On the Desert - Recent Events in Egypt/Chapter 1
ON THE DESERT.
CHAPTER I.
EGYPT IN THE SPRING OF 1882.
The war had not yet come. For months there had been rumors of trouble in Egypt; the English papers were full of accounts of tumult and disorder; there had been a military revolution; troops had surrounded the Palace of the Khedive, and compelled a change of Ministry; all power was in the hands of the army; constitutional authority was destroyed, and the country was drifting into anarchy. Such reports created a feeling of alarm in Europe, and many travellers who had proposed to spend a Winter on the Nile, remained in the South of France, or in Italy. I left Naples with some apprehension, but as we approached Alexandria on the morning of the 16th of February, the sun rose on the same scene as when we had landed there from Constantinople six years before. There was no sign of warlike preparation. Everything had the look of peace and of commercial prosperity. The ships that crowded the harbor showed that we were entering the great maritime city of the East, while there was a faint revival of the ancient splendor in the palaces on the shore. In all this there was nothing to give token of a city that in four short months was to be the scene of a fearful massacre; and that one month later was to be devoted to destruction.
For the present there was nothing to excite apprehension. I landed at Alexandria with no worse fate than that of being pulled this way and that, as every traveller is, by the Arab boatmen, anxious for the honor of carrying his baggage and receiving his money; and drove to the Hotel de l'Europe on the Place Mehemet Ali, which was the scene of the massacre on the 11th of June; and proceeded to Cairo without incident, stopping at Tantah by the way, where four months later foreigners were dragged out of trains and butchered in cold blood. But as yet all was quiet, and when I found myself once more in Cairo, in my old quarters at the Grand New Hotel, where I had been six years before, sitting on the same balcony overlooking the Ezbekieh Square, and listening to the same music floating up from under the palm trees below, I felt as if I were at home, and gave myself up to the full enjoyment of the most delightful of Eastern cities. For a Winter's residence, there is nothing to equal Cairo. The flood of light, which gives brightness and color to everything; the soft and balmy air, which it is a luxury to breathe; the palms, with their tall trunks and tufted crowns; the old mosques, with their minarets, from which the muezzin calls the faithful to prayer; the endless bazaars, with long-bearded Orientals sitting at the place of custom; the picturesque sights of the streets, with dashing carriages, and lithe and springy syces, dressed in white, with red girdles and velvet caps, running before them, as they ran before the chariot of Pharaoh; and the long processions of camels, making such a contrast with the donkeys, waddling under the weight of fat, turbaned Turks, or of women, sitting astride and covered in black from head to foot, with only a pair of eyes peering out from faces thickly veiled; or ambling along, with English riders on their backs, and the donkey boys, now belaboring the little beasts, and now helping their own slow steps by dragging at their tails—all these make a variety and change of which one never wearies.
Of course, however short one's visit to Cairo, and however often he has been there before, he must ride out to the Pyramids, to look again with awe and wonder at those mighty monuments of the past; and to Heliopolis, to see the oldest obelisk in Egypt, still standing, as it stood four thousand years ago in front of the Temple of the Sun, where Joseph saw it when he married the daughter of the priest of On; and where Plato studied philosophy, as Moses had studied before him, and became, like him, "learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians."
To its attractions in the way of antiquities, Cairo has recently had a great addition in the royal mummies lately discovered at Thebes, which have been brought down the Nile, and placed in the Museum at Boulak, which I visited with Dr. Grant, who is an authority as an Egyptologist. If it is an honor to stand before kings, even dead kings, I had it to the full that day. There I saw the open sarcophagus which holds the mummied body of Rameses II., whose daughter took Moses out of the bulrushes. Dr. Grant has in his private collection a ring, of which he has good reason to believe that it once adorned the finger of Menephtah, the son and successor of Rameses, and the very Pharaoh of the Exodus.
Not less interesting to me, in a different way, was a visit to Dr. Schweinfurth, the distinguished African traveller, who makes his home in Cairo, as the most convenient point from which to make his journeys into the interior of Africa. Here he has gathered his great collections of plants; his walls are lined with charts and maps, on which he kindly traced for me the outlines of his explorations. I listened with amazement at the simple story. For thousands and thousands of miles, he made his way through swamp and jungle and forest, across deserts and over mountains. "And how did you travel?" I asked. "On foot." "With whom?" "Alone!" There is nothing in all the history of exploration more touching than the story of the loss of his treasures. When he had travelled more than two years, and amassed a collection of priceless value, it was destroyed in an hour by the burning of an African village. Then indeed he feared that his reason might give way. To keep his mind in action, he began keeping a record of his own footsteps along his lonely and dreary march, and in six months made an actual count of a million and a quarter of steps! Thus he got his mind away from brooding on his loss, and his brain into some sort of regular action. After this, who shall say that courage of the highest kind has died out from among men, or that even this sordid and selfish age of ours cannot produce heroes equal to any found in story? He reckons the Nile to be the longest river in the world, but in the measurement he includes, as a part of the great river of Egypt, certain affluents of the lakes out of which it flows: apart from which it might not equal either the Amazon or the Mississippi. There was another man whom it was a pleasure to see walking about the streets of Cairo — M. de Lesseps. He was generally leading a child by the hand, one of his second family, the children of his old age. I had met him in America, and he received me very cordially. To my inquiry as to the comparative difficulties of the two great Interoceanic Canals with which his name is connected, he answered without hesitation, that the difficulties of Suez were far greater than of Panama. The former was built in the desert: there were no means of transportation except the backs of camels, until new approaches were constructed; new implements of engineering had to be created for the unaccustomed task; even to the end a large part of the excavations had to be made by the fellaheen taking up the sand or the slime in baskets, and carrying it away on the top of their heads! But at Panama a railroad is already built across the mountains, which can transport men and materials to any point. The old man expressed himself as entirely satisfied with the progress of the work, and spoke with absolute assurance of its complete success; he was going out to America the next year to see how far it was advanced, although he was nearly eighty years of age, and had not a doubt that he should live to see the waters of the two oceans flowing together. With such a man it seems indeed as if all ordinary rules were reversed; as if the obstacles of time and nature, which daunt and defeat less ardent spirits, were made to bend to his unconquerable will.
Cairo has many social attractions in the resident European families, and in strangers that come here for the Winter. The American colony is not large, but it is very pleasant. There are no more charming interiors anywhere than in the hospitable homes of General Stone and Judge Batcheller. Dr. Grant, the Scotch physician, is married to an American lady, who is well known for her kindness to strangers and her charities to the poor; she is now greatly interested in the establishment of a hospital, like that at Beirut, under the charge of those Protestant Sisters of Charity, the Deaconesses of Kaiserswerth. The American missionaries, in their new building on the Ezbekieh Square, which includes their chapel and their schools, are working quietly but faithfully to diffuse those elements of knowledge and of Christian faith which are the germ of true civilization. In all these families an American is sure to find a hospitable welcome.
But into whatever circle I went, I found that the one absorbing topic was the political state of Egypt. Since I was here six years ago, on my way round the world, great changes had taken place. Ismail the Magnificent was gone, and Tewfik, his son, reigned in his stead. To give the details of these changes would be a long story. A very brief review is sufficient to render intelligible the course of events, which at last has culminated in war.
If we go back to the origin of the troubles in Egypt, we shall find that what the country is suffering to-day is a bitter inheritance from the past. The misgovernment of Ismail Pacha prepared the way for the difficulties and embarrassments of his son, as the excesses of Louis XIV. and Louis XV. prepared the way for the French Revolution.
But let us not be unjust even to Ismail Pacha. He was a man of great ability, and he rendered services to Egypt which should never be forgotten. But for him we should not have the Suez Canal; at least his share in it was as important as that of M. de Lesseps himself: for while the latter furnished the engineering skill, the former furnished the labor; and if the capital came chiefly from Paris, yet no small part came from Cairo. One-quarter of all that the Khedive received through his foreign loans, it is estimated, went into the construction of the Suez Canal, and thus was paid towards a work which was really of far more benefit to England than to Egypt. The Khedive had a noble ambition for his country, which he wished to take rank among the great powers bordering on the Mediterranean. He had vast schemes of national grandeur. To restore the ancient commerce of Alexandria, he spent great sums in enlarging its harbor; he built here and at Port Said long breakwaters against the sea, and piers and docks and wharves; he had steamers crossing the Mediterranean and on the Red Sea; to revive agriculture, he dug canals for irrigation to carry the "sweet water" of the Nile to every part of the Delta; he encouraged the raising of cotton and of sugar; while his railroads crossing the country, with trains of cars taking the place of caravans of camels, gave to ancient Egypt, with its temples and its Pyramids, the aspect of modern civilization. Ismail is no longer ruler of Egypt, but these works remain, the enduring monuments of his services to his country.
Could he but have stopped here, he would have had a place in history as one of the greatest rulers of his time. But when could an Oriental prince or potentate be content with labors for the public good? He must needs also surround himself with magnificence and splendor. And so Ismail began building palaces with the same recklessness of cost with which Louis XIV. began building Versailles, only that he had not the wealth of France behind him.
It has been my fortune, or misfortune, to witness the financial collapse of both Turkey and Egypt. I was in Constantinople in the Autumn of 1875, just after Turkey had announced to Europe that she could no longer pay the interest on her bonds. The wild extravagance of the Sultan, wasting untold sums in building palaces, and keeping up his enormous domestic establishment, could have but one issue. To be sure, he paid as long as he could — that is, as long as he could make new debts to pay old ones, or even borrow enough to pay the interest. But a time came when the bankers of London and Paris and Amsterdam were no longer willing to throw their millions into the Bosphorus, and then "there was quickly an end."
The disaster to Turkey was naturally followed by that of Egypt. The credit of both rested on the same hollow foundation. Hardly had we crossed the Mediterranean before we saw the same ruin impending in Cairo that had already come in Constantinople. A long career of extravagance, exhausting the resources of a country that was very poor to begin with, had brought Egypt to the verge of bankruptcy. The crisis was delayed for a time by the purchase of the shares of the Khedive in the Suez Canal by England for four millions sterling. But this could only postpone, it could not prevent, the inevitable ruin.
Seeing the shadow on the wall, Ismail at last humbled himself so far as to ask advice, and applied to England to send out to Cairo a man skilled in finance to investigate his affairs, and if possible restore order and confidence. I was in Cairo at the moment that Mr. Cave appeared on the scene, and began the Herculean task. He soon found that he had no place to stand on; that he was sinking in a bottomless abyss. It was hard to find out what were really the debts of Egypt, for the Khedive had an ingenious system of bookkeeping — a kind of "double entry" — by which a large part of what came into the treasury went into his own private purse, while debts that were incurred were charged to the State. To disentangle this confused mass of accounts, seemed almost hopeless. To meet these debts, resources of every kind were gone; the Khedive had taxed the country till it could bear no more; he had wrested everything from his miserable people; and thus at the same moment had exhausted his resources at home and his power of borrowing abroad.
It were useless and sickening to follow this steady descent from one depth to another lower still. It is enough to recognize the peculiar and extraordinary circumstances out of which rose the Anglo-French Control, of which we have heard so much. This was an arrangement by which the finances of the country were placed in the hands of French and English Controllers, who were to collect the taxes and pay the interest on the debt. This has been very severely criticized. I confess I do not like it either in principle or in practice. Partnership in business may be a wise management of affairs, but partnership in government does not work so well. An alliance of two countries which join to control a third, is a sort of double-headed monster, which has no more place in government than in nature. Nature abhors monsters, and so does wise diplomacy or legislation. Especially a joint action between two countries so jealous of each other as France and England, was sure to result sooner or later in misunderstanding and mischief.
Besides, there was an injustice in the thing to which it is very hard to reconcile our American ideas. To make the best of it, it was an anomalous arrangement — one to which neither England nor France, and least of all America, would submit for an instant. Suppose, because English bankers forty years ago lent money on Pennsylvania bonds, which did not prove very remunerative, England should say "Now we will come in and administer the finances of Pennsylvania for a few years until our bondholders are paid in full, principal and interest, with a liberal commission for collecting bad debts, and after that we will give the control back to you," she would receive an answer that would be quite intelligible. This is the charge that is made against England: that she has used all the weight of her national authority to collect debts, and not even debts owed to herself, but to private capitalists, to speculators, who if they lend money to a State like Egypt at enormous interest, ought at least to take their own risks, and not come to the Government to help them out of a bad bargain, for which they have nobody to blame but themselves.
But I do not quite understand the matter so, nor that the Anglo-French Control was imposed upon Egypt by foreign power without her consent and against her will. It was Ismail Pacha who invited the help of England and France to get him out of his financial difficulties. He had got to the end of his rope. Nobody would lend him a shilling. Then it was that England and France said "We will try to raise you up and set you on your legs again, if you will let us manage the finances. Europe will have confidence in us, but it will not in you." This was a pretty hard bargain, but it was the only one that could be made; and bad as it was in principle, yet anything was better than levying taxes (and double taxes) by the bastinado. The change brought immediate relief; the country began to revive. The burden of taxation was still heavy, but at least the people knew what to depend upon: that they were only to be taxed once a year, and the taxes to be collected at a regular time, and in a regular way. There were no more bastinadoings to extort money. Confidence returned; Egyptian bonds rose in all the markets of Europe. But the Control had to deal not only with an impoverished country, but with an imperious and intractable master. Ismail was quite willing that they should come in to relieve him from embarrassment, and to put such a plausible show on his affairs as should enable him to borrow more money; but he had no idea of their placing a check on his extravagance; and so, after chafing for awhile under the restraint, he finally flew into a passion, and told the Controllers to go about their business, and he would manage the finances himself, upon which they appealed to their Governments, who addressed themselves to the Sultan, who politely told the Khedive to go about his business, who thereupon embarked with his harem for Naples, where for three years he has had abundant leisure to contemplate the situation.
That, in short, is the whole story of the Anglo-French Control. It was certainly an awkward arrangement, but still, as a temporary expedient, it did immense good. But like many other good things, it ran into an abuse. The Egyptians felt that it was pretty hard to have to pay interest on a debt of nearly a hundred millions sterling, contracted at an enormous discount, of which the country had received probably not more than fifty per cent.
But this was not all. The Controllers, finding that they had what some would call "a fat place," imported a swarm of foreign officials, to whom they gave the other "fat" places in the financial administration. No sooner was it fairly established in power, than it virtually took possession, not only of the Control of the Finances, but of all the departments of the Government. In the household of the Khedive there were French and Italian secretaries and masters of ceremonies, while Englishmen were employed on the railways and in the postal service. There was the same mingling of nations in the departments of justice and of the interior; in the army and in the police; in the arsenals and military schools; in short, everywhere. A list carefully prepared showed that there were nearly fourteen hundred foreign officials employed in one post and another in the Egyptian Government. A large part of these obtained their positions by the removal of native officials, who in many cases were quite as well qualified as these foreign intruders. General Stone said to me, "Here come these English and French Controllers, who have not only taken the great offices to themselves, with enormous salaries, but have placed under them a large number of foreign subordinates. As one illustration of what they are doing, they have in many instances removed the Copts, who have been scribes in the land from the days of Joseph, and who were the best men to be found for the minor posts of the government, to do the work of special bureaus in the different departments, and filled their places with Englishmen imported from India — 'old Indians' — who have been worn out in that country, and now find Egypt a new field of operations. These swarm upon us like a plague of locusts, and eat out the substance of the land. No wonder that intelligent Egyptians are indignant." This testimony might be received with some abatement, because General Stone had been for years the Chief of Staff to the Khedive, and his sympathies were strongly with the Egyptians. But similar language was used by the American Consul and by all the American residents with whom I conversed. They felt that this virtual appropriation of the government by foreign Controllers, was a gross abuse of trust; that it was a "spoiling of the Egyptians," which they could only regard with disgust and indignation.
Certainly it was a great injustice; but let the blame fall where it belongs. The odium has been thrown upon England, when a careful inquiry shows that it was not the English but the French who took the lion's share of the spoils. Not long since a paper was presented to the House of Commons, giving an accurate report of the number of British subjects in the service of Egypt, which, to the surprise of the public, showed that there were three or four times as many Frenchmen as Englishmen. Among the foreign officials it was found also that there was a large number of Italians, besides a liberal sprinkling of Germans, Roumanians, Greeks, and Syrians.
While the French and English took the financial positions, the Turks took the high places in the army. One cannot understand Egyptian politics without recognizing the fact that Arabs are not Turks; indeed no two peoples regard each other with more intense dislike. They may unite to fight against the infidel; but left to themselves, they would fight with each other, as they did in the days of Mehemet Ali. And yet as Egypt is subject to Turkey, all the best places in its army have been held by aliens, whom the Egyptians at once hate and despise. The poor fellaheen furnished the rank and file, but all the officers were Turks or Circassians. Thus the Egyptians were ground between the upper and the nether millstone. There was no place for them in the army except as common soldiers, nor in any department of the Government. They could only be hewers of wood or drawers of water to their foreign masters. Out of this double or triple grievance — this Anglo-French-Turkish oppression — grew up the National Party of Egypt: a party which was inspired chiefly by jealousy of foreigners, against whom it raised the rallying cry of "Egypt for the Egyptians."
The first demonstration that brought Arabi Bey to the front as the leader of the National or military party, was not against the English or the French, but against the Turks. In making some promotions in the army, the Minister of War, who was himself a Turk, had given every position of importance to a Turk or a Circassian, utterly ignoring the Arabs, who naturally resented this public degradation, and against which Arabi, who was then but a Bey (a Colonel), and two others of the same rank, united in making a respectful but decided protest. For this remonstrance they were summoned to the Ministry of War. They obeyed, but suspecting foul play, left word with their regiments, if they did not return in two hours, to come and release them by force. At the War Office they were immediately placed under arrest, and as they did not return, their regiments, true to the command, appeared in arms and broke open the doors, and drove out the Minister of War, releasing their Colonels, and carrying them off in triumph. The Khedive, instead of punishing them, condoned their offence, and showed that he rather sympathized with thew sense of wrong, by dismissing the obnoxious Minister.
Of course a man who had thus bearded the lion in his den, became immensely popular with the army. He was regarded as the champion of his race. But his success was his danger, as it tempted him to resort on all occasions to military force. The next demonstration was a more formidable one, being aimed not at an obnoxious individual, but at the whole Ministry, and even at the Khedive himself. On the 9th of September, Arabi appeared at the head of three regiments well armed, with batteries of Krupp guns, with which he marched to the Abdine Palace in Cairo, around which the troops formed with loaded cannon, while Arabi with his staff rode forward to the presence of the Khedive, who stood on the steps of the Palace, and who drew himself up with an appearance of calmness and courage, while the English Controller, who stood by him, leaned over and whispered to him that he should order the rebel to be shot; but as the Khedive himself would have been blown to atoms in an instant, and his English adviser with him, he prudently refrained, and instead asked what the army wanted. Arabi replied, not in the tone of one who offers a petition, but who issues an order, that they demanded three things: that the Ministry should be dismissed; that the pay of the army should be increased; and that an Egyptian Parliament should be summoned to prepare a constitution for the country. The Ministers, who were standing by, saw the hopelessness of resistance, and assented to their own dismissal, which the Khedive accorded on the spot; to the other two demands he could not assent without referring them to the Sultan.
The result was a triumph: the main point had been gained, which would carry the others with it, at which Arabi bowed, the military saluted, and marched off the ground with bands playing in all the exultation of victory.
In all these proceedings the Americans had taken no part. They had no share in the Financial Control, and had neither interest in, nor sympathy with, any measures which seemed oppressive or unjust; and though they could not but look upon the mode of redress by armed force as a very high-handed proceeding, yet they sympathized with the National party to this extent, that they thought that the Egyptians were very hardly treated; that they had been crowded to the wall; and that the course of France and England towards Egypt, had not been worthy of two powerful nations dealing with a country that was both weak and poor. The knowledge of this sympathy, which was openly expressed, made our countrymen very popular in Cairo; the people appreciated their friendly feeling; they knew that we had not meddled in their affairs, and had no part in the oppressive taxation under which they were suffering; and we were often entertained by hearing their bands strike up our national airs. The culmination of this era of good feeling was at a public demonstration on Washington's birthday, which our Consul, with General Stone and some Americans passing the Winter here, thought it would be a pleasant thing to celebrate. Accordingly they got up a grand dinner at our Hotel, to which they invited all the Ministers of the Khedive. It is not a common thing to see this mingling of Arabs and Europeans, but it would not have excited remark were it not that recent events led many to regard it as a political demonstration, and indeed some who were in official positions felt constrained not to take part in it lest their action might be so interpreted.
However, the dinner came off, and proved an unique affair. It brought together a distinguished company. All the Ministers of the Khedive were present, among whom the greatest curiosity was manifested to see Arabi Bey, the leader in the recent military movement. In leading the army against the Government, he was guilty of an insubordination, for which, had Ismail Pacha been still Khedive, and felt strong enough, he would undoubtedly have been shot. But in such cases the character of the act is generally judged by its success, and as Arabi Bey had the army at his back, instead of being executed, he was now Minister of War and virtual dictator of Egypt. I was interested to see a man who had acted such a part, and who might be destined either to supreme power or to death, and observed him closely. He is a man of large physique, with a face that is not at all intellectual, but heavy, except his eye, which looks as though it might flash fire if he were once aroused. But his manner was very quiet, and his few words when I conversed with him through an interpreter, were such as might be uttered by any patriotic man. He said he had come out that evening, though not well, to do honor to the memory of a man who had freed his country from a foreign yoke, perhaps thinking in himself that what Washington had done for America, he might do for Egypt.
Besides the Americans present, there were a number of Europeans, whose titles and decorations showed that they were men of high position. Of these, the most distinguished was M. de Lesseps, who, in spite of his advanced age, is still full of life and energy, and has all the ardor and the hopefulness of youth.
After an hour of pleasant conversation, the company adjourned to the large dining-room, which had been decorated with flags, in which those of America and Egypt were everywhere conspicuous. The tables were loaded with flowers. During the whole evening the band of the Khedive, which was stationed under the windows, played American airs. The Consul-General presided, having on his right Mr. William Walter Phelps, our Minister to Vienna, who had arrived that day on his way up the Nile, and next to him Mahmoud Pacha, the Prime Minister of the Khedive; and on the other side the Finance Minister, and next to him Arabi Bey, now Minister of War, to whom I sat directly opposite, and had opportunity to observe him the whole evening. I was struck with the gravity of his manner, which was serious almost to sadness. While all round the tables the company was merry and gay, he sat silent, as one absorbed in thought. I do not think he smiled the whole evening. Nor did he take a drop of wine. While Europeans and Americans were drinking freely, his glasses remained untouched. In this, as in his prayers and fastings, he is a devout Moslem, and conforms to the strictest rules of his religion. Yet there was nothing sullen in his manner, as if he would cast a silent reproach on the pleasures which he could not enjoy. On the contrary, he preserved the forms of Oriental courtesy, and whenever our eyes met across the table, he touched his breast and forehead, as if by this token he would give me the kiss of peace. Such was the man who was soon to be at the head of Egypt, not only of the army, but of the state — the leader in a war, and the captive of England.
Of course there could be no American dinner without toasts and speeches. General Stone proposed "The Memory of Washington," which was honored as usual by all rising and standing in silence. Next came "The President of the United States," to which there was a response which, reviewing the sad events of the year, paid a deserved tribute to our martyred President, and expressed generous hopes for his successor. To the name of "The Khedive," Mahmoud Pacha replied in Arabic. One of the Chamber of Notables also spake in the same language, and an officer translated his words into French. A distinguished German editor, Mr. Sonnemann of Frankfort, responded for "The Press," eulogizing the Press of America as surpassing in enterprise and independence the Press of Europe. M. de Lesseps was called up, and spoke, of course in his own language, with a force and energy that awakened great enthusiasm. He said he had traversed America from New York to San Francisco, and had visited everywhere the schools, to which he attached the greatest importance, especially to the schools for women, which he said were the foundation of the greatness of America. This was strange language to be spoken in the presence of an assembly of Moslems! All the expressions of feeling were in the friendliest spirit. One speaker ended with this rhetorical flourish, in which the compliments were pretty evenly balanced between Egypt and America:
"In the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia there was a Department assigned to Egypt, over which was written 'From the oldest of nations to the youngest.' That greeting we now return, presenting the best wishes of the youngest of nations to the oldest. Americans have many attractions to Egypt. Hundreds of our people come here every Winter, to enjoy your climate, to sail up the Nile, to see your monuments, your temples and pyramids. How can we but wish well to a country where we have had so delightful, though but a temporary, home?
"I see before me distinguished representatives of the Arab race, one of the great races of the world, which has played a mighty part in history — and not only in the history of Asia and Africa, but of Europe also, for scholars cannot forget that there was a time when the Arabs, carrying their conquests along the northern shores of Africa, crossed into Spain, where they remained hundreds of years, and where they founded the Universities of Seville and Cordova, and were the masters of learning for Western Europe. A race which has had such a place in the past, surely has reason to anticipate a great career in the future.
"So do we believe in the continued vitality of Egypt. Superficial travellers may think its only interest is from what it has been in the past, from its pyramids, its temples, and its tombs. But is there nothing of Egypt but its sepulchres? I see around me a living Egypt, in which there are elements of growth, which promise to restore at least a portion of its former greatness. That all this may be realized, is the ardent wish of America. Across the world of waters that rolls between us — across the Atlantic and the Mediterranean — she sends her greeting to her elder sister of the Orient. As in the ages past, so in the ages to come may the Nile, rising in the Highlands of Central Africa, continue to pour down its annual flood, spreading over the land of Egypt fertility and abundance; and so long may this beautiful country be the home of a prosperous and happy people."
If the speaker could have foreseen the events of the next few months, he might have been less sanguine of the future of the Arab race, but he certainly would not have abated anything of his good wishes for Egypt.
The last speech was by Mr. Phelps, who mingled wisdom and wit in such a way as put everybody in the happiest mood, and the company broke up while the band played Hail Columbia and the Star-spangled Banner.
If fine words could make fair weather, the troubles of Egypt ought to have vanished with the darkness of the night; but although the sun rose the next morning over the Mokattam hills without a cloud, the political sky was as dark and threatening as ever. Weeks passed, and affairs grew "no better" very fast. Change succeeded to change, yet none brought the desired relief. The sympathy of Americans was still with the National party to this extent, that they felt that the country had a substantial grievance in the enormous burden of debt and of taxation which had been rolled upon it, and in the swarm of foreign officials which eat out its substance — a grievance against which it was a matter of loyalty and of patriotism to protest with the utmost energy. Nor was this feeling confined to Americans: so far as I could learn, it was the sentiment of all foreigners in Cairo, except those who were directly or indirectly interested in the maintenance of the Control.
But the best cause may be ruined by folly or by violence. If the National party had been what a party is in other countries — if it had limited itself to a firm, manly protest against abuses — it would have had the sympathy and support of all the friends of good government throughout Europe and in America. But they do not do things in that way in Egypt. There are no political parties such as exist in England and in America, which can give effect to public indignation. The Arabs do not understand our way of expressing discontent, by holding public meetings and passing resolutions. The only organized body is the army, so that a political movement, to carry any force with it, becomes almost of necessity a military movement. It is so much easier to make changes in the Mexican way, by a pronunciamento and a military demonstration, than by the slow process of petitioning and protesting. Why should they take this roundabout way of carrying out their win, when it was only necessary to march on the Palace? As the poor Khedive was wholly unsupported, he had nothing to do but to submit. The Anglo-French Controllers of course protested vigorously, but as they had not a soldier at their back, Arabi Bey, at the head of his regiments, laughed them to scorn.
This military remedy for the evils of the state, though at first it seemed quite Napoleonic, at last became wearisome, and Americans ceased to regard it with enthusiasm. The heroic treatment in disease sometimes cures, but not unfrequently kills; and so it might be with the unhappy state on which these army surgeons were making such terrible experiments. We began to suspect that these new leaders, who raised the cry of "Egypt for the Egyptians," meant only Egypt for themselves. They did not show such unselfish patriotism as listed them above the mass of their countrymen. They were just as full of intrigue, and just as eager for power — in short, just as thorough Arabs — as the men whom they had displaced, while they showed a childish incapacity for government, putting up one day what they pulled down the next. This was not a government based on political principles, or even a government of party, but a government of mere caprice. They dictated to the Khedive the Ministers he should appoint, and then deposed the men of their own creation. This was repeated so often that it created in the foreign community a general feeling of insecurity. The Egyptian leaders themselves seemed to have a sense of their successive failures; but this, instead of leading them to adopt a more conciliatory policy, only enraged them to the point of taking still more desperate measures. They could go to any length, for there was no restraint upon their power. But one thing they could not do — they could not inspire confidence. The more changes they made, the more did they stir up uneasiness and alarm; and when at last it came to the point that troops surrounded the Palace, and gave the Khedive only till a certain hour in which to make his submission, with orders to fire upon him in case he refused, the best friends of Egypt said, This is Revolution! They saw that the country was drifting into hopeless anarchy; that the temper of the people was becoming more sullen; that the worst elements of the Arab nature were aroused, and would soon get beyond control. All the dangers which we fondly hoped were past, came back again more threatening than before. The temporary tranquillity which we had enjoyed was but the lull before the storm.