224 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



route ; but there is no use concealing the fact that 

 the old egotistical policy of Great Britain receives a 

 mortal blow, and this is why the partisans of the tra- 

 ditions of old are already in a great state of excite- 

 ment. I was quite prepared for this, for I had had 

 better opportunities than any one else, both from 

 what my father had told me and from what I had 

 seen myself, of following at various periods their 

 course of policy in Egypt. Why did they spare no 

 effort to make General Bonaparte's expedition a 

 failure ? Why, after this, did they protect the 

 Mamelukes, who were dividing the country, driving 

 away foreign trade, and condemning the fertile valley 

 of the Nile to sterility? Why, in 1840, did they induce 

 the whole of Europe to form a league against France 

 and Mehemet Ali, the progress made by whom they en- 

 deavoured to arrest ? Why did they give their support 

 and advice to Abbas Pasha, that fanatical prince so 

 opposed to progress, whom Providence removed be- 

 fore he had quite time to complete the disorganisation 

 and ruin of Egypt ? Why simply because there was 

 a party in England anxious to reduce the Viceroy 

 to the condition of those Indian rajahs who are 

 encouraged to lead disorderly lives, until at last 

 they are so debased and besotted that they have 

 no alternative except to put themselves under the 

 protection of England or to sell their states. 

 Fortunately this opinion is not universal in 

 England, there being in that land of liberty a 



