xviii Introduction
Yet Egypt, if it gives no theme for an epic, certainly
gives a thesis for a study of a very curious national
development. For the national spirit of Egypt has re-
vealed itself in a strange succession of avatars. Still
more strangely these embodiments have for a century
become ever younger and less mature. Thus its first
exponent, when Egyptian nationalism it self* was still
an embryo, was Mehemet Ali, an old warrior who com-
bined the ideas of Peter the Great with those of Pharaoh,
Not even with the help of Jeremy Bentham could
Mehemet Ali make a natibnal renascence that would
survive himself. Next came middle-aged reformers like
Sherif and Arabi, who tried to combine the ideas of
Contism with the Koran, and also failed. Thereafter
followed the young men, Abbas Hilmi and Mustapha
Kamil, who tried to combine the methods of Abdul
Hamid with those of O'Connell, and also broke apart
and broke down. Finally, came schoolboys and students
who had no idea other than that of pushing out the
British and of putting in their schoolmaster Zaglul, in
which simple task they succeeded.
In all these phases we English had a leading part.
Palmerston and Napier put a stop to the ambitions of
Mehemet Ali. Gladstone and Wolseley put a stop to the
constitution of Sherif and to the conscription of Arabi.
Cromer and Kitchener put a stop to the conspiracies of
Abbas Hilmi and of Mustapha Kamil. Wherefore
Egyptian nationalism bears us a formidable grudge. It
should be grateful. We only postponed the birth of an
Egyptian nation until the proper time. Until not Turks
and Arnauts, not a Turcophil effendina or a Gallophil
effendiat, but the first true-bred young Egyptians could
establish for themselves the new nation.
Thereafter we come to the last and worst difficulty in