52 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



security for the future. "What they dread above all 

 else is the risk of being exposed to any dangerous 

 eventualities upon the part of one or other of the 

 European Powers. They will always wish that Egypt 

 should be exceptionally governed by Mussulman 

 princes of Turkish origin, who are connected by 

 so many common political and religious ties to the 

 metropolis of Islamism.' 



" With regard to the Viceroy of Egypt, in his com- 

 munications with Turkish statesmen, speaking of the 

 attempts made to raise a prejudice against him, he 

 said : * In the present state of things a ruler of Egypt 

 who had any secret idea of aggrandizing his position 

 would not allow the Suez Canal to be made. The 

 whole of the coast, from Damietta to the first ports of 

 Syria, is at present beyond the reach of any foreign 

 surveillance, as it is outside European navigation. 

 Nothing stands in the way of the Viceroy arming a 

 fleet or collecting troops without exciting notice, and 

 of throwing them into Syria before any one could 

 interfere. When the canal is made the whole situation 

 will be altered. Moreover, the important possessions 

 of Turkey in Arabia can easily be reduced by star- 

 vation, as Egypt has the supplying of them with corn. 

 There always exists in these provinces slight elements 

 of rebellion, which it would be easy for Egypt to keep 

 alive and increase, and which she alone, with the exist- 

 ing means of communication, could alone put down. 

 Experience has shown that the distance and the dim*- 



