SAID PASHA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 346, 23 February 1856, Page 5

SAID PASHA.

" The Pasha means lo travel!" The an-

iiounceincnt creates no surprise, for Said Pasha is <riveu to journeying, suddenly visiting parts of his dominions surrounded by ;i band of soldiets. It is after the fashion of Ilaroun Alrasebid, but not. secretly, not attended only by Giafier and Musnuir, or alone. For, much as a dignified deportment might be accounted lh« chief characteristic of Said's ample form, there is an indomitable activity ; as might indeed be guessed from the sanguine complexion of bis cheek*, his black beard and flashing eye. He means to travel, however, even unto Paris and London, —suddenly as the idea seems to have been formed, his journey has no h*ss an extent than that; and for once his subjects are surprised. ILuouti Alrasohid never ventured so far a". Paris, and iiis widest wanderings left the Cassiterides unexplored. Whenever they venture mi journeys of state, the Eastern moiiarchs usually require mere preparation ; but Said Pasha is hereditary Viceroy of Enypt, ahnost a Sultan, perhaps some day to be quite a Sultan — and his subjects must obey. Said is not inexperienced in travelling. He has already vi-iied ibis country some yea is back, and lie intends to repeat the same rouie. He will come through Paris, be will relura through Bt'ilin and Vienna, —that seems to be the established Egyptian grand t<uir. Last time when he came, he enjoyed the hospitality of Sir Moses Miintcfiore : Sir Moses and his lady have latel- been receiving the affable hospitality of the Viceroy, who <rave them a mansion wherein to live, bi washes to guard them and keep in order their path—in short, accorded to them all tin* distinctions which vijeregal hospitality could afford. N w. Said is a man who, sudden and active as be is, seldom moves without a purpose ; and, as certainly as he has a laudable object in cultivating an entente conliale with the benevolent Moutefiore, so certain is it that London and Paris, yea, and perhaps Berlin and Vienna, have objects'at which he intends to aim. What, then, can be those objects which create such sudden movements? The readiest conjecture is, that he intends to beat uv> support for some of iiis projects; say, for instance, lhat he intends to cultivate the already accruing Fiench assistance for the Sih-z Canal, — that striking imagination of modern days, a great canal with what we niiiv call its submarine Mediterranean branch and its inland port. Tt is surmised that he also intends to conciliate doubtful English opinion to entrendei that which has not been yet so hastily held out —substantial English aid. For Great Britain is the land of capital; and France herself", or even Ferdinand de Lesseps, can hardly count upon uniting the lied Sea and the Mediterranean;without English sovereigns — that pretty yellow coin, stamped by the most accurate mint in the world, which seems likely to become the currency of all Europe. Such objects are worth the journey ; but peihapsthere may be others yet more pressing, others yet more ma<rnifieertt. That same Suez Canal has before its existence occasioned vexation and trouble to Said Pasha. He obtained his finnan from Constantinople, but not rendily. It was, as it were, wrung out by importunity, and he has had to pay fur it, Heaven knows what, hut certainly some penalty in the coldness remaining in the Couslautinopoiitan Government What if he comes also to get Anglo Galilean moral support to sustain him before his master the Sultan, and to counteract the hostile mancuuvres of the statesmen who succeed oach other so rapidly in (he Turkish capital? And some extraneous support undoubtedly is required ; for if one thing is more remarkable than another at a place like Constantinople, it is, so to speak, the coherence and continuity o! the spirit of government. One clique succeeds another, and yet on the whole the Porte does manage to preserve a certain consistence and connectedness in its acts before the world, just as if the sovereign were an active entity, or the alternating cliques had something like the stable traditions of our political parties. Amongst their consistencies is one principle—thai of making Eir.\ pt pay. Perhaps the consistency has been imparted to the Oonstantinopolitau councils ah extra. They do say, that at one tune an English mind, at another time a French, has infused the vu.il principle iuto the Divan ; and if so, we can understand the plain common scum: of the course taken by Said Pasha when he leaves the banks of the Nile for those of the Seine or the Thames, in order to got himself righted politically between the Cabinet ;rud the Sultan his master.

" The Suhan his uiaslev!I' —the phrase has in • t a sivimr of the tlisajjrreahh', wliicli. in .».j»i11? f Oriental humility, a man like Said Pasha is

sure to feel. Besides, the suzerainty is accompanied by practical inconveniences. It is true that the tribute is not much—only £'300,000 a year; which Egypt can better afford to give than Turkey to lose. True, that Said's progenitor obtained the fief of K<;ypt, never be-fore hereditary, on very favourable terms ; and that a rent of .£300,000 a year is, after all, but a quit or pepper-corn rent for so magnificent and so improvable an estate. There was one advantage in the hideous rule of Mehemet A.li:—that it gave his successors ample room foe improvement; and whether it be by Mahmoudeyeh Canil, or Suez Railway, or Suez Cinal, or " barrage dv Nil," for raising the water by impeding it, or any other of the projects that come into existence or do not, an intelligent Viceroy with efficient help may get Egyptian revenues and honours lhat the Sultan never eu-j-iyed. But the tribute has its supplement; and there lies the sting of the import. Nothing is to be done at Constant'1 "le without huksheesh —vails. Even in sin' at ng as th's firman— that is, permission to ye .esseps peruii.<>sion— sums must be paid tha. ~ not ti.id and could with difficulty be conjee: ired. Ceiiain it i-s lhat the supplemental tribute called bukshee.-h exceeds the other in amount and in vexatious characteristics. Surely a right unders'arirling on many points will free a Viceroy of Egypt from that impost without any wrong to the revenue of the Sultan, w'nhuut any injury to Turkey, without any loss of real po-ver to Turkish statesmen, n-iy, with a probable gain even to the very incomes of tho*e 'distinguished persons. For are not English noblemen wealthier than the Turki-h ; though we believe English noblemen, as a general rule, have lon-r since discontinued the acceptance of huksheesh ? And ihere are more inconveniences : Said P.-i'-ha cannot tiavel to London, for instance, without the question arising how he :s to appear at Court unless preserve 1 by the Turkish Ambassador—the Ambassador of another reigning Sovereign ; a necessity which places him on the footing Of ;m ordinary subject. True, he is hut a Viceroy ; hut he is a vassal almost by consent, and there is some degree of humiliation in waiting" the introduciion by the Turkish Ambassador. The humiliation must be measured, nut by the past, nor by the present alone, but in Mime decree by the future. The dreams of the Egyptian dynasty are well known —for Egypt has a j dynasty. Practically its independence is con- | siderable. cenainlv much gieater than it used | to be in the days of Mehemet AH or even of I Abbas Pasha. The late Viceroy would never j have ventured upon such a step as that now taken by Said in leaving his kingdom in charge of a brother ; the very man who. according to Eastern ! precedent, should seize the advantage offered I by the absence of his lord and take possession of | the throne. Said must not only count his power solid, and his independence real, but must think that his dynasty is so sufficiently united to the established order of things in Europe, that he can travel without fearing the loss of his throne

as soon as it* is out of his si^hr. So f;ir, Eeypt lias made a decided progress; but even Meliemet Ali, vassal as he was, unrecognised l*y the Powers of Europe, dreamed a dream ; and it was, thai Eiiyju should he tlu* meivoju>iitan state of an *'Arab"empire." Napoleon used to have the same dream ; and why bhunkl the reigning rei>iesentalives of Napoleon and .Meliemet Ali not realise the joint reverie? For Said Pashn has many sympathies with the' French. Several of hi* Ministers are of that race. At this muinent Sulevman Pasha is oniy kept from him by illness. The Pasha is aecoinp.uned to France by M. Sabatier, the French Consul-General; and he sptv.ks the lanjrii.iue tiuentiy—far better than any other forei«r!i toiiirue. lie may count ui-oii Kiisrlisli supp»rt. e>p«-cial!y by favour of the alliance. But main'.esily his iiiens run more in the French ehnvmol tba.i she English—i*nd no blame to him. France. howe%vr, couid m>t at this moment think of liism.-inhfrinir t"ti Turkish en.pirc even so o!.''i-.- S.iul P.^iu*. Tiis favour has been .it nieii vi Nn-ii-ila-i ami to Alexander. Still, me:i. esjicciaiv Orientalists and Uon.ipartes, are much iiovt-rued even by the remotest of dn-ams. 'I'he I'.i-^ha embaik-, lie traverses the sea, lie lands at Mur.vilb-s. "v! hi- -.■es — back as:aiii to Alexandria ! Why :' Wa> not h;s reception to have been adequate to hi- hopes ? Or does he inisltust iiie con-iqneiioes o\ his afsenee . Pliilosopli.-rs tell us tliut there is nothing so uiN liculr to aei-ount (or as ihnnut-r asiii Hjrhtnini;-: the E-yntian !\.sha is soox-ti •')■■ !'s<e thunder and lightning incarnate. -Spectator, -V.