ENGLAND AND EGYPT.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5209, 1 December 1877, Page 2 (Supplement)

ENGLAND AND EGYPT.

Egypt, it would appear, is about to pass under the protectorate of England, by and with the consent of the Sultan and Khedive. It has been evident since the outbreak ot the Russo-Turkish war that England has been scheming for a foothold in the Valley of the Nile. With Egypt under the protection of England it will only bo a question of time when the former will be absorbed by the latter, and the acquisition will he a valuable one. Thu soil on the Nile Valley is said to be the richest on the face of the earth. By extending tho cultivation of cotton into Upper Egypt and Nubia sire could supply tire world with it. For sugar and cereals the soil and climate are equally well adapted. The population i.s chiefly Mahommedan, embracing Arabs, Turks, and Syrians ; the remaining population consists of Copts, Abyssinians, Negroes, Greeks, Jews, and Western Europeans. Under British rule there would flow in an Anglo-Saxon and Western European stock that would iu a few years be in the ascendancy.’ England could then extend her conquests up tho Nile into the heart of Africa, when civilisation would follow and an empire grow up which would extend from the Atlantic to tho Pacific. The improvements in navigation, iu railroads, and material advantages, are likely to he fostered as soon as English capital can safel j be invested in them. But the rule of an alien race is almost fatal to the original inhabitant of tire land, and civilisation from the outside is not always a benefit to the race which is compelled to receive it.