In connection with this scheme, Admiral Hewett has been sent
to Abyssinia on a mission to King John. He is instructed, it is believed, to ask whether, if the King is allowed free access to Massowah, and guaranteed against Egypt, he would assist a British force marching from Massowah, vici Kassala, to the Nile. If so, the expedition would be exempt from attack, and might be reduced in proportions, to the great relief of the Treasury. Admiral Hewett has not reached the King yet, and, ao far, has not been too well received by the King's subordinates. The news from his Embassy tends to show that the King wishes to haggle, and we fear the Admiral has not enough to offer. The King, who is a gloomy and suspicions man, has a perfect guarantee against Egypt in his habit of cutting up Egyptian garrisons ; and he wants the sovereignty of Massowah, not a right of trading freely there. The mission may, therefore, fail ; but the idea was a good one, and if the Admiral returns in safety no harm will have been done. We do not understand why it was impossible to send an agent a little more accustomed to diplomacy and its ways.
