The protest of the Powers against the suspension of the
Egyptian Sinking Fund appears to have been purely formal, and intended to guard their right of action in the event of any further attempt to set aside the Law of Liquidation. That law, of course, must be disregarded if Egyptian finance is to be placed upon a Gonna footing; but the Powers win probably be consulted informally before any step is taken, and made aware of the line the British Government will finally propose. It is not impossible to give compensation for the cutting of the coupon, and this without a direct British guarantee. It must not be forgotten that England is not bound to remain in Egypt, and that if she retires, declaring herself too much hampered to fulfil her mission, total repudiation would be merely a question of weeks. No single Power would be allowed to take her place, and powerful as the firms are which hold the Egyptian Debt, they would be unable to. organise a Continental coalition to prevent their losing what is not, after all, an enormous sum of money. This power gives the British Government some check over their rapacity, and if Mr. Gladstone were driven to the wall, it might be exerted. The whole affair is on this side most ominous for Europe, which, for the first time, feels the full weight of the Jew interest. If the- British Government agreed to pay the fall coupon, so long as it remained in Egypt, the entire Continental Press would beseech it never to depart.
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