Eorrr was the primer of the world, The lessons which the land of the Nile taught humanity are not to be reckoned easily, and indeed the extent of Western obligation to Egypt and of Asiatic obligation to Africa is enormous. It has happened, unluckily for Egypt, that our accounts of her aticieut glory have come from prejudiced sources, and it was not until Bunsen wrote and Cham-pallion toiled to unravel the mysteries of the hieratic papyri that we had any iden of the lore that Egypt possessed, and them any-sided activity of ber intellectual life. All this, however, may be said to be the study of the antignarian, In this day we want to learn what Egypt has to do in the mid-glare of the nineteenth century, Has she nothing to do but to give subjects for pictures to Long and Paynter, and themes for novels to Georg Ebers? We imagine that she has a function of great importance to discharge. It is true that in her first attempt to go above and to Europennise herself she spent far too much money. The Khedive, though one of the hardest working ralers in the world, was beset by © demon of extravagance, and was preyed upon by all the financial harpies of the world. We can guess why Egypt was bankrupt and rained when we recollect the one fact that out of five loans of a total nominal amount of £55,887,000, the Egyptian Treasury received only about £35,000,000 cash or its equivalents ut the current market rate, When we recollect that besides: the national debt proper of Egypt, incurred on these ruinous terms, the Khedive himself had contracted three other foreign loans, we shall have no difficulty in accounting for the collapse in Egypt, Still we hope and believe the worst is now over, and that the steady growth of trade will go on. Menntime, Egypt has to show how an Oriental nation can use Earopean guidance for the best. A very close parallel may be drawn, between the present condition of Egypt under the Khbedive and that of China under His Imperial Majesty Kwang Sil, In both countries there are long arrears of misgovernment and corruption to make up. The past is a confused jumble of oppressions and blundering struggles against the inevitable consequences of financial mismanage The years that are gone by legacy of trouble which it is difficult to get free from, but both Egypt and China are struggling with them after fashion, Egypt in spite of her debts is perhaps nearer to the hour of escape from the wood of difficulty than China is. Both have sought the assistance of European financiers, and have by their aid contrived to evolve some order out of the chaos existing in the various departments of the public service when under native rule. In Egypt and in China the time has come when the native is learning every day to go further and further with. out leading-strings to swim further and farther without cork. The commercial expansion of Egypt began with the Into Khedive's reign, and Egypt's three staple exports, cotton, cereals, and sugar have moved ahead. The import trade has improved steadily. Thus we seo exactly the same process going on which is going on in China, There are occasional bad years, but as fav as China herself is concerned, she is gaining every day by the contact with foreign enterprise. And in a political direction there is unhappily another parallel, Just as both countries should have discovered that their interests are those of peace, the ungquiet spirit of intrigue begins to be visible. Wo hear of nothing but ramours of a succession war and of the jar of rival Ministers at Peking, and the Inst newspapers from Home speak of impending dis urbanees in Egypt. "In spite of all this pros. perity," writes the Times correspondent at Alexandria, "the air is filled with rumours of sedition and conspiracy, Chakir Pasha, a distinguished general like the two high officials in China, the victorious queller of rebellions, is banished, deprived of all his titles, ranks, and dignities, struck off the list of the Egyptian army, and for-hidden to return to Egypt." There are complications with Italy connected with Chakir's disgrace, just as there are complications with Russia and other Powers involved in every Imperial act at Peking which shall raise up one and set down another. To add to the closeness and exactitude of the parallel, we find the great actor who has played such an important role in Egypt now actually again on the scene in China, moving from Tientsin to Peking and from Peking to Tientsin, and exhibiting the same keen interest in the one country as he did in the other, It seems almost that if one changed Chinese names for Egyptian ones, the leading articles published on the doings at Peking would be found to be descriptive of the cabals ut Cairo.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.