THE FRENCH ACADEMY. 301 



reigns. Egypt will always be governed by the 

 civilised nations collectively. The reasonable and 

 scientific explorers of the world's history will always 

 turn with curious, anxious, or attentive glances to- 

 wards this wonderful valley. 



" France for three-quarters of a century has had 

 before her mind a solution of this difficult problem, 

 which will be fully appreciated when experience has 

 shown what torrents of blood and tears the other 

 solutions would have cost the world. She conceived 

 the idea of establishing, by means of a dynasty, 

 Mussulman in name, but in reality free from fana- 

 ticism and prompt to recognise the superiority of the 

 West, the reign of modern ideas in this exceptional 

 land, which cannot, without great detriment to the 

 general welfare, be allowed to lapse into barbarism. 

 Through Egypt, thus organised and safeguarded, 

 civilisation had her hand upon the whole of the 

 Eastern Soudan. The dangerous cyclones which 

 Central Africa will from time to time produce, since it 

 has imprudently been allowed to become Mahometan, 

 would have been suppressed. European science had a 

 free hand in a country which has, so to speak, been 

 placed at its disposal as a field for study and experi- 

 ment. But there should have been something like 

 method observed in carrying out this excellent plan. 

 We should not have weakened a dynasty by means of 

 which the point of the sword of Europe reached 

 almost to the Equator. More especially should an 



