THE EGYPTIAN QUESTION.
mercial Empire like ours to cultivate. The present Government has shown no want of conciliation; some may think that they have gone too far in the path of conciliation in various parts of the world; but it is no part of my province to discuss that question to-night. All I wish to say is that Great Britain has been conciliatory, and that her conciliatory disposition has been widely misunderstood. If the nations of the world are under the impression that the ancient spirit of Great Britain is dead, or that her resources are weakened, or her population less determined than ever it was to maintain the rights and the honour of its flag, they make a mistake which can only end in a disastrous conflagration.'
Fifteen years ago, after the suppression of the Arabi Rebellion, we might have declared a protectorate over Egypt. That was Mr. W. E. Forster's view; and this step might have been taken with little opposition. The Egyptian question would then have been settled for all time. But the step was not taken, why, it is hard to explain, and we were more than once very near evacuating Egypt.
What the British occupation has done for Egypt.In spite, however, of our equivocal position, we set to work with a handful of Englishmen to reform the administration of a country which was almost bankrupt, and the people of which were suffering from years of oppression and misrule. Sir Alfred Milner tells us in his admirable book on England in Egypt how that work was accomplished. It is a work of which Englishmen may well be proud, and which is, from some points of view, almost more remarkable than our administration of India. With very small available funds the material resources of the country were de-235
