"Vie spectator," ctoixer 18th 1851
JOHN BULL is assuredly the .very incarnation of contradictions. He grumbles at war-expenses, yet rather likes to run the- risk of being drawn into wars. He denounces intervention in foreign affairs, and will yet be meddling in the domestic concerns of all nations. In 1841 he narrowly escaped provoking an- European war by his armed interference in the quarrels of the Sultan and Mehemet Ali ; and no sooner do the Porte and Egypt show symptoms of being again at loggerheads than he would again be meddling in their affairs. The City meeting about the transit through Egypt, occasioned by the squabble between. the Sultan and Abbas Pacha respecting the projected Egyptian railway, has, it is true, the excuse that England has a deep stake in keeping open the direct line of communication with her Eastern possessions ; but do the parties who have been most forward to promote that meeting come into court with clean hands? The ostensible immediate cause of the present dissensions between the Sultan and his 'vassal is the railway from Alexandria to Suez. The English promoters of the railway have gained the ear of the Egyptian Government, while the Austrian promoters of a canal are understood to enjoy the favour of the Ministers at Constantinople. The great Anglo-Indian steam companies promote the railway ; the Austrian Lloyd's would prefer a canal.
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