The week has been full of rumours about Egypt, the
general drift of which is this. The Sultan is being pressed by Russia and France to demand from England the evacuation of Egypt.
Each Power is, in addition, worrying in Cairo, the French representative questioning the management of the Public Debt, the Russian representative partially shielding the Russian agent of the ex-Khedive, who has forcibly entered a palace which Ismail claims as his property. The object, of course, is to annoy England, and induce her to make some con- cessions in Bulgaria, where she possesses a veto on the election of a Prince. The manoeuvres at Constantinople have not come to much yet, the Porte being reluctant to break with England, and the incidents at Cairo have possibly been exaggerated. By the latest accounts, the German Chancellor has not adhered to this line of proceeding, being anxious that England should support Austria, and only angry that she will not join the Austro-German alliance. The French are obviously uneasy about something behind the scenes, and keep on saying that if England takes Egypt, unutterable consequences will follow, in a way that suggests a secret desire for compensation. It is possible that the threat visible in some sentences of M. de Freycinet's given below may refer to Egypt.
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