KING THEODORE AND THE VICEROY OF EGYPT.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 248, 18 May 1868, Page 3

KING THEODORE AND THE VICEROY OF EGYPT.

(From the Pall Mall Gazette.} We have it on trustworthy authority that the letter addressed hy the Viceroy of Egypt to King Theodore, towards the middle of October last, in accordance with Lord Stanley's acceptance of the Viceroy's offer to intervene in behalf of the captives was to the following effect: —He informed his Majesty that, in consequence of his having detained the English Consul, Envoy, and others, the British Government were so offended that they had determined to release them by force, to which end an army was beingorganisedand furnished with all the appliances of war for invading Abyssinia ; that if he did not wish to see his country overrun by foreign troops-, sacked, and pillaged) he implored him, in virtue of his (the Viceroy's) office of good neighbor, to surrender the prisoners-, as the only way of of averting the destruction which must other-wise befall him; that if he refused) seeing the English were so powerful, Ismail Pacha himself would be compelled to join them in their hostile proceedings against his Majesty. To this epistle Theodore has sent a jeering answer, acknowledging the receipt of the Viceroy's letter, and saying that he had always considered him a Muslim, dependent on the Sultan, till he received this letter, which plainly shows that he is the mere tool of the Franks ; that if he, Ismail, is a friend of the English, he, Theodore, is not. He adds that he does not know by what right Ismail is in Egypt, which was originally a Christian country, and that when the business with the English is settled, he means to reestablish Christian rule from Abesh to Alexandria. "Whether it is owing to the receipt of this letter, or because} some remonstrances have been addressed to him on the attitude assumed by his troops at Massowah, that the Viceroy, as recently reported has resolved to withdraw all but the ordinary garrison from that place, we have no means of ascertaining. It seems clear that this letter to Theodore was dictated by a desire to get rid, if possible, of our expedition ; and failing that, there was a feeler to discover whether, if we went on with the war, the Viceroy might riot join ns. One question suggests itself in the matter. Was the draft of the letter submitted to the British representatives in Egypt and was its tenor approved by the Foreign Offices ?