronage secretary,"
Under every circumstance, and at each stage of his
useful and varied career, he maintained his position
as the steady, consistent, judicious, incorruptible, and
efficient advocate of the popular cause. His fair
fame has never for a moment been tarnished, and the
sagacity of his views have generally been established,
even when opposed for a time by some of his coadju
tors and disciples.

Recognising fully the importance of popular sup-
port, it is by no means surprising that the Hon. Gen-
tleman should have been desirous of ascertaining
the opinions of so important a body as the
citizens of Edinburgh on the two great
questions of Fiscal and Parliamentary Reform.
He was also anxious to vindicate his own consistency
in the course which he had adopted in reference to
the Income-Tax Bill, which led to the Ministerial de-
feat of last session, and the appointment of a special
Committee, notwithstanding the defection of some,
who should have been ashamed to desert the banner
under which they had previously arrayed themselves.
A. meeting was accordingly held on Monday, at the
Merchants' Hall, Edinburgh, when that spacious
apartment was crowded to the utmost degree to hear
the address of the
The first point alluded to.
.by
lion. Gentleman on the above in-
teresting topics.
showed that his motion revision of
of
anxiously looked-for Mr. HUME was the
beenwho so
taxation. He
strenuously
successful motion
of last year, that had
ogated to
bythe names of "Reformers
ctoontmued for
tohpepraosseedlvessome persons
the income and property-tax shouldtibmee was,. that
one year, " with a view of giving
whole system of taxation." That was the
object
the
to which every man who divided
with
the Honourable Gentleman deliberately pledged
himself. Had he proposed the total rejection of the
impost, in consequence of the stupid and unmeaning
opposition of the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER
and his colleagues to any alteration that could ren-
der it more equitable, he could have commanded an
equal majority. But it was not his purpose to
damage the public credit by converting the expected
surplus into a deficiency, nor did he think that a
mere alteration in the rates charged under the different
could
dat hbaed
schedulesu would be sufficient. It was not by taking
system
__13_.:12(7c tax separately that a just and politic
introduced,bee
deliberately
recognised
sanctioned by the L
practical operation, NO
could be carried into
far to permit any but 0 ; the disease had gone too
effective. We should
the boldest measures to prove
desired to obtain a
ha strike at its very root, if we
The Ronourable _ ppy result.
tientlemaa also Proud that these

LONDON,

were no new opinions, taken up for the moment,
or for
,the purpose of inflicting any injury 1
on the Government:ln 1842—when theßill was first
introduced under the ;pleasing delusion that it was to
be continued but for three years, while the national
revenue was recovering from the state of collapse into
which it had :fallen—Mr. Him declared his opinion
that it would prove unequal and unjust in its opera-
tion, and pointed out clearly and distinctly how ma-
terially it varied from the principles of the Act of
WILLIAat and MART (the most equitable fiscal
measure that was ever carried), and which
should form the precedent of all future le-
gislation on such points. That might be re-
garded as the great experiment in direct taxa-
tion, which would have proved eminently successful
if the spirit of the law had not been perverted from
its true intent and meaning, under the blighting in-
fluence of indirect imposts, which were favoured by
the tax collectors, because the people, less observant
and less intelligent than at present, were ignorant
of the enormous sums extracted from their
pockets by such agencies. His opposition
was repeated in 1845 and 1848, but it was only in
1851 that he succeeded in obtaining a majority. He
was not bound to inquire into the motives by which
some of his supporters were actuated, and it would
be strange, indeed, if he withdrew a proposition,just
and reasonable, because it was advocated on unstates-
manlike or untenable grounds. He triumphed—we
rejoice to say—and it is for the people of England to
turn that victory of their faithful and efficient friend
and advocate to the best purposes. They must not remain
sluggish or apathetic. They must exert themselves
vigorously and energetically, if they desire that the
first success should lead to propitious results. This
is the time for activity, and any professing Reformer
who now remains indifferent will have, himself to
thank for any grievances to which he may be subject
in the interval between 1852 and 1855.