Page:On the Desert - Recent Events in Egypt.djvu/44

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ENGLAND IN EGYPT.

as long as it pleases the English government and people. They may well be excused if they take their own time about it, for if Englishmen, as individuals, have the same rights in Egypt as Americans, yet beyond these general rights, which are common to all foreigners, England as a country has some special claims to consideration. England has fought for Egypt and for Turkey again and again. Indeed it may be said that both owe to her their continued existence. When Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798, he would have taken the country and kept it if it had not been for England. The Egyptians could do nothing: Napoleon swept away the Mamelukes at the Battle of the Pyramids. It was an English fleet under Lord Nelson which fought the Battle of the Nile. It was an English General, Sir Ralph Abercrombie, who gained the final victory on land which drove the French out of Egypt. Napoleon invaded Syria, and carried everything before him till he encountered the English at Acre, who soon put a stop to his victorious career. Again in 1831 Ibrahim Pacha invaded Syria, and would have marched on Constantinople if he had not been stopped by the European powers. In 1854 England and France went to war with Russia to preserve Turkey. Thus often has England fought for Turkey and for Egypt, and the bones of her soldiers who have fallen in defending those Moslem powers, are scattered on many battlefields in three continents — in Europe, in Asia, and in Africa. It is not yet five years since England put forth her powerful hand to save Turkey, which was at the feet of Russia. A Russian army was at the gates of Constantinople, and could have entered the city, and planted its guns on the heights overlooking the Bosphorus, and the Russian flag might have waved from all the minarets of the Turkish capital. When in that city a few months since, a friend pointed out the position of the