The Sun. — 1868-02-17 (London, England)

NAPIER. This is a complication which is by no means desirable. We cannot certainly fight the Egyptians for professing to aid us, but their assistance is equally illtimed and unwelcome. MENELEE and the other chiefs who have hitherto declared themselves against THEODORE will assume a different aspect when they find their neighbours and rivals appear on the scene. If the Egyptians once get a footing in the country it will not be. very easy for the Abyssinians to dislodge them, and they will very likely be unwilling to retire without retaining a slice of the country. England generally gets on best when she has no allies fighting with her, and Abyssinia is as likely to illustrate this truth as our earlier and more momentous battle-fields.  Mr. ROEBUCK has written a defence of his late address on Trades Unions to one of his constituents, and many will be glad to read it ; for the subject is one of great importance and interest just now, and the hon. member's opinions on the question naturally excite a good deal of notice. In the first place, he makes allusion to the complaint made as to his not having treated of the duties of capital in the lecture which he delivered a short time ago in Sheffield ; but, as he very truly put it, the circumstances under which he spoke were most peculiar—he was speaking to working men of a town in which horrible disclosures had taken place, relating to acts of murder and cruelty ; and these deeds had been done by men of the class he then spoke to. At the same time it must be borne in mind that there have been many opportunities afforded to these men of bringing forward charges against the capitalists, but none such have been preferred ; and there was no evidence to show that, if brought forward, they could have been "substantiated." Hence Mr. ROEBUCK not unreasonably directed his attention to the subject now paramount in men's minds, namely, the " wrong views entertained respecting the nature of labour and capital." The explanation and illustration of these errors took some time, and besides this the hon. member spoke very plainly as to the course which he deemed it advisable for the Legislature to adopt, in order to remedy as far as possible the mischievous tendency of the prevailing notions. Some most misguided individuals have drawn from all this that Mr. ROEBUCK'S sympathy for the working man has greatly diminished, if not altogether vanished ; but this is only another instance of the very erroneous impressions which people take when their minds are under the influence of passion or prejudice. We consider that this letter is a very complete explanation of the course. taken with respect to this lecture, and should fully convince those who peruse it that the lecturer was animated by the most upright motives, and the iucst con cientious desires in all he said or inferred on this matter. In fact, Mr. ROEBUCK has hit the mark when he put it thus—that people have believed that capital and labour are antagonistic ; Ind, therefore, if the mistakes of one class are shown, the errors of the other ought to be exposed. This was not necessary for the end in view, how' ever, and all the fault found Kith the remarks in qbestion were quite uncalled for. A better reply to the seditious comments could