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around Alexandria. Here was founded a celebrated school of 

 philosophy, and who has not heard of its splendid library de- 

 molished by early Moslem fanaticism thirteen hundred and fifty 

 years ago ? Here with fierce heat and frequent blood-shed 

 Arianism and orthodoxy maintained a constant struggle. Here 

 St. George, the patron saint of England, is said by some to have 

 been a bacon seller, and "ready," as one old historian expres- 

 sively states, " to sell his soul for a cake," before he took to 

 slaying dragons. But we repel with scorn these base insinua- 

 tions, even though backed by Gibbon and by Emerson. Our 

 patron saint was eminently orthodox, and never could have been 

 an Arian and their heterodox archbishop, as the converted army 

 purveyor undoubtedly was. Here also Athanasius, though five 

 times expelled, was archbishop of Alexandria for a considerable 

 time. From the Delta stretching from Alexandria to the 

 Pyramids, a distanae of 180 miles by 90, Kome in her days of 

 insolent sovereignty wrenched the corn, whose free distribution 

 kept at bay the rabble of the empire city. When Eome lost her 

 grip, Egypt, torn by contending factions of what should have 

 been a common faith, fell a comparatively easy prey to the fierce 

 soldiery brought into existence by Mahomet, whose kingdom was 

 undoubtedly of this world. Since then the seat of government 

 has ranged around Cairo, a city of 500 mosques, within sight of 

 the Pyramids. Here many of the most richly imaged stories in 

 the Arabian Nights find local colouring, and to this day the 

 Arab donkey drivers sing or recite from memory, as they trot by 

 your side, the luscious poetry which found favour at the court of 

 the celebrated Caliph of Bagdad, Haroun al Eashid, who reigned 

 1,100 years ago. Cairo has been, and still to some extent remains, 

 the centre of fanatical Mohammedanism, a striking contrast to 

 latitudinarian Constantinople ; but commercial enterprise, the 

 opening up of the Suez Canal, extension of railways, general 

 indebtedness to European nations, and the joint English and 

 French control ending in British occupation, are destroying, 

 insulating, and rapidly changing Alexandria and Cairo into cos- 

 mopohtan cities. Occasionally the old leaven works out. For 

 instance, as we were leaving our hotel in Alexandria on our way 

 to Cairo, a well-dressed, scholarly-looking Egyptian, clad in a 

 priestly habit, dropped fervently upon us as he passed an unmis- 

 takable curse. 



But what gave rise, 



To no little surprise, 

 Nobody seemed one penny the worse. 



About the history of Egypt during Mohammedan supremacy 

 nothing need be said. It consists mainly of struggles for power 

 between families or between members of the same family, and 

 latterly of laudable attempts to minimise or to get altogether 

 free from Turkish domination. Throughout Egypt's lengthy 



