was he the leader of any sect or party; | displayed in ecclesiastical administration and even his oratory would have been would alone have formed a sufficient more impressive if it had been less ready proof that he was no intellectual trifler. and fluent; yet it was universally felt that he was the most conspicuous member of his order, and that his great abilities and his untiring activity were characterized by something of the temperament of genius. The peers who took part in the conversation on Tuesday last spoke more fully of the merits of Lord Westbury than of the qualities of the far more popular Bishop. One reason of the preference was the comparative ease with which a tribute could be paid to the preeminence of a great jurist and judge. The Bishop of Winchester was not to be measured by any particular work with which his name will be identified.

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from extremes which they may have | The bribe which would have been almost thought to be the logical consequence of certainly offered would have been the his avowed opinions; but he was not recognition of an independence which solicitous to abstain from collision with has now been attained by amicable negominor prejudices. Unfriendly critics tiation. It is still possible that an Egypmight discover in his character foibles tian Khedive might be tempted to betray which were exaggerated by gossip and his allegiance by an offer of facilities for rumour; but it is an ungracious task to extending his dominions; but it seems dilate on the ordinary imperfections of that the former designs of Egypt on humanity. The race of courtly and Syria and Arabia have been abandoned, genial ecclesiastics, who were neverthe- and the reigning Khedive is inclined less zealous in their calling, is fast dying rather to push his conquests at the expense of the uncivilized negro races in the South. Either through policy or from a sentiment of loyalty, the Viceroys of Egypt have now for many years cultivated friendly relations with the Porte, and it is remarkable that the Albanian dynasty of Mehemet Ali has attained its present elevation without any violent rupture with the sovereign Power, or rather, after the termination of a temporary struggle, which has been followed by a long period of harmony and deference. At one time the affairs of the East seemed likely to take a different course.

From The Saturday Review.

THE SULTAN AND THE KHEDIVE.

THE large concessions which have been obtained by the Khedive of Egypt during his visit to Constantinople indicate on the part of the Turkish Government a statesmanlike superiority to prejudice. The Khedive has satisfied the Porte that he will be a faithful ally on condition of being relieved from irksome obligations of dependence. The use of the Ottoman flag and coinage will still serve as an acknowledgment of such an allegiance as great feudatories in the middle ages bore to their nominal Sovereigns; but for all practical purposes Egypt will in time of peace be an independent kingdom, with the power of raising taxes, of contracting loans, of negotiating with foreign Powers, and of maintaining a naval and military force. An odd exception is made as to ironclad vessels, which are not to be constructed without the consent of the Porte. It was probably thought expedient to reserve for some future occasion a concession which may perhaps command a suitable price. In return for the liberal grants of the Porte, the Khedive is to aid the Sultan against external enemies with all the forces at his disposal; and, for the present at least, he is probably satisfied that, in defending the Turkish Empire, he will consult his interest as well as his duty. While his vassalage was ostensibly more complete, the ruler of Egypt could not have been compelled to furnish the contingent which might have been lawfully demanded by the Imperial Government. During the disturbances in Crete, the Khedive gave effective aid to the Porte, but it was always possible that an enemy of Turkey might have received, for adequate consideration, the neutrality or the assistance of Egypt.

Forty years have passed since Ibrahim defeated the Turkish army at Konieh, and advanced within a few marches of Constantinople. He had previously taken Acre, which was recaptured by the English troops seven years later, and he was practically master of Syria. The threatened overthrow of the Sultan's power furnished the Russians with an excuse for entering Constantinople and for extorting from the Porte the notorious Treaty of Unkiar-Skelessi. In the interval between 1833 and 1840, the French Government, instigated by vanity and by jealousy of England, gave an active support to Mehemet Ali's claims of independence and of the possession of Syria ; but the resolute policy of Lord Palmerston eventually prevailed over the exertions of M. Guizot and M. Thiers, and the Viceroy was finally confined to his Egyptian dominions. At the same time the English Government, supported by Austria, Russia, and Prussia, induced the Sultan to acknowledge the right of Mehemet to transmit his power to his descendants. It is a remarkable fact that, since the forcible interruption of their ambitious projects, the Viceroys of Egypt have betrayed no disposition to rebel against the Porte. Mehemet and Ibrahim probably misunderstood their own interest when they attempted to deprive the Sultan of a large portion, or of the whole, of his dominions. It was

scarcely possible that a usurping dynasty | any man to care for brothers or cousins should maintain the independence of the as for his own descendants; and the Turkish Empire; and if they had estab- ruler who knows that he will not be suclished themselves at Constantinople, or ceeded by his son feels himself in the even in Syria, they would have loosened position of a life tenant with a stranger their hold on Egypt, which forms the in remainder. Accordingly, like more firmest basis of their power. In that than one Egyptian Viceroy, he occupies province alone a Mahometan ruler is re-himself in the accumulation of wealth for lieved from the inconvenience of govern- his family, in entire disregard of the fuing a Christian population. The sub-ture prosperity of his country. The jects of the Khedive are better affected greatest advantage of hereditary monto the Government than the Rayahs of archy is the identity of interest which it Bulgaria and Roumelia, and they are produces between the sovereign and the more docile and laborious than the Turks. subject. As Burke said of Indian adThe Viceroys have for more than one ministrators whom he denounced for generation shown good sense in availing cupidity, birds of passage are sometimes themselves of the services of European birds of prey. It is in every way desirofficers and engineers. The administra-able that the actual owner should have tion of the country is not altogether sat- sufficient motives for improving the esisfactory; but great material improve-tate. The only objection to the change ments have been effected, and Egypt is is the possible danger of transition in now by far the richest part of the Otto-creating pretenders with plausible claims. man Empire. In the absence of dissent Some of the Turkish Ministers who have there is neither persecution nor religious fanaticism, and the imitative civilization which has been introduced will probably in the course of years, become less artificial. At one time the Viceroy went so far as to establish a Parliament, but the institution failed because no threat or promise sufficed to embolden any member to belong to the Opposition.

lately followed one another in rapid succession have recommended themselves to the favour of the Sultan by professed devotion to the object which he is known to contemplate. His grant of direct succession to the Khedive will be regarded at Constantinople as an avowal of his intention to leave his throne to his son in preference to collateral claimants. There is no reason why any friendly Power should hesitate to recognize a change which is evidently advantageous to the country.

From The Pall Mall Gazette. THE FAR EAST.

A main concession which has been made to the Khedive is important both in itself and because it is intended to have a reflected operation. The hereditary succession of the Egyptian dynasty is henceforth to follow the European rule of primogeniture; and it is well known that the Sultan has long been anxious to establish the same order of descent in his own family. In many ages and countries collateral heirs of mature age have been Now that the audience question has preferred to the infant sons of deceased been solved and set at rest for everrulers, on the obvious ground of their for this is one of those steps which can greater fitness to discharge at once the never be retraced we may convenientduties of their office. In Turkey and in ly make a fresh survey of our relations Egypt the system has been so far ex- with China and its near neighbour Japan. tended as to give the brother priority It is doubtful whether the Foreign Ofover the son; and the consequent jeal- fice ever rightly understood the question ousy, which often led to fratricide, has or appreciated its importance. The acalmost passed into a proverb. Aristotle tual intercourse that may follow with the is compared by Bacon to an Otto-young Emperor may not amount to much man Sultan who thinks his throne insecure till he has killed all his brothers; and Pope applied the same illustration to the jealous temper of Addison. Even in the East the wholesale murder of relatives would now be reprobated by public opinion; but the effects of collateral succession, when it is not interrupted by violence, are incompatible with national welfare. No law or custom will induce

beyond a formal presentation, and whatever influence may be derived from personal communication is unlikely to make itself felt for many years to come. Its real importance is to be estimated by the influence it is calculated to exercise on the minds of the Chinese subjects of the Emperor, both as regards his relation to foreigners and themselves. So long as the tradition was maintained that the "Son

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of Heaven" was a true title for the ruler | national change of sentiment which, as of China, and that no other ruler or Sov- much as anything else, has probably conereign could claim equality with this tributed to the official recognition of the Kings of Kings and Supreme Governor foreign representatives. The solution of of the Universe, it was impossible to the audience question is treated by some treat with the people, and still less with of our contemporaries as a great triumph the governing classes, on any footing of of diplomacy, and as one reflecting great equality. They wrapped themselves in credit on the foreign representatives pride and conceit, and despised the Bar- now at Peking. But those who know barian in their hearts, whatever his pow- best what has been long going on in er to trample on them in return. All China can only regard it as a natural and this must now give way before the fact, necessary consequence of all that has known of all men, that the foreign en- gone before. During the negotiations voys - even the Japanese - have been in 1869 for a revision of treaties, it was admitted to the Imperial presence erect, well understood by the foreign represenand as representatives of equal and in- tatives in communication with the Yadependent Sovereigns, with no kotooing men- and of course by the British Minor genuflexions indicative of vassalage, ister more especially engaged that and no tribute with which to purchase whenever the Emperor came to his majoracceptance of their mission. The Chi-ity the fitting reception of the Diplomatic nese are slow in thought and in action Corps could not be deferred. That the in both somewhat resembling ourselves but when once they move or thoroughly admit an idea, they do so wholly and persistently. How their own relations to the Emperor and his Government may be affected by the public renunciation of his long-asserted supremacy over all the nations of the earth, in virtue of Divine right and descent, it may be hazardous to say. And yet we are convinced that some changes must result, and they are likely to be neither few nor trivial. How they will affect the general position of foreigners, and the bearing of the whole nation towards them, is another question. In all probability although radical change is inevitable, it will not be very apparent or widely spread at first. Already a halfconscious doubt of the validity of the Emperor's claims to universal supremacy had sapped the foundations of their marvellous conceit. This was more especially obvious along the coast and wherever treaty ports brought the mercantile classes of the West and East in constant relation with each other. Even the coolie away from the ports - the type of the lower classes, who occasionally encountered foreigners speaking Chinese, was involuntarily led to regard them as belonging to a higher order than the traditional Kueli-tze" or "Pan-Kwei" of the old Canton days; so that although from long habit he could not shape his mouth to call them by any other name, he was yet compelled to add an honorific title corresponding with "excellency." And however absurd it may have sounded in the ears of the cultured foreigner to be addressed as "His Excellency the The Japanese have run very nearly the Devil," the combination of epithets was same course, but far more blindly and significant and strongly illustrative of a impulsively, and at railway speed. We

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Chinese should defer the hour of sacrifice as long as they could was only natural. A man may be willing to die or to be executed, but he does not usually hasten his steps toward the scaffold. The Chinese as a nation, as well as the more intelligent of the ruling and official classes, have long seen that there was a power in western civilization to which they could offer no effective resistance. They have been slow in giving any public manifestation of this conviction, but it has been growing ever since the last war, which gave the allies possession of Peking, and destroyed with the Summer Palace of its Sovereigns very much of their prestige. From that day to this they have turned their thoughts, and nearly all their energies, to the creation of arsenals, dockyards, and disciplined troops, after the model of the West. Krupp's guns arm the Taku Forts, and have taken the place of gingalls, matchlocks, and partizans, or bows and arrows. Armour-plated steam frigates and gunboats, built in their own dockyards, now guard their coast, and are navigated in some cases exclusively by their own people, after a course of European instruction. Drilled regiments armed with breechloaders and Chassepôts are rapidly increasing in number. These are the first-fruits of the lesson they received on the last occasion when they measured their strength with ours. Let us not deceive ourselves. They, like us, know better now than then. They are seeking to master the secret of our superiority in war, and possess themselves of it for future use.

doubt whether they run as safely; and of | there is nothing to fear as to the result; one thing we are quite certain, that when and shaft, wire, and rail, will all be at the Chinese take to railroads and tele- work no long time after. The recognigraphic lines it will not be by foreign tion of the equality of other Powers will loans or at foreign instigation, but be- be followed at no distant period by the cause they desire them for their own use, appreciation of other than mere Confuand feel they can manage both to con- cian ideas and forces. Of course this struct and to work them without inter- change will not work marvels all at once. ference. The Emperor of China is not The ju-i, or sceptre of China, is not the yet born who would give a Baron Reuter rod of Aaron, and will not blossom in a such a firman as the Shah of Persia has night. But it will release a combination conceded. The Mikado or Tenno of of forces now held bound and inactive. Japan, in his eagerness to be possessed And in the body politic, hands will work of all European civilization, and to clear and minds think that are now cramped ten centuries at a bound, might possibly and stagnant. Hitherto in the higher be tempted; but even that we doubt. regions of Chinese policy an enlightened We cannot help thinking, therefore, that fear of consequences has been in conflict, the supporters of a scheme recently an- in all foreign questions, with an ignorant nounced for making the young Emperor conservatism ever looking back to the of China a present of a locomotive and a past for inspiration and safety. We may few miles of rail, with a view to tempt now hope also to see the end of the sohim and his counsellors to embrace the called "co-operative policy;" words promoters and immediately span his which formed a good text for the Ameri empire with iron roads, are labouring can "stump," but, in point of fact, were under a delusion as to the chances of designed by one party, with foreign inultimate success. There is something terests, to keep China from progressing; thoroughly unpractical in "the idea of and by another, to keep British influence the English people sending spontaneously from extending and predominating. The a magnificent present from a specially French and the Americans, the Russians subscribed fund," and that it would and the Germans, were always very cocome with peculiar freshness to the Chi-operative whenever either of these ends nese, and would probably result in the could be advanced. More like Constandevelopment of a kindly feeling between tinople every day, there is good reason the two countries, the result of which to believe that Peking is a place where no powers of calculation could meas- the Chinese Government gets many hints, ure. We frankly confess our powers and a "collective note "does not neces in this direction are totally inadequate sarily indicate a common policy on the to realize either the "peculiar fresh- part of the signataries. It is not the ness" of the Chinese feelings on re-interest of all parties to see China proceiving such an instalment of the railroads of the future, or the result in kindly feeling between the two countries. The more probable conclusion to which a Chinese official would come on seeing the expense and trouble taken by so many foreigners would be one much more complimentary to their pockets than their intellect. He would see in so much effort an overmastering desire to profit by the first introduction of railroads, and a proportionate eagerness to hasten the period.

Although we cannot look with any hopefulness upon such enterprises to hasten the pace of the Chinese, and even doubt the desirability of success, we are not the less satisfied that, now the audience question no longer stops the way, the Chinese court and authorities generally will open their eyes to many things they have hitherto been determined not to see. We are equally assured, that once they do look facts fairly in the face,

gress, and it is certainly not the wish of all that England should exercise influence in the country. Being already jealous of the predominance given to it by its share of commerce-amounting to more than three-fourths of the whole collective trade of China with foreign countriesother Powers, who have little trade to lose, never act cqrdially with us. They know pretty well by this time that Eng land has no design on China, and only wishes to see her people happy and prosperous, though it may be too much to expect they will implicitly believe this. There is an unknown future in China yet, and it is easy to understand that rival Powers may each desire to keep the field clear for whatever action may best suit their own interests or policy as circumstances may arise. The sooner we recover our freedom of action, therefore, and pursue an independent and unfet tered course, the better the true interest of both nations will be served.