t's march of the coast. In Arabia no Christian
rights need vindication, nor could any European power put in a claim of
interference. Yemen, the only province capable of attracting European
speculation, would, I know, gladly accept an English protectorate, such
as has been already given with such good results to Oman; and other
points of the Arabian shore might equally be declared inviolable.
Arabia, in fact, might be declared the natural appanage of the
Caliphate, the Stati Pontificali of the supreme head of the Mussulman
religion. In its internal organization we should have no cause to
interfere; nor would its protection from without involve us in any
outlay.

It has already been shown how favourable an action an Arabian Caliphate
may be expected to exercise on the progressive thought of Islam. That it
could not be a hostile power to England is equally certain. Whether or
not the Caliph reside at Mecca, the Grand Sherifate must always there
exist and the pilgrimage be continued; and we may hope the latter may
then be principally under English auspices. The regulation of the Haj
is, indeed, an immediate necessary part of our duty and condition of
our influence in the Mussulman world; and it is one we should be grossly
in error to neglect. It will have been seen by the table given in the
first chapter that nearly the whole pilgrimage to Arabia is now made by
sea, and that the largest number of pilgrims sent there by any nation
comes from British territory. With the protectorate, therefore, in the
future of Egypt, and, let us hope, of Syria, England would be in the
position of exercising a paramount influence on the commercial fortune
of the Holy Cities.

The revenue of Hejaz derived from the Haj is computed at three millions
sterling, a figure proved by the yearly excess of imports over exports
in her seaports, for she produces nothing, and the patronage of half, or
perhaps two-thirds, of this great revenue would make England's a
position there quite unassailable. An interdiction of the Haj, or the
threat of such for a single year, would act upon every purse among the
Hejazi and neutralize the hostility of the most recalcitrant of resident
caliphs or sherifs; while a systematic development of the pilgrimage as
a Government undertaking, with the construction of a railway from Jeddah
to Mecca, and the establishment of thoroughly well-ordered lines of
steamers from the principal Mohammedan ports, all matters which would
a