CORRESPONDENCE.

THE REBELLION IN EGYPT.

Dram A CORRESPONDENT.] Alecoandria, September 19th. Sut,—In this country of surprises and of unlooked-for solu- tions of difficulties, nothing ought to astonish the mind of beholders of events. But the equanimity of even "the oldest inhabitant" might reasonably have been disturbed at the sudden, total, and violent downfall of that house of cards in which the Egyptian rebellion had skulked so long. Whatever the wise after the event may say to the contrary, no one thought the long-prepared and widely-ramified rebellion was to end like a pricked air-ball. When English Ministers asked for their Vote of Credit on July 24th, and said that the Vote was based on the assumption that the Expedition would take three months, people in the House, and outside of it took the announcement as one of those bad jokes with

which Governments, like nurses having physic to administer, try to cajole their victims into swallowing the dose. Pre- sumably, the Admiralty did not believe the assurance, for they took up shipping on six months' charters, while the Commis- sariat showed their appreciation of it by making contracts to run till Christmas. Officers commanding regiments, officers commanding ships, looked upon resistance as likely to be pro- traded over two or three months, and they cited the endurance shown by the rebels at the bombardment of Alexandria, and the character of their defensive works at Kafr Dower and elsewhere, in support of their belief.

As regards the natives, though the khedive several times remarked to me, "You English make too much of the rebels, they would not stand an attack," the majority of people thought many weeks would elapse before the end could come.

Except Osman Pasha Ghaleb, Moudir of Siout, who let it be known that if Arabi or any of his adherents came that way, he would arrest them, there was apparently no place, no respon- sible man, in the country, but was in opposition to the Khedive. Tewfik Pasha's authority was confined to Alex-

andria, or rather, to Ras-el-Tin, for the English commanded in the town, and even mounted guard at the palace. There was "none so poor to do him reverence." To-day, seeing the number of Pashas, Boys, Sheikhs, et hoc genus omnc, who throng the corridors and staircases of the palace, seeing the fulsome telegrams and letters which every hour

brings, expressive of devotion on the part of those who, till the other day, were, to say the least of it, not with the Khedive, one is reminded of Charles IL's inquiry, when the people shouted welcome round his carriage after his landing at Dover. "Where can be the people who have kept me out all these years P" Sir Garnet Wolseley's lucky star has shone upon his careful and skilful combinations, but I value the demonstrations of joy on behalf of the Mussulman population towards the leader of the Infidels at, say, a trifle below the protestations of loyalty, just referred to, sent to the Khedive. The Arab, especially the Fellah branch of Arab, worships visible power, and is ready to shout welcome and to bend himself humbly before the manifest power-wielder. The other day it was Arabi, to-day it is Sir Garnet Wolseley. They would do the same to any one whom they believed to have the power to coerce them.

It will never do, however, while admitting to the utmost the doctrine of subservience in these people, and their acceptance of accomplished facts, to forget that down.trodden races spring with a bound from restraint to licence, from obedience to brutal disregard of all authority, the moment they are completely un- enthralled. With the massacres at Alexandria, at Tantah, at Tookh, fresh in our memories, it would be idle, even criminal, to forget this, and not to provide against it. We cannot yet know to what extent the religious hatred has risen against us

in the country generally, but there are prima facie grounds for

believing that it has been strongly excited, Tantah, where the massacres of Christians were most deliberate and cruel, is the nursery of religious intolerance in Egypt, Damietta ifself not being excepted, and the villages take their cue from the city which holds the bones of Said el Bedawi. Only yesterday, passengers by the first-run trains were insulted and risked attack at that place.

You will give me credit for not wishing to make unnecessary or cruel examples, but unless condign punishment follows swiftly on certain leaders in the late insurrection, the clemency will be interpreted by the Arabs into fear of the prisoners, and rebellion will become a trade. Men who openly said they would destroy the Khedive, and not his authority only—men who gave the written orders, which the Khedive assured me he had seen, to surround his palace at Ramleh, to fire it, and to shoot any who attempted to escape from it—ought not to go unpunished. Men who, in the cities or in the provinces, incited to murder or incendiarism should be dealt with as malefactors, who have broken the criminal law of all societies. They might be tried by a mixed court-martial of English and Egyptian officers. Their cases should be thoroughly gone into, and the strictest justice should be-meted out to them, whatever

their rank. Unless this be done, there will be no safety for the life of Europeans in the villages, and in the towns men

will stand in danger of assassination, on favourable opportuni- ties presenting themselves. I have no sort of sympathy, nor have you, with the French plan, which has been much advocated here by Frenchmen these last few days, and which would in- volve the hanging of " quelques refiners d'Arabes," the blowing. up of the great Mosque at Tantah, and a prohibition of the Mecca pilgrimage. Such methods are among the secrets of French failures as colonists and governors of colonies. But neither can I shut ray eyes to the absolute necessity of punishing with dis- crimination, but with severity, the leaders and fomentors of the late rebellion. When Lord Granville telegraphed to Egypt that it was the wish of the Queen's Government that no Ben- teams should be executed against rebels without previous refer- ence to England, it was, no doubt, with the humane intention of preventing torture; and of ensuring that the success won by the British arms should not be associated with cruelties, such as Easterns are wont to inflict upon one another. But unless the presumably guilty are sent for trial, and unless the sen- tences of such a tribunal as above suggested, giving guarantees for fairness, are allowed to be executed, the Egyptian Govern- ment will say, with much show of reason, "We decline to be responsible for the consequences. You sap our power before it has-been reconstituted, you give it in the eyes of the people a character for feebleness and for indecision, and these things are fatal to all success."

The law of the Koran is not like a criminal code giving pre- determined punishments for each offence a man may commit, bat, in the case of rebellion certainly, it places the life and property of the rebel at the disposal of his master. No necessity lies upon the master to pronounce sentence of death or forfeiture 43-Aber, he has a range so wide as to meet all cases ; but the calm suggestion of the Times on September 16th, that Arabi should be exiled, only not to Turkey, sounded to us who are acquainted with Eastern ways and ideas as almost grotesque. 'Those who have watched this struggle from the beginning, who are acquainted with the Egyptians' character, and who, in their interest, would desire to stop a repetition of the disorder and ruin which lately threatened the country, would probably say that the capital punishment of some ten persons, the exile or imprison- ment for different terms of a hundred more, and the forfeiture by all concerned of their right to pay or pension, would meet the justice of the case. But if for any reason it be decided to award in Egypt a punishment different from what would be awarded in England, if a similar condition of things there can be imagined, then the punishments ought certainly to be striking in their character, and calculated powerfully to deter. Such a plan as that enunciated by the Times was offered to the revolted Pashas last May, and was scornfully rejected. Since then much blood has been spilt, much Egyptian as well as European property has been destroyed, and the evil example of rebellion has been set throughout Egypt. Degradation, loss of civil rights, penal servitude, are in England the substitutes for the death sentence ; why not also in Egypt ? The ostensible objects kept in view by the leaders of the late rebellion may be thus summarised:- 1. Expulsion of the family of Mohammed Ali. 2. Overthrow of the European influence in public affairs. 3. Dismissal of all European employ6s, except such as a Native Ministry might choose to retain, on condition of their subordination to Native administrators. 4. Equality of European and Egyptian before the law, criminal as well as civil.

5. Repudiation of the public Debt (see Arabi's letter to Mr. Gladstone, early in July). The effort was made in order to throw off Turkish rule and French interference, and to start afresh with an Arab kingdom, free from the vices and the indebtedness which had characterised, according to them, the previous rOgime. Such was the dream of Arabi and his friends. The first of these objects is personal to the few men who formed the Rebel Ministry, and to a few enthusiasts outside that circle. It has not been attaiued and the losing side must pay, in some shape or other. The overthrow of European influence in Egyptian affairs could only take place when Egypt ceased to i3e, by the fact of its geographical position, an object of uni- versal interest to Europe. That, therefore, was outside the range of practical politics. Repudiation of the Debtw as' possibly, in spite of Arabi's 8 famous letter to Mr. Glad tone early in July, more of a brattan Admen than an intention But there are many Egyptians who, reasonably enough, complain both of the size of the debt and of the manner in which it was built up, and who complain yet more of the application of the money borrowed. Arabs reason quickly and directly, and from criticism of the history of the debt to repudiation of it is with them but a step. Had it been possible for the rebellion to have succeeded, they would have repudiated, without the slightest sense of dishonesty in the operation. The plan was more than foreshadowed in Arabi's quasi-ultimatum—if, indeed, that strange document was his composition at all—and it is certain it would have found favour with that unscrupulous [band whom Mr. Blunt so strangely delights to honour—the burners of Alexandria, the massacre- promoters, the lie-forgers, who surrounded and influenced Arabi.

The equality of native and foreigner before the laws might be effected by the process of levelling up or levelling down, and it is more than likely the real wish of the Egyptians would be met by making the European jurisprudence applicable univer- sally and exclusively, rather than by leaving the native liable, as at present, to the mixed Tribunals in suits between Europeans and natives, and to the corrupt and costly Egyptian Courts in suits between native and native. This, however, was not the aim of the rebel leaders, who would have abolished the Re- formed Tribunals, and everything belonging to them, and hand- ing over their countrymen to cadis, muftis, and other interpre- ters of the Koran, would have placed them in a situation ten times worse than at present. Of course, as regards criminal justice, it was never among the possibilities that Europe would have renounced the application of its own codes for its own subjects, in favour of Judges who had itching palms, and who disposed of korbagh and filthy dungeons as a means of enrich- ing themselves, while any notion of deterrent punishment was never even dreamed of.

As to the dismissal of Europeans from the Egyptian service, there is, on the face of the papers on that subject, certainly a case for inquiry. No small amount of exaggeration has been used by public speakers and writers who have descanted on this topic lately, and the figures in the papers presented to Parlia- ment have been made into a formidable battery against the sup- posed rapacity of Europeans in Egypt. Truer service would be rendered to the cause of reform, if some pains were taken to master the details of the figures, both as regards the number of employ6s and their salaries. We are so absolutely masters of the Egyptian situation, that we are bound in honour not to leave a single grievance, or even supposed grievance, unex- amined; and this is more especially the case where, as in this matter of salaried Europeans in Egypt, we are personally con- cerned. I hope to touch the question, if you can allow me space for another letter, in which I propose to notice the probable consequences to Egypt of the suppression of the rebellion.—I