belonged to a king who reigned but a few years and died young, we may surmise how splendid and beautiful must have been the treasure of Rameses II. and other great monarchs, whose wealth and prowess far surpassed the wealth and prowess of Tutenkhamen. The spoils of the tomb which now attracts a sad mob of trippers from overseas, the chariot, the bed, the chairs, even the walkingsticks and cups of alabaster, display in the museum their elegant design, and are, indeed, a possession for all time. But even though the graves are stripped of their gold and their amulets and their necklaces, there remains the Valley of the Kings itself, as noble and austere a prospect as may be found in Egypt. As you look upon it from Luxor while the sun sets and the colours change and the night descends upon the hills, the beauty of the landscape obscures all thoughts of buried treasure. The Valley itself wears a face far lovelier than all the gold which it hides; and you cannot but regret that, from the uncovering of Tutenkhamen's tomb, Luxor has received a sudden advertisement, greater

even

than that designed by Rameses for himself. Thus a new plague has come upon Egypt, a plague unknown to Moses and his Pharaoh, the plague of the American tripper. They arrive in their hundreds daily, do these trippers, marvellously arrayed. With the genius of impropriety which distinguishes their coun

try, they flock to Luxor, the men in plus-fours, the women in riding-breeches and putties, and all intent to see what is left of him whom they call with sad familiarity "Old Tutt " or "King Tutt," and who inspires them to ridicule or contempt, for the twofold reason that he is old and a king. So they descend upon Egypt, these modern Americans, like locusts upon a fertile land. Like locusts they stay no longer than to eat up the country. Then, having filled their pockets with "souvenirs," they return hastily to Cairo or Port Said, and give you the satisfaction of knowing, as you set out for Assouan,that they will not follow you to that pleasant solitude, where is no "King Tutt."

At Assouan, in truth, there are but few monuments and few ruins. It has suffered too deeply from invaders to have preserved many of the marks of age. Only the quarries remain immovable, to show you whence the kings of Egypt brought the granite for their obelisks; and there is, besides, the cataract of the Nile and the temple of Philæ, now submerged at times, that fertility may be spread over the land of Egypt. To those who blame the greed of Englishmen for this necessary submersion there is an easy answer. One temple built by the Ptolemies may not be set in this land of temples against the easy sustenance of thousands. Nor is the temple of Phile always or ever invisible. Before the water descends

through the dam to Upper Egypt, the capitals of the columns are still plain to be seen, and when the process of irrigation is complete, the the tourist or the archæologist may wander at will in the Temple of Isis or in the Temple of Æsculapius, the work of Ptolemy V. and Cleopatra. And by way of compensation there is the noble and massive dam itself, which has not a little of the monumental character which seems to belong to all things Egyptian, and which, due to the energy and foresight of Englishmen, has brought prosperity to what was once a barren desert.

The journey to Wady Halfa by boat, through the land of Nubia, is leisurely and agreeable. The scene varies pleasantly from well-sheltered villages to barren hills. The fertility of the river's banks makes you forget, here and there, the inexorable desert. Everywhere you see dark-visaged Nubians, walking or riding along the river-bank, no less black than the long black draperies which enshroud the

women.

Thus many and various are the memories which I bring back from the marvellous land of Egypt. There is a vision of the Sphinx, with a crowd of men and women carrying away from it the encumbering sand in flat baskets. Slowly they surmount a steep pathway, singing as they go an ancient immemorial chant. When their voices flag, a tall

Nubian, robed in white and standing in their midst, lets his voice be heard above the rest, calling calling the scattered singers back to harmony. And at intervals are to be seen the drivers of the willing workers, armed with whips, like the slave-drivers of old, and ready to lay the lash upon the legs of those who fail by the way. Thus thousands of years ago, I thought, was the Sphinx fashioned, to the accompaniment of the same chant and a severer whip. For in Egypt nothing changes, not even the foolish thing called politics; and what do they know of politics who carry away the sand with primitive deliberation in their flat baskets? And then I recall the picture of three men of the Camel Corps, magnificently mounted and accoutred, whom I saw at the second cataract high up against the sky, and who cantered down the heavy desert sand as though they were riding on an easy road. And at Assouan I watched through a long morning a flight of cranes going northward, marshalled in battalions like an army, with light troops to bring up the stragglers. It may be remembered, as a proof of the unchangeability of Egypt, that Herodotus records this same flight of cranes; only he saw them on their southern journey taking refuge from the wintry weather of Scythia in the Ethiopian heat.

For two thousand five hundred years Egypt has not,

save for brief intervals, been governed by Egyptians. Cambyses, the Persian monarch, won the land by conquest, and established a dominion, which lasted, with an interregnum, for two hundred years. And then Alexander of Macedon, the wise, humane, all-conquering king, founded Alexandria, the great market of the world, and relieved the Egyptians from the burden of Persian cruelty. Revered as the son of Amen, he administered Egypt through his governors, and left it, when he died, happy and contented. Then followed a long and august procession of Ptolemies, Romans, Arabs, and Turks, who ruled the country in accord with their hopes and ambitions. For a moment Napoleon, victorious at the battle of the Pyramids, made himself lord of Egypt, until he was driven out by the English, who restored the supremacy of the Turks. The recent history of Egypt is the history of English skill and wisdom. Under the watchful governance of Lord Cromer, as British Agent, the country grew in wealth and prosperity. In the time of the Great War England declared a protectorate over Egypt, which it were well that she had preserved. Unfortunately, over-persuaded by the weakness and irresolution which followed the peace, she established the country, which had not been at the pains of governing herself for more than two thousand years, as an independent kingdom, and the end of this rash and wicked act cannot yet be foreseen.

The story of our effective occupation of Egypt is a story of pride and high endeavour, and nowhere is it better told than in Lord Cromer's account of his own stewardship. He was confronted at the outset by the racial paradox, the most dangerous of the many paradoxes which confronted Egypt. This it was, as Lord Milner described it : "One alien race, the English, have had to control and guide a second alien race, the Turks, by whom they are disliked, in the government of a third race, the Egyptians." And the difficulty was vastly increased by the attitude of the French, who hated to see the English in command, and yet knew well that, if the English were to leave bag and baggage, they could save themselves only by getting out first. Of the dangers which beset Lord Cromer, there is little that need be said here. He was ill-supported at home, so long as Lord Granville and Mr Gladstone held the strings of Government. These two statesmen persuaded Lord Cromer to accept the services. of General Gordon, and then refused to rescue him, until it was too late, when he went to Khartoum, at their suggestion, to withdraw the garrisons. Disaster after disaster overtook us in Egypt and the Soudan through no fault of Lord Cromer's, and at a time when he wished to keep all his energies free for the works of peace, economy, and irrigation. The difficulties of Lord Cromer's position cannot

in his own words. When it is remembered," he he wrote, "that the very name of European stank in the nostrils of the Egyptian population; that whatever European ideas had taken root in the country had been imported from France; that the French Government and French public opinion were at the outset bitterly opposed to the action of England in Egypt; that through the medium of an unscrupulous press Englishmen were vilified and their actions systematically misrepresented; that, under the pressure of Europe and the European creditors of Egypt, a variety of complicated institutions had been created which were in advance of the requirements and the state of civilisation of the country; that the Treasury was wellnigh bankrupt; that the army had been disbanded; that no law courts worthy of the name existed; that the Englishman's own countrymen, who, according to their custom, judged mainly by results, expected that at the touch of the administrative wand all abuses would forthwith disappear; that the fellah expected immediate relief from taxation and oppression; that the Levantine contractor expected to dip his itching palm into the till of the British Treasury; that the Englishman's position was undefined, and that he was unable to satisfy all these expectations at once; that, having first quelled a rebellion in Egypt,

more formidable rebellion in the Soudan; and lastly, that before he had seriously begun the work of reform, he was constantly pressed by Frenchmen, and by some of his own countrymen, to declare his conviction that the work was accomplished-when all these points are remembered, the difficulty of the task which England undertook may be appreciated in its true light. But the task was ennobled by its difficulty." Truly it was ennobled, and Lord Cromer proved the temper of his courage by achieving it.

But no sooner was the task finished than the poison of selfgovernment was injected into the body of Egypt-a poison which unimaginative politicians have been wont to prescribe as a cure for all ills. We know the formula perfectly well: here is a man, let us give him a vote. The man may be illiterate and unintelligent. He may, for his own happiness, have no interest save in feeding himself and those dependent upon him. Then, murmur the foolish ones, wake him up from the slumber of pathetic contentment. Why contentment should be a disgrace is not explained, nor are we told how contentment should be raised to the higher point of rebellion by the gift of a thing called a vote and wholly misunderstood. But the accumulation of votes and voters is the highest ambition of our demagogues, and they care not what the consequences may be, so long as the ballot-boxes

of

resemble the corn- sacks Russia, and bulge. In Egypt the bad work was begun by Eldon Gorst, acting no doubt under the orders of the endoctrined radicals at home, and was continued until in 1922, after the interval of a protectorate, Egypt was created an independent kingdom, with what by an irony is called a "free" constitution, in the wake of which there followed, as they are wont to follow, murder and rebellion. There was no excuse there never is an excuse for such an action as this. When we gave Egypt a new constitution, we did an equal wrong to Egypt and ourselves. For Egypt is, as Bismarck said, the nape of England's neck. Sever the connection between us, and the British Empire will be at an end. The land which is the highway to India and to Australia cannot be given up or closed against us with any security for the future. This simple truth we pretended to recognise when we imposed safeguards in the agreement of 1922, which Egypt has not ratified. How far they are compatible with an independent throne or universal suffrage, the passage of time will show.

And we did an injustice to Egypt, because we prepared to renounce suddenly a responsibility which we had assumed and borne for many years. We had brought prosperity to Egypt; we had restored justice to her courts; we had set her finances upon a sound basis;

and then in a moment of weakness or fatigue, and under the auspices of Mr Lloyd George, surrendering to assassination, according to his wont, we threw her back upon her own resources. Henceforth the work which had been done willingly by Englishmen was to be handed over by degrees to Egyptians. It was ordained that by 1927 all the English officials should be replaced. The doctors and bacteriologists who had kept disease at bay were to be dismissed in favour of Egyptians, whose ignorance and lack of training would make easy the return of plague and cholera. In the supreme court justice was to be dispensed by three judges, two of whom were to be Egyptians, ready to outvote, as they have outvoted, the president, when men of their own blood were in danger. And all this was done, not to serve any good end, but to support a system of politics already exposed and discredited.

As we have said, the surrender was followed, as it was followed in India, by crimes of violence. The Egyptians, who had been governed for more than two thousand years by foreigners, discovered suddenly a spirit of nationalism which justified murder in their eyes. Several English officials were assassinated; the Sirdar, Sir Lee Stack, was murdered as a reminder that the Egyptians looked upon the Soudan as their own; and when the murderers were brought to justice they were all, save one,