EUROPEAN TOPICS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1906, 23 September 1884, Page 4

EUROPEAN TOPICS.

(European* Mail Aug. 1.) That a judge should be at the he id of a dynamite plot i\not, happily, an everyday occurence. * The tact remains however, that a certain Judge Undo wski, a Pole by nationality, was the leader of a band of conspirators who designed blowing up the Cz,ir when 01 whenever they Lad ;iu opportunity Bardowski was looked upon as a res peetable and a decent miii until he exchanged paletots with a brothei magistrate, leaving all sorts of incendiary documents in the pockets, to the no email terror of the gentleman who found them. By accident he had " blown " upon himself, and the secret being in the hands of the police they were soon down upon him, and no end of arrests were made. It would be really instructive to know what these •' reformers " are aiming at. Given that they succeeded in their views, subvert decent rule, the dominate, is it not pretty certain that they would become so jealous of each other's influence tint dynamite would be served up for breakfast, until but one scounderal, and that the " fittest " survived ? What is most lamentable is that the Czar and Czarina cannot have a moment's peace of their lives, and that when they travel they are not only compelled to keep the route they take Becret, but their place of residence also. It seems that over two hundicd and eighty arrests have been made in Warsaw in connection with this conspiracy, and that all the zeal and all the acumen of the secret police of Russia are powerless to cope with these secret societies who aim at the destruction of the existing regime. It is fortunate for the Lords that the Pall Mall Gazette is a vane which is not always to be relied upon. In criticising the policy of the Government in connection with the matters Egyptian, the music which this organ emitted grated harshly upon Ministerial ears. It is now, however, condoning its past censure by a liberal condemnation of the policy of the Lords in rejecting the Franchise Bill. " The time has come," it say, " to-clear them out at last, and in the jubiluit unanimity of Liberal? throughout the the country the Peers can sec the sure presage of their coming doom." And this is a paper written by a gentleman for genttemeii ! A question Ins .-nisei) as to whether the House of Louh tins the power of calling for a dissolution of Parliament, and the opinion of those who are well read in the Constitution is that it has not. This i 3 a point which will have au interest for the Upper Chambers in our colonies. It is clear that Mr Chamberlain has little faith in Lord .Salisbury, and tli it lie disbelieves the contention which that nobleman is never tired of asserting, that he would accept the Franchise Bill if only it were, accompanied by redistribution. The other night, .it t!ie Devonshiie Club, he said Lord Salisbury's life showed that he was opposed to the extended franchise which he now piofe&sed to accept. Well, up to a certain point, there are many people who may be disposed to admit the truth of this rum irk, but who, while doing so. will be disposed to remind Mr Chnmbeilain that a man cannot endure the food in his ac;e of whic'i he was fond in his youth, a fact which that gentleman may discover when lie has lived as many years in the world as the nobleman \\ horn he accuses of inconsistency. As a matter of fact, theie is very little difference between Mr Chambcilain and Lord Salisbury. Both are aibitiary and unconr romusing in their several spheres of political thought and labour. Now if theie were a little more of the give and-take principle exhibited in lpjjis lation it is just possible that tho'-e uncompromising advocates of their own views might come to understand each other better. Ceitainitis that if they were in the same Cabinet one or the other would hive to knuckle under. The sin of obtuT-heness and insincerity pertain? as much to one party as the other. Th n evil is that while neither party is disposed to give in, quairels political inns*-, be fought o >L to tlie bitter end. We all know what Sir John FnlstalT said about '•compulsion,'' and how with an adjecti\ c it is not necessary to repeat, he swore lie would do nothing upon "compulsion." We fear this is a trait of our insular nature not to be easily eradicated, and cleaily if the Lords are to pa-s the Franchise Bill upon " compulsion " there will be hot work by and by. It is questionable how far Egypt can be relieved by outside influence. It may be hoped that she is not entiiely past cure. That she is in extremis 13 beyond question, and that her poverty is due to maladministration is equally certain. Not a Khedive fiom the tune of Pharaoh but lias drained it utteily dry, and but for the cotton famine in Lancashire some years ago, and the fnct that the Suez Canal cuts shoit the route to India and the. south-east l>y some fifteen or twenty days, ngypt would long since have ceased to be a factor in European politics. The cotton famine Egyptian cotton valuable, and this source of wealth enabled the father of the pies< % nt Khedive to draw largely upon Emopean capital Those who have long mr-mories will icmember that twenty fiii' y<Mis ago the piess of this country was never tiied of pointing out what a splendid field there was in Egypt for the employment of Biitish capital, and that the enterpi i-^e and the good faith of thrj e\-Kliedi\e, who now languishes goodies- knows where, were worthy of tin 1 confidence of "British capitalists. Well, on the faith of these repi estimations, Biitish capitalists pouie.l no end of wealth, at a very fair and model ate amount of interest, into the lap of Egypt, and now they are told that they ni.iy considei themselves advantaged beyond the l>t ot huuian speculators if they see even the shadow of the. interest on tlie capital for which they bargained ; and w ben it is leivembeicd that this inters! upon the capital so embarked ir p>cunted the sole income ot many — veiy many —reputable families in England, to say nothing of otlieis in Fiance, Germany, and Ifaly — -though goodness knows Italy has little to spare in the way of investment— it will be seen at a glance that the situation which culminated in Tel el Kebir brought ruin to many families both in England and on the Continent, And after this the Nemesis of Faith conies to us in the shape of a growl against the bondholders, who, long before a Liberal Government intervened in thealTaiisof that country, did their very best to rehabilitate it. To us it appeals that there is not much difference between the fellaheen and the desccndents of those men who advanced English capital for the development of Egyptian industries. The one has been draineel down to a skeleton by the greed of the Dominant, while the other has been robbed by Diplomacy and bad faith. And now what is the issue. A conference ! not for the benefit of the bondholders, but for Imperial concerns ; and what is most remarkable in connection with this history is that the Govvernment proposes to take itnp just where the bondholders left off, and that while it is intent upon depriving those sanguine people of a moiety of their legitimate interest, they want to pledge the British taxpayers to a loan of which that worthy and respectable body may never see a stiver in the way of reimbursement. This, as a matter of fact, is the raison d' etre of the Conference of which our readers have heard so much. But, as the mails are being made up, there is a breeze. A point has arisen that trembles in the balance. And as the several plenipotentaries have been instructed to refer this point to their Governments, our readers will have to wait for a cablegram for further information in respect to it. We may say, however, that the point in question is how those who have parted with their money in j good faith, and as much with tifs view of advancing Egyptian industries , as a fair amount of, interest fs : thw money, are to be protected, - ' '