d, 'I would not pass my life
in schemes to govern mere mountain tribes.' 'I'll tell you,' said the
Emir, springing from his divan, and flinging the tube of his nargileh to
the other end of the tent, 'the game is in our own hands if we have
energy. There is a combination which would entirely change the whole
face of the world and bring back empire to the East. Though you are not
the brother to the Queen of the English, you are, nevertheless, a great
English prince, and the Queen will listen to what you say, especially if
you talk to her as you talk to me, and say such fine things in such a
beautiful voice. Nobody ever opened my mind like you. You will
magnetise the Queen as you have magnetised me. Go back to England and
arrange this. You see, gloss over it as they may, one thing is clear, it
is finished with England . . . Let the Queen of the English collect a
great fleet, let her stow away all her treasure, bullion, plate, and
precious arms; be accompanied by all her court and chief people, and
transfer the seat of her empire from London to Delhi. There she will
find an immense empire ready-made, a first-rate army, and a large
revenue. In the meantime I will arrange with Mehemet Ali. He shall have
Bagdad and Mesopotamia, and pour the Bedouin cavalry into Persia. I will
take care of Syria and Asia Minor. The only way to manage the Afghans is
by Persia and by the Arabs. We will acknowledge the Empress of India as
our suzerain, and secure for her the Levantine coast. If she like, she
shall have Alexandria, as she now has Malta. It could be arranged. Your
Queen is young. She has an _avenir_. Aberdeen and Sir Robert Peel will
never give her this advice; their habits are formed. They are too old,
two _ruses_. But you see! the greatest empire that ever existed; besides
which she gets rid of the embarrassment of her chambers! and quite
practicable! For the only difficult part, the conquest of India, which
baffled Alexander, is all done.' Who can avoid seeing that Lord
Beaconsfield has been quite recently referring to this passage--'not,' as
he said, 'for amusement, but for instruction?' These are all the ideas
of his recent policy in germ--especially the treatment of the British
Empire as having its centre of gravity in the far East--the use of the
Indian Army for conquest to be made in Western Asia--the acquisition of
the Levantine coast for Great Britain--the active alliance between the
British power and