THE EGYPTIAN RAILWAY.
TIM professed object of the meeting in the City to memorialize the Government on the subject of the Trans-Egyptian Railway is clear and legitimate ; but the same clearness and legitimate con- sistency by no means belong to the whole subject ; and the mysti.' fication and delay which characterize the past render it particu- larly desirable that the public promoters of the railway should en- deavour to make their path clearer. According to the present aspect of the affair, the Pacha of Egypt is desirous of completing the railway, but is prevented by the per- verse obstructiveness of his master the Sultan. Now, this willing- ness of Egypt, if it is genuine, is not only a novelty, but with, out some further statements to elucidate the darkness, it is really no more than a new turn in the mystification. The same willingness has been expressed any time for these last ten years; but to those who were in the secret of Egyptian councils, the profession of willingness came under the head of that which passes by the homely name of " fudge." It is now said, indeed, that in his later years, having fallen into dotage, Mehemet All did not know his own mind, and put off the promoters of an improved transit with cross promises, —telling the advocates of a railway that he inclined to a canal, and letting the advocates of a canal understand that he was dis- posed to see superior advantages in a railway. But the truth is, that Mehemet All had been playing fast and loose long before his health gave way : eight or ten years ago he professed the utmost anxiety for a railway, and rails were actually taken over from England; yet it was as well known that the old smuggler was only concealing obstinate unwillingness in cajolery, as that the wind from the Desert was gradually burying the idle rails in sand. It is remarkable, that while Mehemet Ah was thus amusing the projectors with alternate favour for counter-schemes, the public in land was distracted by diversity of projects,—the railway from Alexandria to Suez, the reopening of the old canal, and the opening of a new canal across the Isthmus to join the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. The last project has always been avail- able to attract much public favour ; although it would require the proposed canal to be prolonged, by artificial deepenings and em- bankments, for a long distance, say three miles, through the shal- lows of the Mediterranean coast in that quarter. It is scarcely less remarkable that the French newspapers are now reviving this project of the Suez Canal, the neutrality of which they would guarantee by a federation of Europe for that speoific purpose.
There is another among the many remarkable circumstances of this question which deserves to be noted for its own inherent
im- portance. England professes to be in close and friendly alliance with Turkey. The Sultan needs all possible support. In recent events his Government has evinced a spirit of intelligent reform : Turkey is the principal bulwark at the Southern extremity of Eu- rope against the most gigantic power on the Continent ; but Tar- key is already marked out for destruction by the encroachments of Russia. In upholding the claim of EgnA to make the railway by its own authority and resources, the British Government would be upholding the vassal against the sovereign—would be striking a great blow against the authority of the Porte, and proportionately facilitating the dismemberment of the Turkish empire. It is said, indeed, that Egypt has a right to effect this improvement at its own pleasure under the treaty of 1841, which made the Pachalie hereditary and virtually secured the independence of Egypt : but the treaty of 1841 did not -withdraw the rights of the Porte over the revenues of Egypt; and it would ill become England, who was a party to that treaty under the profession of friendship for Turkey, now to convert that document to her own purposes, espe- cially if that were to be done by a stretching of the text It is argued, that in thisparticular the Porte is obstruct- ing an improvement which would be beneficial to civilization at large, and that a dignified policy in that regard justifies the up- holding of Egypt. Much is said to prove the virtues of Egyptian rule, and statistics are adduced to show that in one year " capital punishments " in Egypt, like the neologisms in Johnson's dictionary, "have been but three." But how many bastinadoes have there been, to extort taxes from the wretched Yellahs ; and how many of those bastinadoes have proved fatal ? Ender the " enlightened* rule of Mehemet Ali, the iron scourge of tyranny had resulted in a steady decrease of the Elation ; and we have heard of no change under -the rule oi cruel Ibrahim, or that of Abbas, brought up in the same school. No, it is not by upholding the Pasha against his lord that civilization is to be promoted. It the
same time,: it may be regirdd as certain, that asennine.and tho- rolig,h understanding betiieen the Governments of England and Turkey would establish an influence that might be paramount in Egypt, not only for the redemption of • the miserable Egyptiani themselves, but for the establishment of the railway.
It is not by working at randoniand in the dark that the citi- zens of London Will attain theii object. What they want is. a good path acroes the only strip' of land that crosses the Indian route, and a guarantee for that route : but by plunging into a sea of complications and quarrels, they imperil rather than secure the high-road. Make it the object of contention, of litigated rights and conflicting policy, and it becomes, ipso facto, in- fested with the worst enemies to peaceful travelling. Let the citizens try to obtain a clear understanding of that in which they are moving. All the difficulties and dangers take their rise in the secrecy and the want of straightforwardness if all the negotiations were open and straightforward, England would know what she is tieing.; and inasmuch as she could de- sire nothing adverse to the best interests of Turkey, and of civil- ization; she would act so as to obtain the concurrence of the Poite and the sanction of Europe. At present she does not knowlow she is acting—what intrigues she is snbserving, what injustice aiding, what natural enmities provoking, what dangers creating to defeat the very object in view.
Previous page
