| Show EUROPEAN TOPICS the situation in egypt is daily becoming more and more complicated and recent events in africa only add still more to the difficulties the government of the khedive cannot certainly undertake to be responsible lor the cost of military operations on the scale which is now necessary and En glands position in egypt does not allow her to make war in her own name En glands sta standing place throughout the whole egyptian imbroglio em broglio has been so undefined and her action so much in posed by the force of circumstances that at present it would seem she has everything to lose and nothing to gain by the occupation on the other hand the moment the british troops are withdrawn egypt will be overrun by the soudan tribes and the commerce through the suez canal will be endangered the annexation of egypt is out of the question and without annexation no thorough improvement can take place there are rumors that a conference of the powers will be called with a view to official recognition of En glands position considerable interest is manifest in the introduction of the new british rifle with which the troops are pretty well supplied in the last battle in egypt it is said that in less than a quarter of an hour five hundred dead were left upon the field while large numbers of dead and wounded were carried off by the enemy this rifle is said to be much superior to any of the arms adopted by the various foreign powers its ite chief merits being long range precision and rapidity of lire fire the past year has shown a wonderful activity in shipbuilding in the british islands especially on the tanks banks of the clyde prom from glasgow and neighboring towns there have issued during the past year vessels of these were steamers and many of them constructed for foreign powers the total number built in the british islands reached more than six hundred during the year 1888 the greatest number previously known in a single year the christmas holidays in england seem to be a time when everybody goes out of the cities and seeks refuge with their country relatives this has been preeminently so with london the great city seems deserted por for a few days prior to christmas the scenes at the principal railway stations beggared description it was a wild mad scramble to got get away anywhere the railway officials scurried about in a semi crazy manner trying to do the hundred and one things demanded of them at the same moment trunks and parcels innumerable lay about the platforms and trains constantly steamed out of the stations laden to their utmost capacity ca pa the post offices were likewise pretty well I 1 demoralized and the ordinary staff seemed perfectly incapable of meeting the emergency but the police came to the rescue and several thousands of them did postoffice post office work at per hour when off their usual duties on the oilier other hand paris throbs with increased fife and activity it would appear as if half london were on the boulevards together with eager contingents from faraway far away america seeking the shops filled with objects designed with art and fashioned with patient skill the little railway that runs around the champs de mars mare is now completed and has commenced making its regular trips stopping at the various departments of the exposition like so many stations ten minutes is the allotted time to make the circuit the long expected crisis in the affairs of the panama canam canal company has occurred the eight hundred and sixty thousand shareholders will now have to come to a conclusion as aa to what to is to be done the recent decision of the chamber A however much the shareholders may have suffered can ces cell heanly be defended on grounds of i policy the panama canal is on the continent of america and already considerable jealousy has been manifest in the united states toward the panama manama enterprise it is almost certain that complications would at once arise if the french government should seek to inter fere fele officially in the matter it is true that the suez canal on three occasions underwent similar crises but the conditions today are quite different the suez canal was constructed ted with the active support of the khedive of egypt and under the regime of the all powerful empire in addition the amount of money engaged was much less and the sources of revenue when completed much more apparent the panama canal has haa at present invested and much of this money has been obtained at a ruinous rate of interest prance france is the country in europe which possesses the greatest amount of natural riches and productions but france cannot well afford to lose this vast amount the present check to the panama canal company will probably be overcome mr the noted contractor has bas already arrived in paris to tender his aid to M delesseps if necessary mr is the president of the american contracting and dredging company 12 of which the hon mr morton vice dent elect is also vice president mr finished the first section of the panama canal and offers to finish the second section within twelve twelvemonths months he says that there are now men at work on the canal that their health is good that the whole will be completed within two and a half years and that are sufficient to bring the work to completion ludwig boerne the german writer once said mid that sausages were a food fit for the gods for the gods only knew what was in the same holds good of most of the bits of diplomatic scandal that float through the social atmosphere and it would be easy to fill columns with literary trash nay with veritable falsehoods at present it would seem that russia warmly reciprocates the action of french capitalists in responding sp to the russian loan A leading russian journal says I 1 A COU country containing inhabitants babi tants and maintaining an army of bayonets is a country that must be taken into consideration k in the political calculations of european Ur nations it is an advantage for russia that a state of such power is not in the ranks of her enemies 64 emles in cue case of war between basia and her frontier neighbors neutrality of france would keep beep away way from the russian frontier a ag K maw mass of the fee enemies forces and make victory certain As nothing is published in russia without permission of the censors and as this journal has warmly espoused the cause of the french exposition we may expect to see russian official recognition and warm support of the coming exposition it will be recollected that a few months ago the russian minister of public worship published a formidable allocution in which he claimed for russia the position of the most th tolerant lerant nation in europe in regard to religious matters not long ago the minister of the english church at st petersburg was temporarily arrested on the charge of attempting to make converts from the russian church since thena then a pastor of the german evangelical church has been arrested on a similar charge and in this case came it seems that the act can be distinctly proven the punishment for proselytism is deportation por tation to siberia only a year ago general prince barclay de tolly was relieved of his command for permitting one of his sons to become a convert to the lutheran church the russian minister of public worship has to say the least peculiar ideas of toleration the servian elections show an enormous radical or Busso phile mar ma bority out of all the members which the or parliament contains are radicals the question of king abdication di and the appointment of queen natalie as regent during her sons minority is already openly discussed should the new constitution be rejected the king may dissolve it or abdicate in favor of his son and queen natalie J X H WARD WABD EUROPE december 81 1888 |
