The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-17 00:00:00

TAX-GATHERING IN EGYPT.

The following, from a correspondent in Egypt,
dated Alexandria, Jan. 1, is published in Pall Mall
Gazette :

" I have just had an interview with a very intel-
ligent man who has been engaged on the Suez
Canal works for some time past. Ile tells me that
the undertaking is evidently pressed for means, and
that the dredging is found to yield unsatisfactory
results. Large stones are turning up under the
mud ; these break the drags, which have then to be
sent away for repairs. I think he said that out of
38 drags between Port Said and Isma'ileh only
eight are actually at work. The water has been let
into the channel too early—the excavation would
have been carried on better without it ; and on the
lakes, in parts, as the soil is dredged out, the pres-
sure from the eastern side raises the bottom
again. My informant stated that in his opinion
it would take twenty years to finish the canal.
. . . There is a limit to all things, and the
Canal Company, having got £8,000,000 sterling
out of Egypt, has had enough, and should not be
allowed still further to cripple the resources
of the Government, the diminution in which is
already working the most serious evils in this coun-
try. What is taking place in the villages to get
money in advance out of the fellahs is atrocious.
No man's denial of want of means is heeded ; his
boxes, if he has any, are searche 1, and even the
floor of his dwelling is dug up. Flogging is then
tried, and it is only after his failing to produce
money under that infliction that he is given up as
hopeless. The villagers are also being made to give
bonds for recouping the Viceroy those he gave to
the bankers and others on the collapse of the cotton
affairs, in repayment to them of the sums they
alleged to be due to them from the villagers for
money lent. The original debtor, if he has not
sufficient substance, is disregarded, and his liability
transferred to his village, among the inhabitants
of which the amount is arbitrarily distributed, the
men being flogged if they refuse to seal a bond for
their assigned shares, and kept under the koorbaj
until they consent. With all this Ismail Pasha
is not a man of courage, and is said to be con-
stantly manifesting signs of apprehensiveness of
what might be the result of the discontent he
is conscious he is creating. He has fixed himself
at a new palace at Gizeh, so as to have
the river between him and the population of
Cairo, and no one with a gun is allowed to cross the
river in that direction. A fortnight ago, also, the
Viceroy, on his road to the Abbadeh, just as he
quitted the town, heard the n ear report of a gun.
Cawasses were instantly sent to search for and bring
the person who had fired it, nor would his highness
believe that he had only been shooting a dove until
the dead bird was also brought.
" M. Mirzan, a broker of this town, on the 23d
of Dec. last issued a printed statement of the debts
of the Government, which, he adds, having pre-
viously submitted to the Minister of Finance for
correction without having been honoured with a re-
ply, he now submits to the public. The total of
the debts, loans and floating, he makes to be
667,850,000fr.—£26,714,000 ; but I have it on
credible authority that the department of the Vice-
roy's Government immediately concerned with his
finances estimated his total liabilities at £36,000,000.
The month of liiack (Coptic), 10th of Dec. to 10th
of Jan., is just passing, and no signs of a dividend
from the 'Azizieh Company, which by the statutes
should be paid in this month.
"Januaryuet whichto my a
2.—1 learned
imind precludesthisafternoon, doubt,through
a channel
astri
ec such
beingfu rthreers
rcircumstances
under
tohf e
tlll7 ei
c enrloeya 'nss awu thhi co
h-
rity for compelling the unhappy villagers to
aaddude
t.
forulinti shtee rs
akt oe
ohfi s
e,dcre ronsai
ongd s
s,
ueh thate
01
resource, and when every means lomfsthfaeilfeainy havedNivliththe
men, the wives and otherfemales
been brought forward and told to produce their
ornaments. No excuse is received. They may allege
that they have already sold them to satisfy former
Government demands, but they are not believed.
They are told that they must have concealed them,
and are held clown by Cawasses and flogged with a

heavy koorbaj until the wretch who is vicariously
ordering and superintending the infliction of the
torture thinks their endurance has been sufficiently
tested. They are then cut looso and left to be carried
away by their friends. Will such things be credited
in England ? Let Lord Stanley call for a report of
what has been going on in the villages ; not from
the Consul-general only, but from every consul,
vice-consul, and consular agent in the country, with
instructions to refer especially to the treatment to
which the villagers are subjected, in the collection
of the Government dues, in their persons, property,
and labour, and his lordship will then learn what
Egypt is suffering to-day."

The King of Abyss-nia to the Queen of
England.

The text of the letter, the postage of which Mr.
Bernal Osborne declared in the House of Commons
was likely to cost the nation £5,000,000
" Iu the name of the Father, of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost, one God in Trinity, chosen by Go],
King of Kings, Theodoros of Ethiopia, to Her
Majesty Victoria, Queen of England. I hope your
Majesty is in good health. By the power of God I
am well. My fathers, the Emperors, having for-
gotten our Creator, He handed over their
Kingdom to the Gallas and Turks. But God
created me, lifted me out of the dust, and restored
this empire to my rule. He endowed me with
power, and enabled me to stand in the place of my
fathers. By His power I drove away the Gallas.
But for the Turks, I have told them to leave the
land of my ancestors. They refuse. lam now
going to wrestle with them. Mr. Plowden, and my
late Grand Chamberlain, the Englishman Bell, used
to tell me that there is a Great Christian Queen,
who loves all Christians. When they said to me
this, We are able to make you known to her,
and to establish friendship between you,' then,
in those times, I was very glad. I gave them my
love, thinking that I had found your Majesty's
good will. All men are subject to death, and my
enemies, thinking to injure me, kille I these, my
friends. But, by the power of God, I have exter-
minated those enemies, not leaving one alive, though
they were of my own family ; that I may get, by
the power of God, your friendship.
"I was prevented, by the Turks occupying the
sea-coast, from sending you an embassy when I
was in difficulty. Consul Cameron arrived with a
letter and presents of friendship. By the power of
God I was very glad hearing of your welfare, and
being assured of your amity. I have received your
presents, and thank you much.

" I fear that if I send Ambassadors, with presents
of amity, by Consul Cameron, they may be arrested
by the Turks.
" And now I wish that you may arrange for the
safe passage of my Ambassadors everywhere on
the road.

" I wish to have an anwer to this letter by Con-
sul Cameron, and that he may conduct my Embassy
to England. See how the Islam oppress the
Christian !"—Becton's Journal, Jan. 18, 1868.

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE,

RACING FIXTI
FEBR'

Lincoln Spring
Harrow 2O

'RES FOR 1868.
f ARY.

I Nottingham Spring . 25
Derby Spring
Roll.

Liverpool Spring M 3
Chelmsford Spring M 10
Shrewsbury Spring lO
West Drayton l2
Warwick Spring

Margate
Epsom Spring Meeting '2l
Groxton Park
Northampton

AP.
Northampton (continued) 1
Bromley
Aldershot
Durham
Hendon l3
Newcastle Spring
Newmarket Craven 13

Knighton l4
AbergalronnT ..... 16
Catteriok
Lowos Spring
Thirsk
Curragla April 2l
Newmarket let Spring 27
.Y.
Salisbury l4
Bath
Croydon let Summer
Harpenden
Epsom Summer

Newmarket Ist Spring
(continued)
Chester 5
Whichester
York Spring
Doncaster Spring

West Drayton 1
Croydon 2d Summer
Ascot Summer 9
Windsor Summer
Newton

Hampton
Bibury Club 23
Curragh June
Stockbridge
I Alexandra Park 3O
Liverpool
I Stamford
Huntingdou 2l
I Nottingham July
I Southampton
Goodwood

Alexandra Park (con.) 1
Chelmsford
Worcest©r Summer ... 2
Carlisle
Newmarket July 7
Reading
Odiham, l6

THE WRECKED MAIL STEAMER.

CORK, Jan. 16.
S The Chicago separated last night, and is com-
pletely broken up.

A vast body of people lined the shore, many of
them for plunder. In the course of the night some
of them, who were carrying off property washed in,
were fired at and one man was shot.