The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1875-06-12


stir in Egypt is greater mystery than the
revolution in Japan ever was. Nobody
can tell US what the Khedive means by all
this bother about internal improvements
and military preparations. Mr.. Charles
Dudley Warner, a close observer and we'll
trained traveller, confesses, in his letter to
the Times that three months residence in
Egypt only makes him profoundly doubt
full about what is going on. How deep is
this revolution and what is it's purport
No man can answer that riddle. Ismail
Pasha is nominally but viceroy. But he
really holds Egypt as completely in the
hollow of his hand as if there were no Sui
tan or Turkey. His rule is absolutism.
Brushing aside every form of free moral
agency in his subjects, he has decreed ma
terial advancement as pashas in olden times
would decree a mans head off his Shout
ders. He puts four thousand laborers in
the delta of the Nile, or one hundred thou
sand soldiers in the field, just as Napoleon
ordered the gliding of the dome of the In
valdes, or a japanese Mikado demanded
to be shown the heart of courtier who
had rebuked him.
He forbids marriages under the age Of
sixteen, or seizes upon the sugar manufac-
ture of the country, with equal calmness
and completeness. He irrigates desert,
and makes two blades of grass grow where
none grew before; he sometimes plunges
village in mourning by sweeping off every
full grown man for his army. He sucks
out the riches of the south, organizes ex-
petitions into unknown regions; builds
railroads, docks and ships, POUNDS mu-
seums, encourages archaeological researches
monopolizes trade, establishes common
schools, compels the farmers to use steam
plows, and carries on duplex system of
material and political improvement in the
high old fashion of an Oriental autocrat.
The Khedive is an Egyptian despot, only
he exercises his despotism in all sorts of
queer ways. 1t would make Ptolemy Phil
adephus stare if he could rise from his
tomb aud see what Ismail Pasha is doing
with new tangled notions in Egypt. But
none of the Ptolemys was more absolute in
his domain than the Khedive is to-day, in
spite of the Sublime Porte.
What is all this for? Is it for the pur-
pose of founding great African empire?
Or does the viceroy propose to make him
self SO strong that he may be able to defy
Turkey and the powers who stand by the
"sick MANI" Army and navy, military
schools and arsenals, may mean war; but
war with whom? the Sultan or the bar
barous States of Africa The Khedive is
in earnest in his plans of education, though
he may not be with those for the suppress
sion of the slave trade. He engages for
eign oficers-among them some shrewd
Americans-without regard to expense; but
he borrows money at seventeen per cent,
and his governmental debt is something
enormous. Meantime, his personal account
ability is as nothing; his seraglios, pleasure
grounds, and family arrangements are man.
aged regardless Of cost. He is a sybarite
but he is progressive monarch. He fan
cies a parliament just as he might crave
new oddiisque. Ile coinpeis lie lihpeflurD-
able Arab chiefs to sit in a council chamber
and look dumbly at each other, which is
his best pattern of deliberative assembly.
All this activity and imitation of foreign
notions seem to be without result -almost
without purpose. 1t appears to be the
movement of a restless and undisciplined
mind. 1t is like tho exercise of David
Copperfield, who, impressed with the idea
that he must be very busy about some
thing, got up and walked long and vigor-
ously every morning for no perceptible pur-
pose. Perhaps there is subtle plan under
all this apparently purposeless stir. The
wisest men are puzzled. The riddle may,
by-and-bye, afford its own explanation.