THE DISTRESS IN EGYPT.
[To THS EDITOR OF THE " sewn:role:]
Sin,—The march of events in Egypt has been so rapid since the publication of my letter in your columns, that it is scarcely needful that I should reply to the not unfriendly criticisms of Mr. F. W. Rowsell. I will, however, with your permission, advert to a few points.
When I mentioned that the two benevolent gentlemen who were sent up to Luxor in a Khedivial steamer " had no official status," I intended to cast no slur upon the excellence of their intentions. The points to which I wished to draw attention were,(1) the futility and criminality of a Government which. for lack of trustworthy agents of its own, was obliged to obtain. its information on a vital point from two foreigners who chanced to be touring in the country ; and (2), that information gathered on the banks of the Nile only, and not also in the villages in the interior of the country, would necessarily be of a most imperfect and inadequate character.
With regard to what Mr. Rowsell calls my " accusations" against the late English and French Ministers, I beg to say that I made no " accusations " at all. I simply stated the opinions of the people as regards their appointment, and as I never even heard it hinted that the object of their appointment was any other than to look after European interests, I added that I thought, as I still think, " there was much truth and justice " in the popular view. The people did not ask for these Ministers, but the people were taxed to pay their immense salaries ; and assuredly, if their mission had been to relieve the wretched Fellaheen from their grinding burdens, the Khedive would never have consented to their appointment.
I did not assert, as Mr. Rowsell supposes, that the sugar factory of which I spoke was situated on one of the restored Daira Estates. I cited it as an example of what was going on at a time when two European Ministers were at the head of affairs, and to show that, spite of English and French influence, cruelties of a kind approved by the Khedive and his Scotch apologist are still being perpetrated on the defenceless Fellaheen. —I am, Sir, &c.,
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