THE CIVILISING PROGRESS OF GREAT BRITAIN.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5192, 12 November 1877, Page 3

THE CIVILISING PROGRESS OF GREAT BRITAIN.

It is so much more common to see England and tlie English abused than praised in French publications, and England’s colonising action stigmatised as the result of the greed of the traders for new markets, rather than recognised as the great pioneer of civilisation and peaceful progress all over the world, that it is pleasaut to be able to chronicle the recent able disquisition of M. de Laveleye, who reviews the action of England in India and elsewhere, pointing out the civilising tendency of the English ingcrencc in her various splendid colonies, and in India, where the French writer regards her as being truly the fostering and educating mother of innumerable nations, whom she will thus have trained for independent self-government, in course of time. He would fain see England take possession of Egypt, considers that the course of events in the East will probably compel her to do so, and argues that such "a result of the present war would be an immense gain for Egypt and for the world.

“ Only let Egypt pass under the protection of England,” says M. de Laveleye, “ and the slave-trade would be instantly suppressed, steam navigation would connect the interior of the African continent with the Mediterranean, and civilisation and commerce would penetrate into an immense region of admirable fertility, and, by reason of its altitude, habitable by Europeans. By the Cape, by Natal, by the Transvaal, the English are advancing towards the Zambesi. Already they have a station on Lake Nyaasa ; they will soon have others on Lake Tanganyika and on Lake Victoria. The International Exploration Society, founded by the King of the Belgians, will send into the country travellers, emigrants! artisans of every kind. It has been shown that a telegraphic line could easily he estaVdished from Cairo to Natal and the Cape. Lieut. Cameron thinks that railways, uniting the centre of Africa to the coast, would not be long in paying their expenses. If, therefore, England consented to fix her attention in this direction, an unbroken current of civilisation would speedily cross Africa from Alexandria to the Cape, along the line of the high table-land. The English would thus build up for themselves an empire as extensive as that of India, with virgin lands of the greatest fertility, with a more agreeable climate, and completely • free from long droughts. . . . . A far-sighted English Minister ought at once to' take his measure for the occupation of Egypt, in order that the road to India may not be interrupted. . . . _. In Asia-Minor, such annexations as Russia may make will not bring her sensibly nearer to India, but they will bring her sensibly nearer to Syria and the Suez Canal. To secure tills passage and to preserve her authority in tire East, England will therefore be obliged, in spite of herself, to declare a protectorate over Egypt. This will bo an indispensable measure of compensation, and one which everji true friend of humanity, to whatever nation he belongs, ought to sincerely applaud.”