Page:On the Desert - Recent Events in Egypt.djvu/45

Rh Russian army, which was camped almost under the walls, and we asked, Why did it not march in and take full possession? The answer was, It was stopped by the English fleet, which came up the Dardanelles and through the Sea of Marmora, and anchored in sight of Constantinople. The Sultan, who has lately protested so energetically against an English fleet in the harbor of Alexandria as an invasion of his sovereign rights, was not at all disturbed at the sight then, but on the contrary felt an immeasurable relief, as if he had been reprieved from a sentence of death, when he saw the flags of the great English ironclads from the windows of his Palace. After thus saving both Turkey and Egypt again and again, it is not a great presumption for England to ask whether she has not some rights in the East which Turk and Arab are bound to respect.

Besides all this, England has great material interests in Egypt. We say nothing of the interest of bondholders, of money loaned for internal improvements — for railroads and canals, and piers and ports. This very harbor of Alexandria, which has been the scene of such great events, was built largely by English money. But leaving all this, the interest of England in the Suez Canal is greater than that of all the world beside. Eighty or ninety per cent. of the ships that pass through that Canal, are English. It is the highway from England to India. The distance from London or Liverpool to Bombay, is nearly five thousand miles less by the Suez Canal than by the old route around Africa. The control of this, therefore, is not only a commercial convenience; it is a military necessity. Suppose there were another mutiny in India, and that, Arabi Pacha had command of the Suez Canal, and should think it a good time to "get even" with England by stopping all transit, and that the English troops should have to be sent around by way of the Cape of Good Hope, the