The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-28 00:00:00

EGYPT.

A letter from Alexandria, dated April 17, says :
—.I have on several occasions had to refer to the
financial embarrassments which of late have been
gradually growing up and perplexing the formerly
smooth course of the Egyptian Government. A sys-
tem of reckless expenditure—or rather an utter want
of order and system, and-a habituarpractite df
squandering money upon all sorts of extravagant
and frivolous objects, are the main source of this
great and serious evil ; but other causes have been
at work, and among them must be reckoned the
constant claims for indemnities of one description
or another, which are incessantly urged against the
Government, and which are hardly less remarkable
for their success than for the monstrous and extra-
vagant nature that usually distinguishes them.
The sums are always pitched at a high figure,
and in the aggregate they tell heavily upon the
Egyptian Treasury; indeed, they would form a
serious burden to any country. A recital of par-
ticulars would, however, be more wearisome than
interesting to most of your readers ; but there is
one claim at the present moment against the
Egyptian Government which in some points differ
from those above alluded to. It, moreover, involves
an important question of principle, and its decision
must necessarily be of such vital importance to this
country that I cannot dispense with offering you
an outline of the case.

Your readers are aware that according to the
terms of the firman of 1840 the Government of
Egypt is hereditary in the family of the late Mo.:
hammed Ali Pasha, not in a direct line of succes-
sion, but passing from the eldest to the eldest of his
descendants ; hence it is that at the death of the
Viceroy his personal heir takes possession of his
private property, while a more distant relative suc-
ceeds to the Viceroyalty. The difficulty, however,
is to determine what is to be regarded as private
property. The Viceroy is under the obligation of
remitting a certain annual tribute to Constantino-
ple, but herewith all further dependence upon the
Suzerain Power is at an end, and, after defraying
the expense of the administration of the country,
the surplus revenue, lately estimated at about a
million and a-half sterling, has always been re-
garded as absolutely his own, to be applied to
any purpose he may think fit.
On the death of Abbas Pasha, his son El Hami
Pasha succeeded to the property he had amassed
during his reign, comprising the palaces and even
barracks he had built and the lands he had acquired
in various parts of the country out of his surplus
revenues, besides a large sum in hard cash. In
addition to these, however, the young Prince
claimed the Alexandria and Cairo Railway,which
it was argued was part of his father's estate, having
been constructed out of the funds which were
equally his private property as those who had
served for other investments.

The claim was disallowed, and at the request of
Said Pasha the European Consuls-General were
convened at a meeting, and signed a declaration
that, in their opinion, the spirit of the Imperial fir-
man was to the effect that all works of public utility
constructed out of the revenue were to be looked
upon as the property of the State. Herewith the
matter was dropped. El Hami Pasha was then a
mere child, and shortly afterwards he left for Con-
stantinople, where a very few years have sufficed
to squander away the magnificent inheritance he
had obtained from his fattier. Now, however, he
has returned to Egypt, making claims upon the
Government to the amount of 14,000,000 sterling,
the chief item consisting of the Alexandria and
Cairo Railway, and of the rolling stock and mate-
rial which belonged to it. The consular declara-
tion, lie argues, merely represents the individual
opinions of the persons present at the meeting, and
is in no way binding upon him, but, as it would be
hopeless for him to contend, single-handed, with
the despotic Government of Egypt, he has made
over his claims to three Europeans, who demand the
intervention of the representatives of their respec-
tive Governments to see justice done to them. One
of these claims to be a British subject, and her Ma-
jesty's agent and Consul-General thus also become
involved in the dispute. But a technical question
has arisen—namely, whether the party in question
is in this instance entitled to the protection he de-
mands, and Mr. Colquhoun has, I am informed,
refused to interfere. The claim has been re-
ferred to Constantinople ; but, as I have said be-
fore, it is the question of principle which is the
main point, for, whichever of the two constructions
might be placed upon the firman, the result to
Egypt would be equally disastrous. If it should
be decided that El Hami Pasha's claim is a just one,
nothing would remain to prevent the Viceroys of
Egypt from making use of the uncontrolled autho-
rity they possess to convert everything in the coun-
try—perhaps the land itself—into private property
for their families. If, on the other hand, it be held,
according to the opinions of the Consuls, that public
works are the property of the State, it will become
the sole interest of the ruler to amass and hoard
every sum he can lay his hands upon. The con-
struction of railways will come to an end, the canals
required for irrigation and for internal communica-
tions will fall into disrepair and become choked up,
agriculture as a necessary consequence will become
restricted to its narrowest limits, and the country
must end by falling into almost utter ruin.
The knot is one which cannot be unloosed, but
must be dealt with in a summary manner, and this
can only be done with the assistance of the Euro-
pean Powers who were parties to the settlement of
1840, and among these it is to the British Govern.
ment alone that Egypt can look for real assistance.
Other countries have taken but little pains to con-
ceal their utter indifference to its welfare, and, in-
deed, they have not the motives which compel Eng-
land to take a lively interest in the prosperity and
independence of this country. The English peo-
ple, therefore, cannot stand by and see the source
of public wealth and progress diverted into private
channels for the purpose of feeding the cupidity or
of gratifying the senseless indulgence of the Egyp-
tian rulers, and they will need to be prepared to
exercise their just and legitimate influence towards
obtaining the settlement of a public question such
as the present, on the broad basis of general rights
and justice, whatever may be the interpretation
which, for the sake of individual interests, it may
be sought to lay upon the letter of the law.
The Pera, from Southampton, arrived yesterday,
and her mails and passengers have gone forward to
Suez, where the Nemesis has already arrived and
is waiting to convey them towards their destina-
tions in India and China. The Marseilles portion
of the mail is expected early to-morrow morning.
It not unfrequently happens that complaints
arise from the boisterous conduct of some among
the passengers on their way through to or from
India. They often exhibit their high flow of spirits
by brutal and cruel treatment of the natives with
whom they come in contact, and especially of the
unfortunate boys to whose lot it may fall to drive
their donkeys. Ido not remember, however, ever
to hare heard of an instance to equal what occurred
on the transit of the passengers by the last outward
Bombay mail. A snail party who had arrived here
by the China had gone apparently to visit the
Alabaster Mosque in the citadel, the burialplace of
Mohammed Ali Pasha, and hero they thought fit
to conduct themselves in a manner which it is really
difficult to describe. They hooted and yelled, slid
on the marble pavement, and mimicked the tones
and postures of the Mahommedans engaged in
prayer. It happened that Said Pasha was present
in the mosque. On hearing the uproar he sent one
of his officers to the persons who were causing the
disturbance, and requested them to desist and to
leave the mosque, but they refused to do either, and
their conduct became more outrageous than ever,
until they were forcibly thrust out of the building.
Said Pasha behaved in the matter with exemplary
' moderation and good sense, but he has naturally
felt deeply incensed at what he views as a personal
insult. _ _ _

Hui it not been for his presence the people in

Tr's
the Mosque would to a ecttainfr:4ll,S4
:missive, and the drawing of it. 81!i.1
blood would in all probability haN4--if
trous results. In consequence of these .
Mosque, which by the liberality of the Government
was hitherto open to strangers, has been closed
against all Europeans.
I am informed that Mr. Colquhoun has reported
the matter to Engl;:ind, and it is to be hoped that the
names of the persons concerned will be discovered,
and that means will be found to visit their conduct
with some description of punishment. Indeed, such
conduct on the part of men who, from the positions
they occupy, might be expected to possess the
manners and feelings of gentlemen, is a source of
humiliation to all Englishmen.

CIL UR 11,1 TES.

..
In a book' which contains In—ore common sense
than is generally supposed, it is wz it ten that a lire
dog is better than a dead lion. This is a truth
which lies at the foundation of political reform and
r Ig,ressive improvement. A large part of the
world is
eNivntaat)islie,
rill ilt.iyogu s '
through
soie
ti.•i:.izt l attires
lion." It
buries n
the musty hide—it grins through the teeth and
enta'lTsi
regard
:e'll
o that which has been, and which time will never
•es tore. But as man is a living thing, as lions and
logs are made for man, and not man for either lions
or, dogs, and as the means and appliances of his
higher as well as his lower life ought to grow with
his growth and strengthen with his strength, so the
" hying dog," inferior though it be, is infinitely
more to his purpose than any dead remains. When
houses become sepulchres, and institutions become
prisons, it is time to leave them. We possess in this
country a political dead lion, a fossil establishment,
in the old chnich,rate. It pre-eminently a thing
out of which'growth, and life, and sap have long
departed. Pretending to be the maintenance of the
Churcbifabrics, it grows not with the Church or
its fabrics—At will not enlarge a church or multi-
ply churcheo,"Or follow the congregation, or retire
from the spot viliereAt is noionger wanted, or with-
hold its clams froM the place or the people -whom
it can lielb*A eer ben'el7C-43neeextinguishedvit-oon.
not revive—the dead branches fall off one by one,
but there are no fresh shoots. It is no more a real
tree than a tree in china, or in copper, or a com-
pilation of dead branches in a birdcage. There
is nothing in modern institutions so stiff and
unaccommodating. It is the shrunk arm that
requires a constant; sling, or the shrunk limb that
dangles uselessly by the side of the wooden leg.
Such institutions there have been in times past, and
much time has been lost in clearing them away,
except, indeed, when the obstinacy of mankind let
them accumulate till nothing but a revolution could
do the work. A revolution, and a wild one, is the
usual Nemesis of a system which is oppressive with-
put being beneficial, and which rests upon right
instead of use. Of churches, as well as palaces and
Castles, it is found at last, that he that biildeth his
house with other men's money heapeth up stones
to his own sepulchre.
Mr. Whiteside is one of those sentimental politi-
cians who care not how dead an institution be if it
can afford a theme for an oration. He can bring
excellent music out of marrow-bones. The Irish
church rate, the vestry-cess, is no more, and the
church there is all the stronger and quieter for the
riddance ; but what of that ? The lesson is lost on
Mr. Whiteside. He can trace the death of the
English institution from its birth, and find it al-
ways failing, only to bid us rely still on this ob-
solete ne'er do well. It springs, he says, from the
common law,;which common law has its origin in
the interests and wishes of the. people. But ages
ago common law ceased to enforce it, and neither
common law nor any law has carried it to
building a new church or maintaining a second
church in a parish since the Reformation,
even if it had ever done so before. The utmost
research only establishes that the church
rate was at best, and' in the first, a supple-
mentary aid, and an imperfect system, enforced
by Church Law in default of any other, and left a
mere matter of custom appertaining to particular
fabrics. We need not travel out of this metropolis,
summon any witnesses, quote any petitions, or cite
any authorities, except those before all the world.
On Thursday night the Bishop of London reminded
the House of Lords that in the City of London, a
space about a mile long and half a mile wide, with
a population not much exceeding 100,000, there are
58 churches. Every one of these, we believe, raises
large Church-rates. In the parish of St. Pancras
there are about 200,000 inhabitants, or near twice
the population of all the 58 City of London parishes,
but sot a farthing of Church-rate is collected.
Every church there is maintained entirely by pew-
rests and voluntary contributions. The same may
be said of most of our large and populous parishes,
such as St. George's, llanover.square, and St.
James's, embracing the most aristocratic regions of
the metropolis. In a recent appeal by the Bishop
of London on behalf of Church Extension he stated
that there were 60 parishes or districts each with
one
largercll unrucl ilti
bfeorr,lso,omooeo
fsooru lsth,
imr
toys tof
. or
forty
fora
yi
th oumh
s auncd.
For there cases, embracing the greater part of the
metropolis, the Church-rate system is utterly incf-
feet lye ; either it has become obsolete, or, being still
in force, it builds no new churches. But it is not
with respect to large cities and the masses of popu-
lation that the controversy is maintained. The
" dead lion" is lauded and upheld as the Pella-

aium of the Church of Englund, not for the
multitudes ready to perish for lack of shepherds
and folds and spiritual food—not for people at all,
but for the sake of some supposed miserable little
fabrics somewhere on some mountain, or down far
away from people, and therefore to be invested with
a held upon property. Throughout the whole cf
these discussions the people are put out of count. It
is not for them that the rate is demanded, for, in
truth, it is well known the rate does not give them
churches, or even maintain the churches which they
may build. It is demanded for a few fabrics—
which we are invited to imagine may be found
somewhere over the isle—under such very unfavour-
able circumstances, and already so near ruin wader
the law of church rates, that without the rate they
must fall to the ground altogether.
But the very obsoleteness, inequality, and insuf-
ficiency of the rate, which condemn it in the eyes
of a statesman, are its chief recommendations in
the eyes of the Church sentimentalist. Because it
is nothing but a principle, therefore it is invested
with more mysterious virtues than would be attri-
buted to an institution in full vigour and efficiency.
This is the old rule of all idolatries, which ever
most worshipped that which was ugliest and most
mutilated. There is a "principle" in a hideous
black figure that scarce has a feature, or even a
limb, which there is not in a beautiful and expres-
sive statue, much less in that which lives and
breathes and has an eternal soul. In point of
fact, the Legislature has long since repudiated,
if ever it maintained, the duty of the State to
keep up the fabrics of the Established Church.
It no more compels that than it can be said to com-
pel a landowner to keep up the dwellings on his
property. It never did more than give certain
parishes the power of levying rates for the main-
tenance of certain fabrics that enjoyed a peculiar
prescription for this purpose. It never compelled
a parish to maintain a church which it might
choose to let pass cut of repair. It did allow hun-
dreds of churches, even in the last century, to go
out of repair and fall to the ground, till they have
disappeared altogether: It never attempted to en-
force the maintenance of new churc hes. It only
allowed a legal prescription to be urged in favour
of some particular churches. Latterly, by a new
interpretation of the old and doubtful law, it has
left every parish to decide for itself whether it will
keep up its parish church or let it fall to the ground,
,a choice 'which every parish shares with every
district, and every congregation of Dissenters in
the kingdom. Such is the "principle," or mystic
bond, between Church and State, which such
speakers as Mr. Disraeli can tell us constitutes
England's claim to the favour of the Almighty. It
is this that elevates us to a fellowship with Ancient
Rome, and all the old religious commonwealths of
the world. It is this, and not any Divine truths,
any priesthood, or any treasury of spiritual bless-
ings, that makes England a link in the golden chain
that descends from the skies. If this be all, then
we tremble for the parishes in which Church-rates
never have been, and never will be, paid ; and still
more for the impious fabrics raised and maintained
by vulgar voluntary means. We tremble for the
nation which has permitted at least five thousand
churches to rive up since the beginning of the cen-
tury wholly outside the pale of the compulsory
rate. We cannot believe it was this preternatural
view of the rate which led the house to pass the
third reading of the bill before it last night by so
small a majority as 9. We presume it must be
alarmed or disgusted by Mr. Bright's donaging
advocacy of the measure. That advocacy is no con-
cern of ours. "We feel this to be a Church, not a
Dissenting, question. We see neither necessity nor
sanctity in a rate which vestries may levy as they
please, which is only demanded for two churches
out of three, and even fox them is wholly unneces-
sary.— Times.

MRS. MATHEWS' FRIENDS FOR THE FlREsnE,—Mrs.
Mathews has long been a favoured visitor amongst us, mid
many a weary hour has she cheered by her sparkling anec-
dotes and vivacious table-talk, She always, therefore, re-
ceives a smiling welcome, and we assure her most sincerely
that her Fireside Friends will be greeted with the same cor-
dial reception, and both grave and gay be honoured guest
in our social circle as well as in our seasons of retirement.
Ambngst them we can choose as best meets our feelings, the
lively or the thoughtful, certain to be gratified, amused, and
instructed.