34
There is indeed so curious a coincidence between the
experiences of the-French in this war epoch and of our-
selves in the emergencies of the Great War that it is
difficult not to believe that there was a nationalist spirit
active in Egypt a century ago, even though it then found
no definite nationalist expression.
The end of the French experiment came when an
English expedition of sixteen thousand men under Aber-
crombie disembarked at Alexandria (March 8, 1801) and
defeated Menou at the Battle of Canopus, at which
Abercrombie was killed and Sir John Moore wounded.
There followed a confused campaign and much com-
plicated ^negotiation until the French at Cairo capitulated
(June 27, 1801) and those under Menou at Alexandria
two months later, on much the same terms as those of
the unratified Convention of El Arish. The capitulation
called for the surrender of the scientific catalogue and
collections, but against this the egyptologists mutinied
so stoutly that these trophies, at least, were saved for
France. Egypt itself was restored to the Ottoman
Empire, though the British troops were not withdrawn
until a fresh outbreak of European war in 1803 made a
breach with Turkey impolitic.
In this first chapter of the story of Modern Egypt we
see the international importance of the country so
recognised by the genius of Napoleon that his concentra-
tion on its conquest almost altered the course of
European history. For had British sea-power not pre-
vented Napoleon from re-establishing the Latin Empire of
the East, European civilisation in the nineteenth century
would have suffered neither the shock of the sudden rise
of the French Empire nor the strain of the slow decline of
the Ottoman Empire. ^c< Had I taken Acre I should have
reached Constantinople and there founded a dynasty/*