The Sun.
London, England, 1828-09-15 00:00:00

of persons who have been brought up for offenc3, I have
found, could read and write.

Would not that be the case, incluse the majority of per-
sons are :tow taught to read and write ?—I did not mean
to advert merely to reading and writing ; but there is such
a thing as forcing forwai d mental improvement beyond its
natural course, and I think there is a tendency of that sort
in these days, which is calculated to produce confusion. It
is painful to me, I confess, to see grounds for assigning such
motives to crime, because the natural-feelings of men of
liberal education are to extend the benefits of education,
and therefore I say any thing Of the sort with great re-
luctance. •
We think it must be-evident -that there was nothing
in the manner of the witness to call for the taunting
tone in which the subject- inhere pursued; nor can
we indeed ask for a stronger contrast than the mild-
ness of the answerer and the flippancy of the (Ines-
tionist. We do not deny that it is a painful (and to
Mr. Dyer acknowledges it to have been), 4is well as
in some degree, an odious task, to attempt to dis-
parage the cultivation of those talents and'facultica
which the Almighty has dispensed to all; but still
there is no resistimg the evidence of facts ; and, if
mankind are to be deterred from the investigation of
this or any other subject by tho odium or unpopular.
rity which their opinion" are to bring upon them,
we do not see how trtlth is ever to be elicited, or
error rooted out.

(rEOM THE NEWS.)

POLITICAL REFLECTIONS ON EGYPT.
" For such the steady Roman shook the world."

" Power is the great object of all nations; and that which is
acquired by the sword, must be maintained by the sword."

it is the fate of Empires, that they must make
progress onwards, or retrograde. There is nothing,
stationary on the earth, moral or physical. If there-
fore the public debt, and other considerations affect-
ing England, prevent her from keeping her front
station in the march of circumstances, she is, so jar,
failing into the rear of minor States. Hitherto
Russia has been only prevented from becoming a
Naval Power by•her want of seaports in free com-
munication with the main ocean. In the North,
cooped up in the extreme point of the Baltic, and
confined to a single outlet, her case was hopeless,
unless by the spoliation of some powerful neigh-
bours, whom it were not prudent at present to pick
a quarrel with. In the East, confined to the
'Euxine at the will of Turkey, that sea was no bet-
ter than a lake to her ;* and on 'this privation of her
marine she must be chained down to eternity, unless
she can conquer and possess herself of that high
road to power—the Bosphorus and the Hellespont.
smith an increase of naval force, she might ultimately
push Prussia and some other States back from the
coasts of the Baltic; but not without such force.—
The only point that is open to her, is by war in the
East,—and here she can only strengthen herself at the
expense of English security. If ever Turkey should be
partitioned, Russia will claim, demand, and fight for
the great pass of the Hellespont; and this stiuggle will
inevitably involve England in a war with her ; the
main thing which we have to do, therefore, is to
avoid such a necessity by. the concession of arty
thing short of giving up these-Straits into the keep-
ing of the Muscovite; and detaching France, by all
the means in our power, from any alliance with
Russia; by which the French might seek and di-
vide a common object. We will suppose this to be
the reason why England has never sought to possess
herself of Egypt, as she thus-forbore to give Russia
and France any feasible grounds of jealousy. But
the times are developing new positions of Empires,
and the question of the fate of Turkey trembles in
the balance. In this predicament our object evi-
dently is to keep on terms with France, and thus
guard against the sword which is suspended over
our heads. We do not believe, however, that we
shall crawl out of these awkward circumstances
without a "turn up" with one of the powers in
question, if not with both. Looking the difficulty
full in the face, let us make a reconnoissance of the
land as it lies before us. As the valuable considera-
tion for the assistance of England to Turkey, which
would in a moment put-to flight the most distant
hope of Russia ever holding or taking the Helles-
pont—Egypt would readily.be given-up to Ats ;it is
now all but independent of the Ottomans and
would seem as though offering to fall into our hands.
Suppose this to be done, and a passage made
through the isthmus of f......uez cut for steamers; India
would be brought as it were almost into contact with
us. A purely defensive war, not beyond the exer-
tions of our navy, and the maintenance of Egypt,
with a practical economy and liberal policy at home,
would in about three years settle.tbe fate of Russia
fcr centuries; while we left other enemies to break
tl err resources and their hearts against the peculiar
invulnerability of our empire. But how so invulne-
rable ? it will be asked : let us inquire. We first
premise, that Ireland. be conciliated, and her just
claims granted; that the elective liberty be trans-
ferred from the close and corrupt boroughs to the
populous towns; and that all practicable economy
be made in the public expenditure. Without these
preliminary steps being first taken; we should be.
mad to go to war, whatever insult or provocation
may assail us; though if we went to war, and
Reform, so far as we have stated, arose out of peril
and difficulty, still the nation would recover and
right itself. Egypt was a great empire during at
least fifteen centuries: Taking the course of the
Nile, how is it at once fed and favoured and guarded
by nature I Placed in easy and immediate access
and contact with the north and southern oceans, and
flanked by an eternity of deserts that hem her round
as Avith a garment impenetrable to the s.vord of ci-
vilization, she is placed equally within the -ready,
supplies that -England could furnish from'the east
and from 'the north, With a facility which no other
nations could imitate or interrupt. Why Turkey
should have been so long master of this fine
country, no mortal can tell;. since the Ottoman
reigns only by a superior barbarism.. The native
tribes respect and fear most: Europeans while
they hate and despise the, Turks. Had the Eng-.
hsh spirit and commercial habit, fifty years
ago,
formed the elements of Empire on the borders of
the Nile, under a wise and liberal GoVernmental
policy, instead of conquering and separating the New
World, we should not now have wanted a nationti.k‘:,
the south, capable of keeping the iron' despot
Russia in check. Crand Cairo would have een
one of the master capitals of the tvsiiid2fL and the
Red Sea would be studded
,witWil fitbirriii Vessels, na-
vigating the calm watersttiriqr- roll Voluptuously
over shores of coral ; and cosl4o-ng ,the splendours
of the east with the Wealtrihe industry, and the
morel power" of the north: 'Where is there a place,
formed for the advantagefol empire, like the site of
ancient Thebes? A etimnitinication for large ves-
-Bels, between that .pai of the Nile and the Red
Sea, would be undertaken by a hundred companies
in England to-morrow, if required. There is u
break in the chain of mountains, not far from this
bend in the !Nile; and there are the means of direct
intercourse with-the three quarters of the world, of
which it is nearly a central and connecting .point.
London, Gibraltar, Malta, Alexandria, Thebes,
Mocca ( perhaps), and Bombay, would be but as so
many stages. To arrive in-view of the green vale
of Egypt, from the Desert, is something like going
from the present to " another and a better world."
Here the Greek and the ancient Roman came to
pay the tribute of their admiration, after the manner
of the moderns of our own time • and here they
were first unit with the love of that glory which
they only imitated; for Avbile most of the Roman
temples and columns remain in mouldering ruins,
you see the obelisks of Thebes fresh in all their
beauty, as though they were the work of yester-
' A French paper asks if it be reasonable, while the
Mediterranean is free, that the Black Sea should be kept
a. a sort of " cul de sac, into which none can penetrate:
without the permission of the Grand Turk ?" It then
proceeds to argue that Russia Will " open it." This may
be true; but who will she open it to? Why, like the
Grand Turk, to whom she likes. It may be seen, in va•
rious ways, that France has afeeling in the Russian policy.
to The respect is, however, mostly on account of their
wealth, which they estimate by various ways.. Buona-
parte talked to them of a splendid jewel in his crown,
which was worth seven years' revenue of Egypt ; and they
put down France for the greatest power in the world.