NEWS OF THE WEEK.
MHERE is a panic in Egypt. The cholera has appeared in Damietta, and according to the most favourable accounts eighty deaths occurrsd in three days, in a population of 30,000. Less favourable statements raise the mortality to 113 a day, and report the number of other deaths as unusually high. The disease has also appeared in Mausourah, Tantah, and Port Said, but it has not yet been acknowledged in Cairo or Alexandria. The accounts presage a regular visitation, and the result has been the usual ex-plosion of cowardice. Nothing can convince Continentals that cholera, though highly epidemic, is not contagions,—for instance, doctors rub their patients without catching it,—and the residents are flying the country in crowds. Damietta is surrounded by troops, who drive back all who attempt to escape; but so great is the general flight that the orders from Egypt to sell Stock have affected every European Bourse, and on Tuesday and Wednesday caused a general fall of one and a half per cent. in Eastern Stocks. The French Press fiercely denounces the greedy selfish- ness of English commerce, which, rather than bear quarantine, has brought the disease from Bombay, and the relaxation of the absurd quarantine laws for which Lord Granville has been con- tending has been indefinitely postponed. It is even suggested that the organisation of Egypt may be broken up for want of officers, and that an outbreak among the British troops may cause their withdrawal. These, of course, are panic-struck opinions, but the interruption to business and to affairs will be considerable.
