The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1874-09-27
q ste ing Star and Catholic Messenger.
A Growing Power in Africa.
IAppieton's Magazine ]

Appleton Magazine
While public attention is engrossed with
the events of Western and Central Europe
with the conflicts of parties in France,
the struggle with rebellion in Spain, the
proceedings of Bismarck against the
bishops in Germapy-a great African power
ia being quietly built up on the banks OF the
Nile and the Mediterranean. lt is only
now and then that we hear mention OF
Egypt, and, when we do, IL Is oitener ' ..
reference ia made to it's antiquities, to the
remains or history of the older Egypt, than
to its present condition, and its recent
rapid strides in material civilization and
military power. Every now and then there
ia Misunderstanding between the
Grand Turk; the latter objects to the in
crease of the Egyptian army or navy, or to
some action on the part OF the Viceroy
which too plainly asserts his intention to
be independent; and, on every such occa-
sion, the viceroy appears to approach a
step nearer to the Independence he is evil
IDENTIFY aiming at.
Ismail Pasha, indeed, is no ordinary
man. An Egyptian and q Mohammedan by
birth, he is European in education, tastes,
and aspirations. He was brought up IN
France, aud spent his youth in the midst OF
Western civilization. Since bis accession
to the khedivate he has been sraaualis
Egypt in subiection to the Turkish sultan
and. under his vigorous sway, the land of
the Ptolemies, the Pharaohs, and the
Harnesses, has been fast rising to the dignity
of n considerable and stable power.
He has ceaselessly pushed railway enter
prises, and at this moment great ilne Is
in process of construction up the
Nile Valley, which is destined to pene-
trate Tar into the heart of Equatorial Africa.
1t win not be long. perhaps, before Cooks
tourists" will be taking coupon tickets tor
the Albert Nyapza ria khartoum. Ismail,
lees warlike and savage than Mehemet All,
has devoted himself without rest to these
two Observation-Disclosures of the Porte
and internal development. He has man
aged. by bribery and cajolery, to obtain
from the sultan freedom of internal ad-
ministration, the right to increase his army
and navy and to make treaties with foreign
powers, and the alteration Of succession, SO
that his son becomes heir to the khedivate.
He has thoroughly reformed his civil ser
vice. and has freely employed Europeans
and Americana as heads OF bureaus, army
officers supervisors of public works,
and confidential advisers.
1t seems as if civilization, having passed
around the world, and reached its limits on
the American shores of the Pacific, had be-
gun to return again to it's ancient seats in
the Orient, to the localities of it's remote
infancy. There is something romantic in
the idea that Egypt, under succession of
enlightened and vigorous vlceroys like
Ismail Pasha, may become once more
great military power, and removed home
of the arts. Will Alexandria again be q
commercial port, rivaling those of the At
lantic coast and will the now squalid and
effluvious Cairo be revived into another
Memphis For Egypt is already the chief
promoter of African conquest. Her terri
tories are gradually broadening southwark.
Should her prosperity and increase of
wealth and power continue, Abyssinia will
in time be hers, and, likely enough, the
other vast and savage countries lying along
the east coast of the continent.
In one respect, however, 1smail Pasha
betrays o truly Oriental perfdy and i'm
morality. He keeps the .fellahs in their
ancient condition of abject servitude and
ignorance and, while pretending to &C
auiesce in the abolition of the barbarous
slave traffic in which his subjects engage,
he refuses either to actually suppress it, or
to allow such English crusaders as Sir
Samuel Baker and Colonel Stanton to give
it the coup de grace, which, with his hearty
cooperation, they might do without great
difficulty. There is no quarter of the
world--not even Zanzibar or the Austria
lasian islands-where the slave-traffic is
carried on more audaciously, openly, and
barbarously, than On the northern con-
fines of Ismail Pasha's dominions and
it is gratifying to learn that England, in
her benevolent character of universal sup
presser of the slave trade, has resolved to
leave no effort untried to abolish it.
Once freed of this evil, and the fellahs
once accorded the condition which the
Russian serfs, thanks to Alexander IL,
have attained, there seems to be no reason
why Egypt should not in q very few years
take high and independent rank among the
powers. The Egyptians are really a deft
and capable people, and probably only
need freedom from Turkish control, and
an extended period of vigorous government
like that of Ismail, to clearly betray their
superiority to their African and Asiatic
neighbors.