New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-12-06

issued q NOTE 10 the fOWere rcquco''hb o'i"s ~
Dual Control should cease. and within three
weeks he has virtually disposed OF all the mil
itary trials. Arab has been induced to plead
guilty TO single charge, has been summary
condemned to death, and in the twinkllng OF an
eve has had the sentence committed to exile for
life. There has been no effort to convict MN
of completely In the destruction OF Alexandria
in the attempted assassination of the Khedive,
o, in the massacre of Foreigners. All the
charges have been withdrawn save that OF
maintaining Instruction after be had been
openly proclaimed q rebel, and on this count OF
the indictment he allows himself to he con-
demned to DEATH but not until his counsel has
obtained formal pledge that the sentence
shall be committed and that the proceedings
against his principal associates shall be COM
promised In the same way. 1t is an effective sit
uation-the wicked Arab receiving his death
sentence without winking, and the magnani-
nous Khedive committing it the next instant
with his tongue in his check. Lord Duiferln
has never done anything SO droll as this at
Constantnope.
1t may be, however, that the farce is so broad
that the English people will consider it beneath
their dignity to be amused by it. They have
never admitted that they went to war with the
Egyptian people, They have maintained that
their troops landed at Alexandria and lsmal-
liza for the express purpose OF SURPRISING
military revolt, in the course OF which great
city had been pillaged and destroyed, das-
tardly plot formed against the sovereign's liie'
massacres ordered in various places, and the
whole country menaced with ruin. 1t was with
the Khedive's re0ellious subjects that war was
waged; aud when the instruction had been
brought to an end, 1t was only natural to ex-
pect that those who had been charged with
monstrous crimes would be tried for them and,
if onvcte0, be punished with death. Ii Arab
hoisted the white flag at Alexandria on the 18th
of July, and ordered the pillage and destruc-
ton of the city and the assassination OF the
sovereign, he deserved some fate less comfort
able than exile to British colony. The
evidence of his responsibility for these and
other crimes does not appear to have been OBJ
tanabe. Indeed, it. was so difficult to convict
him of having been a rebel in any legal sense,
that his trial has been virtually abandoned, and
by the advice of his counsel he has pleaded
guilty as a matter of convenience to Egyptian
officials and British diplomats, with The under
standing that his cOnfederates in instruction
shall have no harsher fate than exile IN store
for them. So intricate was the network OF du-
plcity and treachery woven by the circle of In
trlguing oachas at COnstantinOple, so t0rtuops
and equivocal was the diplomacy of the Yildlz
Kiosk, that the leader of the military revolt
could not be convicted of any crime without his
consent A compromise had to be effected,
diplomatic understanding had to be reached,
before he would agree to accept exile as sub
stitute for imprisonment. The collapse OF the
legal proceedings cannot be regarded in any
other light than as the close of farce. Lord
Dufferin did well to make the movement of the
piece as rapid as that of a transformation scene
in melodrama The English public will not
be entertained by burlesQue on justice such as
this trial has been.