further it is removed from Christendom the
better, and the more easily accessible by sea. I have already given it
as my opinion that the move, when made will be one southwards, and
ultimately to Arabia. But it may well happen that its first stage will
be no further than Cairo. The Caliphate reached Constantinople through
Egypt, and may return by the same road, and there are certain quite
recent symptoms which seem to point in the direction of such a course
being the one taken. The events of the last year in Egypt are
significant. For the first time in its modern history a strong national
party has arisen on the Nile, and has found full support from the Azhar
Ulema, who are now the most powerful body of religious opinion in Islam.
They are politically hostile to the Sultan, and though they have no
design as yet of repudiating his Caliphal title, they are unlikely to be
faithful to his broken fortunes, and on the downfall of Constantinople
will doubtless proclaim a Caliph of their own. The family of Mohammed
Ali, if popular, may then hope for their suffrages, or it may be some
seyyid, or sherif, of the legitimate house of Koreysh. In any case, a
Caliphate at Cairo is a possibility which we must contemplate; and one
which, under the political direction and sole guarantee of England, but
enjoying full sovereignty there, might be a solution of the difficulty
acceptable to Mohammedans, and not unfavourable to English interests. It
seems to me, however, that it would be but a make-shift arrangement, not
a permanent settlement, and this from the complexity of foreign
interests in Egypt, which would keep the Mohammedan pontiff there under
restraints irksome to the religious sense of Mussulmans. It would be in
fact but the prelude to that final return to Arabia which Arabian
thought, if no other, destines for the Caliphate. The Sherif of Mecca
would hardly tolerate any further subjection to an Emir el Mumenin shorn
of his chief attributes of power, and unable, it might be, any longer to
enforce his authority. Sooner or later the Caliphate, in some form or
another, would return to its original seat, and find there its final
resting-place.

Established at Mecca, our duty of protecting the head of the Mussulman
religion would be comparatively a simple one. Hejaz for all military
purposes is inaccessible by land for Europeans; and Mecca, were it
necessary at any time to give the Caliph a garrison of Mussulman
troops, is within a nigh