Rensselaer Union and Jasper Republican, Volume 8, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 April 1876 — The Khedive of Egypt as a Speculator. [ARTICLE]

The Khedive of Egypt as a Speculator.

Dr. Field, iu a late letter from the Orient, writes as follows: Not satisfied wjth managing, the affairs qf Government, the "Khedive, jyith that reckless spirit which characterises is deeply involved in all .ot private enterprises. Hf is a speculator op,a.gigantic scale, going,into eVety'sort of merV can tile adventure. He is a gfeat Feal estate operator. He owns whole squares in the new jkrts or Catrq hhd Alexandria, on which he houses, 1 besides buying houses built tyotherk. He builds hotels*aud opera houses, and rups steamboats and railroads', like a'ibore ’ maghitfcerit, because- a ‘royal Jim Ftek. The steamer on which we crossed the Mediterranean from Constantinople to Alexandria belonged to the Kliedive', and tjie railroad that brought us to Cairo, and so does "the hotel In which' wfe are lodged here, add die steamer- in which we went lip the Nile. Nor Is he limited ip his enterprises to steamers and railroads.. He is a great • cotton add, sugar planter. .'He, owns a large part of the land in Egypt, on which he has any number cf plantations. His, ipmense sugar factories, on which lie has expended bullions o { pounds, may be'seen till hlopg the valley of the, Nile; and he Exports cotton by the .‘thip-lo&d from the port of Alexandria,. A man wlib is tlius/lqp to his eyes” in peculation, wire tries to do everything liimself, ,tppst do many thibgs badly, or at Gfeasit ,imperfectly. He caunot possibly s u-pervise every detail I ,'however herniy ty; and his agents have pot the stimulus c f a personal interest to make the most of t leir opportunity. 1 asked verv often -wJien,uPtheNile r iitli l eke.gi'oat»ifgftr factories which I saA Rftifl, and was "arilt irtnly t ilsam*tTfhe,as the option-of fHlfcondeftted' fhkf tWey wdtikl -pay in private managed ‘ by l tljosef Who had a personal stake in saving everj r needless expense, and; increasing every posstble sbttrtekff incomer. Bat the Khedive, they tfell me, is cheated on every side, and’i» ; a 'hundred ways. And* even 1 if* there were pot actual fraud,*the System is one which necessarily involves immense waste and loss. 'Here in Cairo I find it the universal ojpinion that almost » all' the Khedive's .speculations have been gigantic failures, aard that they are at the bottom of lh« _financial trouble Which <now .threatens Egypt. ,■ it ) ! Such- is the present financial condition qf the Khpdive rami, r oft Egypt. I couple the two together; foraithoughan attempt is made to distinguish itbem. apd we hear th»t,.althqpgh Egypt, w, nearly, bankrupt, Khepivp.isjpe/csppally ‘‘the. pch-, t4e wpriq,U’|; ,Hut the^Oftunt^, «««». "JM fw Jim t eporate them. There is ho dppbt# that dm Kpediye bps immense, possessions in hisTbapds, but he is, at the same iyne, to use a commercial phrase, enormously “mpxcnd<e<j,;"-he is w,Uli debt, and has to borrpW mpney rates; and. if his estate were suddenly wound up and a '• receiver” appointed to administer Upon it, it is extremely doubtful what would be the,“assets" Mr; Cave has just come out from Enf laudato try and straighten out the Kheive’s affairs. He has a great task before him. Wise heads here doubt whether his ipission will come to anything—whether,

indaed, he will be allowed to get at the “ bottom facta,’’ or to make anything more than a superficial examination, as the basis of a whitewashing report which may up Egyptian credit in Paris tuiO-Loudon. But it he does come to know “ the truth and the whole truth,’’ then I predict that he will either abandon the case in .despair, or he will have to recommend to the Khedive, as the only salvation for him, a more sweeping and radical reform than the latter yet dreamed of. It requires some degree of moral courage to talk to a sovereign as to a private individual; to speak to him as if he were a prodigal sou who had wasted his substance In riotous living; to tell him to moderate his desires and restrain his ambition, and to live a quiet and sober life; to ‘‘live within his means,” etc. But this lie must do; or ft is easy to see where this brilliant financiering will end. If Mr. Cave can persuade the Khedive to restrain his extravagance; to stop building palaces (he has now more than he can possibly use), and to give up, once for all, as tbe follies of his youth, his grand schemes of “civilizing” by annexing the whole interior of Africa, as he has already annexed Nubia and Soudan; arid to “ back out” as gracefully as lie can (although it is a very awkward business) of lijs war with Abyssihla; and then to follow up the good course he has begun with ins Suez Canal shares, by selling all his stock in every commercial company (for one man must not try to absorb all the industry of a kingdom); if he can persuade him to sell all the railways m Egypt; and to sell every steamship on the Mediterranean except such as may be needed for the use oi the Government; and every boat on the Nile except a yacht or two for his private pleasure; to sell all his hotels and theaters ; his sugar factories and cotton plantations; ana abandoning fill his private speculations, to be content with being simply the ruler of Egypt, arid attending to the affairs of Government, which are quite enough to occupy all the thoughts of “a mind capacious of such things,” then he may succeed in rightiDg up the ship* Gtherwise I fear the Khedive will fellow the fate of liis master the Sultan.