NEWS OF THE WEEK • P ARLIAMENT has been the scene
of a scandalous dis- cussion this week. Suleiman Semi, the Egyptian officer believed by her Majesty's agents in Egypt to be immediately responsible for the burning of Alexandria, was tried, by order of the Khedive, before a court-martial and condemned to death. Lord R. Churchill, humbly followed by Sir S. Northcote, demanded on Friday week that the British Government should interfere, alleging the sentence 'to be unjust, and Suleiman a mere scapegoat for the Khedive. Mr. Gladstone, while utterly repudiating these statements, agreed to ask once more if the British agents thought the sentence just. They reported in the affirmative, and the man was executed on Saturday. Lord Ran- dolph thereupon on Monday attacked Mr. Gladstone as guilty of a. judicial murder, and reaffirmed that the Khedive had been the author of the burnings and massacres. He offered no proof whatever of his charges, which Lord Dufferin pronounces abso- lutely absurd ; but nevertheless, he was supported by men like Sir S. Northcote, Sir R. Cross, and the Tories generally. We have said enough of the affair elsewhere, but must add here that the discussion was most discreditable to the House of Commons. If our representativeS in Egypt are to be publicly discredited, and the Khedive accused of murder, in order to secure a party triumph, our position in Egypt will become untenable.
