The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1882-07-14


interest in the Suez Canal and the
overland route to her great empire in
India made this imperative. In this
movement she represents the senti-
ment Of the other European nations
whose citizens have been so outraged,
and whatever her policy may lead her
to decide upon ultimately, or however
eager she may be to seize the present
opportunity for establishing her power
in Egypt, as facilitating her control of
India, the present course which she
has adopted is fully justified by the
danger to her interests and the indig-
mites she has been especially subjected
to. 1t is stated that the value of En-
glish property in Egypt, embracing her
principal ownership in the Suez Canal,
is about four hundred millions of dol
lars. There can also be little doubt
that the blow aimed at all the Euro
pean nations was chiefly intended for
England and Englishmen.
We observe by the dispatches that
the Americans in Egypt and many at
home are represented as sympathizing
with the Egyptian people and Arab
Bey, in what is regarded from their
standpoint as national and popular
movement. This we presume is only
the idle gossip of the wires" and, if
true, must arise from some lnisconcep-
ton of the situation. There is some
thing certainly of unusual interest in
this first cry for ages of the people of
Egypt for a distinct nationality, and
the first expression Of Mohammedan
people in favor of popular rights and
free institutions, which it is intimated
they now desire. But there is in real
ity hardly yet, in our western sense, a
people in Egypt. Its inhabitants con-
sist of the Arabs resident in the towns,
the Coptic Christians, who are sup
posed descendants of the ancient
Egyptians, and the mixed servile popu-
lation of Fellahs or Fellaheen. Among
these are mingled Turkish rulers and
tax gatherers, and Greek and italian
merchants, and a few French and
English mechanics and engineers.
The people of England were better
prepared for free institutions in the
time of "Jack Cade's rebellion" than
are these. The influence of strong
power like England or France in pro-
tecting them from foreign intrusion
and internal disorder, while welding
them under judicious pressure into
national unity, is a necessary prelimin-
airy to their advancement. 1t is to be
hoped that the feeble semblance Of a
government, which has been suffered to
exist in Difference to the traditional au-
thority of the crumbling Ottoman En-
pire, may now be completely over
thrown and that the beginning of the
end of Turkish misrule may have fully
arrived to these and other long suffer
ing people in the Orient. 1t is for the
interests of the world and humanity
that this should be so, and every SYM
pathy we have with the people leads
us to hope that the Great Powers may
agree upon some plan for the perma-
nent withdrawal of Egypt from the
rule of the Sultan, whether England
ueUumo the inneritur OF It's rlcn re.
sources or not.
The dynasty of Mehamet Ali, which
is Greek in its origin, and of which the
present Khedive is one of the feeblest
representatives, was for a period OF
great service to Egypt in developing
the idea of an independent national
existence and in stimulating the de-
sire for European civilization. The
late princes of this family, however,
have affected rather European luxuries
and habits of profuse expenditure
than the introduction of systems of
industry or cultivation really useful to
the people. Their financial manage
ment has exhausted and bankrupted
the country. The debts they have ac-
cumulated, it is stated, constitute a
burthen of about eight dollars per
acre upon all the lands of Egypt. This
should properly remit this dissipated
and now effete family to the obscurity
from which it so lately sprung. The
success of Admiral Seymour and the
Intervention of England, however, can
only, bring ultimate good to the Egyp-
tians. In the meantime we shall hope
that the Genius of Art shall guard
from the waste and disasters of war
the magnificent remains of their an
Gent civilization.