The Government have announced that they have prohibited the Khedive
from carrying out any capital sentence on any of the Egyptian leaders, without their consent. We do not object to the assumption of authority, as while we occupy Egypt it is necessary that, under whatever decorous forms, the British should be true rulers, but we do not understand the limit im- posed on the Khedive. He may execute a sentence of imprison- ment for life, but not one inflicting death. This is to say, we trust him to give a cruel sentence, but not a comparatively light one. It is generally understood from the notification that the mutineer ringleaders are to escape, but we trust this does not include a pardon for them, or a secondary sentence, if they ordered as some of them certainly did, the massacre in Alexandria. • Why should we be so considerate for murderers— considerate in appearance, at least, for dangerous prisoners con- fined in Egypt soon die—because they have murdered whole- sale Or how do we justify our own executions for mutiny, when we tell the Khedive that he must only imprison?
