Page:On the Desert - Recent Events in Egypt.djvu/38

24 of modern times. Hundreds of Europeans were hunted down in the streets, clubbed to death or bayoneted: for soldiers, whose business it was to keep order, took part in the cowardly butchery.

Of this savage outbreak, a great many explanations have been offered. But we sometimes go very far round to find a reason for an act or an event, when the cause lies on the surface. The real cause was not a political one, not a sense of injury at the action of France or England, but the natural temper of the people. On board our ship from Naples to Alexandria was a gentleman who had been the French Consul at the latter port for more than twenty years; and to my inquiry for his opinion of the people among whom he had lived so long, he answered almost savagely, "Les Arabes sont bêtes féroces!" That tells the whole story. There is in the Arab nature an element of ferocity that may well liken them to wild beasts. It is a feeling compounded of hatred of foreigners and religious fanaticism, which only needs to be let loose from restraint to lead them to any act of violence and blood. It was with such a population that England had to deal.

From the moment of the massacre, the relations of England and Egypt were changed. It was no longer a question of Anglo-French Control. The blood of murdered Englishmen cried from the stones of the streets of Alexandria, and called for punishment. It is said that we must not hold either the government or the people responsible for what was merely the act of a mob. Certainly not, if either government or people at once disclaim all sympathy with the atrocious crime, and make haste to punish the perpetrators. For this measure of atonement England waited patiently, but none came. To be sure, the military party made a show of virtuous indignation. Hundreds were arrested, but not a man was punished. By the course of