The money vote asked for is £2,300,000, of which £1,400,000
is for the Navy, and £900,000 for the Army. This vote will, it is thought, cover the expense of the expedition to Egypt for about three months ; and as at the end of three months from this time Parliament will be again sitting, we can hardly understand the outcry raised that the vote ought to have been Larger. These votes will not, of course, cover the cost of the Indian troops; and we perceive that the Pall Mall Gazette speaks of it as a matter of common moral obligation that we should repay the cost to India; and treats the case as on all-fours with the cost of the last Afghan war. The difference, however, is this,—that according to the general belief of the country, and according to the strong conviction of the Liberal Party, the last Afghan war was a pore mischief to India,—a war altered upon chiefly to check the supposed European ambition of Russia, and not only dangerous, but prejudicial, to the interests of the Indian Empire. In this case, however, it is because Egypt is on the road to India, that it becomes so important to restore order in Egypt ; and if we had no Indian Empire, we should, probably, never have interfered in Egypt at all. We cannot see, therefore, why India should not contribute her share of a cost incurred more on behalf of India than on behalf of England.
