The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-06-02

| oaAy Will GBypt experience sudden acqui-
sition of wealth, but a new route to
India will be opened; railway com
munication to the Red Sea by the
ports of Suakin and Massowah must follow,
and, in the language of His Highness, 1.-THE
same influences which have brought prosperity
to the humblest fellah in Lower Egypt to-day
will invade the Soudan with the locomotive
and the races you have seen in savagery and
poverty will, trust, in ten years become q
thrifty, united community" But the infu-
ence Of the Soudan Railway will not be felt in
Egypt alone. Other enterprises must follow
the general movement which such strange
power MS the locomotive will engender through
out Africa. immigration will pour in from
the desert wastes of Arabia and over-crowded
India, from dull Syria and inane Asia Minor !;
for such enterprises as the Russian Railway to
India, and the Euphrates Valley road, are still
but vague schemes. The Soudan Railway con-
stitutes His Highness the pioneer and leader Of
progress in the East In him seems to be concen-
trated all the vitality of the Orient. By the con-
struction of the Suez Canal he rendered Egypt
the pivot of the commerce of the Old World,
as this railway will become the overland route
between the Eastern and Western seas. In
America we first built our great continental
railway, and have now surveyed for the route
Of an Isthmus canal. But Asia and Africa
were first severed by M. Lesseps, and now o
continental railway is to push up the Valley of
the Nile. It is the harbinger Of great future
for Egypt and the East.
The Spanish Constituent Cortes Assem-.
bled In Session.
The new Cortes of Spain met in the charac-
ter of Constituent, or Constructive, Assem-
bly,, in Madrid, on Saturday, the 31st Of May.
The President of the Ministry, Senior Figueras,
opened the session in a formal manner by
the delivery of a speech. He set out with an
executive pronouncement Of the right of the
Spanish people to choose their own govern
ment-a very important declaration of prin-
ciple, not only for the Spaniards, but for the
peoples of universal Europe, despite the fact
that the President added, almost imme-
diately, that the Republic has no concern
with revolution in other States. A policy of
OTueT WILL De ODSeTVtu III uOuc Lie IepuD-
lie is not ambitious of territorial aggrandize-
ment. Slavery will be abolished in Cuba and
Porto Rico. The government is in favor of
separation of Church and State. When the
President of the Ministry concluded his adj
dress the Cortes organized by choosing
Senior Orense President Of the Legislative
body. The public career of the last
named gentleman is sketched in the col
umns Of the HERALD. It will be seen that he
is a remarkable man-active, versatile and
recuperative, even in the kaleidoscope his
tory of modern Spanish politics. The absence
of opposition in the Cortes makes the work of
the Madrid Ministry apparently easy. 1t will
become so in reality if the Spaniards or q
majority of the peoples representatives, can
arrive at a common accord as to the nature
and conditions of the national federation.
This is, just OF present, little doubtful. One
fourth of the deputies elected are Galatians by
birth, and these, it is alleged, will immedi-
ately commence to agitate for the removal Of
the capital from Madrid to Barcelona. Cadiz,
with others Of the great cities, will object SO
that Senior Figueras and the members of the
Ministry may perhaps soon again experience
very many of the difficulties of Office. They
promise prudently, however, as Spaniards,
territorial integrity, freedom from slavery and
freedom of conscience. Carlism has sustained
another heavy blow in the field, so that the
Spanish governmental case is now before the
nations, fully and completely, for adjustment.