The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-06-16

Our telegraphic dispatches of Tuesday morn
ing, containing an outline of the news by the
Arctic, advise that the viceroy Of Egypt has
sanctioned the project of railroad from Alex
andria by way Of Cairo, to the Isthmus of Suez,
and that the work will be commercial without
delay With the most skillful European engi-
neers at his command, and able at any time to
summon one hundred thousand Arabs and
Copts to the labor, the energetic and enterprisng
Ibrahim Pasha will not allow long time to
elapse before the whistle of the locomotive will
awaken the soIitudes of Petra and Mount Sinai,
scare the marauding Bedouin out of his wits,
and render the journey from Alexandra to the
Holy Land as easy and as rapid us the passage
from New York to Buffalo. The traveller will
start from the base of Cleopatra's Needle,
reach Cairo in six hours, refresh himself at the
msmmoth depot in the midst of the "waste
bowling wilderness" and stand upon the ancient
shores of the Red sen in two days after leaving
the Delta of the Nile.
A railroad through the scene of lsaraePs fight
aud Pharohs keen persuit Through regions
whore the silence Of death has reigned ever
since, amid thunderings and loud elemental
strife, the law was given from Mount Siani--
now for the first time 10 thousands of years to
be disturbed by the clanking and roar of modern
machinery Here Job drove his numerous
fiocks 10 the great nsarts of the South. Over
this haIlowed ground his contemporary Moses
led the murmuring and mutinous Hebrews to
the land of promise. In this now drear soil
tude, the hand Of cultivated architectural science
scooped magnificent palaces out Of the solid
rock, and bid sumptuous mansions and tenn les
and mighty cities rise at its mandate.
This was the path of the multitudinous hosts
of Amru, the successor Of Mahomet, when he
led his fanatical and victorious thousands from
Syria to Cairo and Alexandria, poured his dense
dark masses upon Southern Europe, and aimed
to subject the Cross to the Crescent These
vast and arid deserts, over which the bald and
rocky Siani frowns in stern grandeur, long af-
forwards trembIed beneath the tread of armed
millions, whrling like some horrible tempest
through the scene of lsraePs trial and punish
ment. He, who from the pos ton Of an humble
subaltern reached the throne Of Bourbons, by
series of usurpations the most wonderful on
record, would rival the fame and miracles of the
Hebrew lawgiyer He eyes the same waters
that closed over the engufed chariots and horse
men Of Pharaoh, and exhibits the temerity of at
tempting to pass dry -shod through the stormy
waters of the Arabian sea. But what was this
Dissertation, in comparison with the painting and
coughing of the iron horse, within the view of
the spot where the burning bush exhibited its
mysterious sign to tie trembling Moses, where
the tables of the law were broken into frog-
msnts, and over which the pillar of cloud by
day, and fire by night lowered and guided the
people Of Israel to the lovely regions of Paes-
tines and the Cananites.
The tour Of the Holy Land, which in the days
of the Crusaders, was pilgrimage of eminent
peril, and accompanied by privations and suffer
inQs little short Of marryrdom, will soon be ac-
complished by party from New York or st.
Louis within the limit of single season. The
tomb Of Aaron, the site Of Calvary, the Mount
of Olives and the chores Of the beautiful sea
Of Galiflee, will soon be as accessible as the
Tower Of London or the Lake Of Como are
now and AZ tho scenes of Scripture history be-
comes familiar to the eye, and common places
in the mind, Of almost every transatlantic tour
ist---M. Louis Union, I4th uh.