The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-20 00:00:00

973 15 0

£222 1 8 balance in favour
of Exchequer.
By the above it will be seen that the present mode
bears heavily and unequally on incomes below
£l,OOO, while the proposed plan will gradually
ease them according to their value, and thus bring
the tax within the means of the humblest, while it
will fairly and equally fall upon rich and poor, as
they are able to bear it.—l am, sir, yours, &e.,

A; B. C.

ALEXANDRIA, FEB. 4.
The Himalaya, with the men and. guns for China,
arrived at Alexandria on the 29th -ult., but none of
the troops have yet been lamb)," ncr can they hope
to be released from their cor.huement on board ship
for some days to come— not until the arrival at Suez
of the Berenice, now making her way up the Red
Sea. She left Atl'on on the 29th ult., hut being au
old and notorkasly slow boat she can hardly be ex-
pected for another four or five days.
It is singular thing that neither the present nor
Pret:eding Administrations have ever yet been able
to conduct the despatch of troops or stores by the
overland route with the ordinary regularity which
in so simple a matter might most reasonably be
looked for. It cannot, at least, be supposed that
the detention in Egypt is premeditated. Its irk-
someness to the men need not be pointed out. Any
person who has perforated a sea voyage, however
short, will remember his haste to land, and the
sense of relief he experienced at finding himself
again on terra firma.. Bat I must add that tliose
who know the old Berenice,and whoareacor_tainted
with the accommodation she can afford, cf:,nfidently
predict that the men will not proceed -`;ar on their
voyage from Suez before they look bark with regret
to their quarters on board the Himalaya, however
monotonous and tedious the life they are now lead-
ing in the harbour of Alexandria may be.
With very few exceptions, every party of men
that has been sent through Egypt has had to undergo
detentions similar to the present one, and an in-
quiry into the subject would contribute some curious
and not uninstructive instances of the fatality of
mismanagement, which seems to attend everything
connected with our military affairs, whether it be
in the most important or in the most trivial matters.
The murmurs, verging upon mutiny, which
brokeaset among a small detachment of the 92d
Highlanders some two years ago, touching the ac-
commodation supplied for their voyage from Suez,
will be present in the memory of many of your
readers ; and it will not be matter for surprise if the
Artillery by the Himalaya loudly express their dis-
content when they become personally acquainted
with the boat provided for their voyage to China.
If, as is indicated by the experience of the past
four years, the Egyptian route must henceforward
be permanently kept open for the passage of troops,
it will be absolutely necessary that a suitable de-
scription of transport be kept available on the fur-
ther side of the isthmus, and, what is equally impor-
tant, that a better system be adopted. Under the
present one there is little economy of either time or
money, and an emergency may any day arise to
cause us bitterly to regret our present short-sighted
negligence.
The 14th Dragoons, it is said, are shortly eoming
through on their way home ; but as far as can be
understood from the Aden telegram, they are not
on board the Berenice, and the detentiou of the
Himalaya will consequently not be at an end even
after she has landed her present freight.
Said Pasha has returned from his trip to the upper
country, and is recruiting himself from his fatigue
at his palace on the Mareotis. Possessed as he ie
with an intense mania for all things military, the
passage of the Armstrong guns, as may be expected,
has a rather tantalising effect upon hint, and he is
said to express a strong wish to see them; but whe-
ther it will be possible to gratify his curiosity is un-
certain. Within the last few months he has had a
large number of guns rifled under the superintend-
ence of Col. Minie, it is said with excellent results.
There is not much change in the state of Egyptian
financial affairs, but that little, it is gratifying to
say, is for the better. The Government bonds con-
tinue to be regularly met as they fall due, and in
some few instances they have lately even been dis-
counted by the Treasury at the Government rate of
interest of 6 per cent per annum. But this, it is
true, has been the case only with bonds touching
close upon maturity, and further emissions prevent
any important reductionin the floating amount. The
heaviest sums fall due in the course of the present
year, after which it is said the amount of these se-

eurities will be gradually reduced to £200,000, which
sum, I am informed, the Government has expressed
its determination not to exceed. Meanwhile, as an
earnest of his good intention, the Viceroy has ini-
tiated his projected measures of economy by dis-
banding a portion of his troops.
The present rate of discount on bonds having
from one to two years to run is from about 14 to 10
per cent. per annum.
We are in daily expectation of hearing of the
completion of telegraphic communication between
Kurrachec and Aden, by the submarine cable now.
in process of being submerged. The first message
will be one from the Viceroy of India to the Queen.
The affairs of the Suez Canal Company continue
in the same position. A pretence of continuing the
works in the Suez desert is still kept up ; but all

that is doing, in as far as regards any real progress,
is not of the slightest intrinsic value. A few persons
personally interested in the affair still make occa-
sional desperate efforts to keep the question alive,
but the public at large seem gradually to be losing
all interest in the matter; and unless the friends of
the scheme be more successful in keeping up an
agitation of the question in Europe, it seems destined
—at least as far as this country is concerned—soon
to fall into total oblivion.

With an exception in favour of the cotton trade,
business at Alexandria is dull in all its principal
branches. In the cotton-market an active business
is transacted at full rates, stimulated by favourable
intelligence from the consuming markets, but more
especially by confirmed reports from the growing
districts of an unusually short crop. Timely receipts
of specie, amounting within the past fortnight to
about 1100,000, have produced an easier feeling in
the money-market, and exchange on London for
this port has advanced to 96 piastres per pound for
first-class paper at three months' date.
We are st'll without intelligence of the Berenice.
P.S. The Viceroy yesterday paid a visit to the
Himalaya. The yards were manned for him, and
one of the Armstrong guns, set aside for exercising
the men during the voyage, was shown to him and
worked in his presence. He was, of course, highly
delighted, and expressed himself much gratified
with his visit.