New-York tribune., 1867-08-19
ENGLAND AND ABYSSIYIA.

The long anxiety of the English Government
and people as to what might be done for the
delverance of their imprisoned cOuntrymen in
Abyssinia, appears to have been relieved in a
sudden and quite unexpected manner. News
has reached England to the effect that King
Theodore whose cruelty has now for four years
put English patience to so severe ;cst, had been
surrounded 10y his rebcllous subjects, that the
English captives had been placed beyond his
power, and that there was "no danger of their
falling into his hands again. The captives,
it is true, are not yet free, but rs the rebels
have no reason whatever for prolonging the
captivity of the Englishmcn, there is obviously
good ground for hoping their speedy deliverance.
This change in Abyssinian aliairs-supposng
that it is true and that it will result in the de
liverance of the captiyes-will put an end TO a
great and most unpleasant embarrassment. For
four years English statesmen had exhausted all
the resources of diplomacy TO dispose King
Theodore favOrably toward voluntary sur
render of the captves. The Queen herself
had written friendly and complimentary let
ter to the semi-sayage chieftain. But all had
been i'll vain, and the question again presented
itself-Is England to allow the petty King of an
African country of about 100000 inhabitants
to defy her authority, or is she to have recourse
to an open war9 The latter course had re-
Gently found very able and Jealous champions
in Sir Henry Rawlinson, Sir Henry Lytton
Bulwer, and others. They had forcibly re-
minded the country that ga nation which
CELEBRATES insults has entered into the first
"stage of decline" and that the failure of
EVa, 10 -, =. A.
might fatally injure her authority among the
natives OF India, and thus prepare the way for
frightful insurrection. The Government had
not been deaf to these arguments, and Lord
Stanley only few days before had officially
stated that the Government was not indsposed
| to risk a war. Though the Government natu-
rally declined TO be more explicit as to its
| warlike intentions, it was understood that,
should war be determined upon, the Govern
ment would employ troops of East India, both
native and European. and would have free
transit through and probably military aid from
Egypt.
But public opinion was very far from a
unanimous approval of the war policy. All the
information that had been collected by the
Government tended to show that an Abys-
against material obstacles, over which mere
human heroism could obtain no easy victory
Sir Samuel Baker, the distinguished traveller,
stated that the expeditionary army would have
to be conveyed across $50 miles of desert, and
over plains with "the mud several feet in
depth and "a peculiar fly that de-
stroys all domestic animals and would
"utterly vanquish an army by annihilating
"the beasts of burden" Sir Samuel Baker
thought that the camels might safely convey
an army into Abyssinia, but DIR. Beke-gener-
ally on account of his long sojourn in Abys-
synia regarded as the best authority on that
country-gave 1t as his opinion that the
camel alone would never convey an army into
Abyssinia; that. owing to the severity of the
climate no less than to tho steeDness OF the