"The evil report soon spread far and wide, and the public mind grew more and more excited. This mishap was the only black spot in the bright roll of continued successes. Colonel Warren, R.E., was directed to conduct the search for the missing expedition. He does not speak Arabic, nor had he any personal acquaintance with the Terábín and the Huwaytát. But he had taken a notable part in the Palestine Exploration, which necessarily brought him into frequent and familiar contact with the Bedawi. He is a man of unusual energy and tenacity, and he has shown great tact and savoir faire in his dealings with the Wild Men. After a preliminary visit to Tor, in company with Mr. Consul West, on September 6th, he had some hopes of rescuing the captives, and he took the properest measures to secure success. In company with Lieutenants Burton and Haynes, and provided with an escort of some hundred and fifty friendly Bedawi, by the chiefs Salám El-Shadíd of Cairo and Musá Nasr of Tir, he scoured the Desert in all directions and made some important captures, which will lead to satisfactory results. On October 23rd he reached the reported scene of the murders; but it was too late to find the remains of his countrymen. The expected rain-torrent had swept them away. He picked up a truss belonging to Palmer—no conclusive proof of death; a traveller would carry more than one article of the kind. A sock bearing Captain Gill's name, and containing the fragment of a foot, seemed to forbid hope in this case. Lieutenant Charrington's overalls, marked 'Bombay,' and a caoutchouc tobacco-pouch, showed clear evidence of plunder, but nothing more. The other articles found in the neighbourhood were torn books, letters, and papers. All were temporarily deposited in the Egyptian fort El-Nakhl, whose garrison at first turned out to attack the search-party. Of the burial in Westminster Abbey nothing need be said.
"That all the culprits, even those still at large, will eventually be surrendered I have no doubt. It is a mere question of time. And until justice is thoroughly done there will be no safety for English or European travellers in the 'Sinaitic' Peninsula. No more hanging will be required, but all concerned in the foul deed should undergo imprisonment in terrorem at Cairo. But it is sad to punish these poor tools when the guiding hands escape even blame.
"Of my proceedings after leaving Suez I need say nothing: they were disconnected with Egypt. Let me briefly resume the results of my three weeks' observations.
"The occupation of the Nile Valley has been thrust upon us by force majeure—the force of events. France was similarly circumstanced with respect to Tunis, Italy will be in the case of Tripoli: the rotten old fabric of the Porte is surely though slowly falling to pieces, and the fragments are being fitted into their right places.
"What form our Protectorate of the Nile Valley will eventually assume has not yet been determined; but if we can only come to a decision, the Public may rest assured that our tenure of the Nile Valley will be a success. At present it is not, and by the very condition of things it cannot be. Egypt hardly deserves a 'caravan government;' what it wants is stability, repose, and the training of a child to the way it should go. The unnatural excitement of looking forward to a complete change, which will mean anarchy, disorder, and violence, is doing immense and lasting damage. It interferes with revenue, the difficulty of the present hour, a problem which seems to be puzzling even the experienced Sir Evelyn Baring. With diminished floating power and the millstone of debt ever weighing him down, his friends can only wish him well out of the scrape.
"The first to be considered are the sons of the soil. They have the strongest right to fair play, and they should at least share the goods of which the stranger has once more spoiled them. The ring of foreigners, who would exclude all except their own small cliques, must be broken up, and the monopoly of highly paid employments be exchanged for free selection and for competition amongst Egyptian candidates. But this is a work of time. 'Egypt for the Egyptians' as much as you please; but at present the Egyptians must be trained for Egypt. Meanwhile the supervision of imperial questions, matters of finance, and those involving income and outcome, the magistracy and the Police, cannot but remain under English surveillance.
"The Condominium, or Joint Control, has done in its day excellent work, but its work and day are alike done. It has tabulated the resources of the Nile Valley, and has introduced order into the chaos of native revenue. Moreover, during the last few centuries the Fellah has never been so happy or so well-to-do as under its administration. But a rule by the representatives of only two great creditors, to the neglect of all others, was an invidious measure irritating the rest of Europe. Nor would it be possible to govern by means of a board: the more votes the more discord. The old Condominium must be modified to suit a permanent Protectorate.
"Modern Egypt has suffered severely from the latifundia which, according to Pliny, perdidere Italiani. What Egypt especially requires is the maintenance of that class of peasant proprietors to which she owed all her ancient prosperity. This is the institution for which the Gracchi 'sedition'd' in vain; which modern Italy has attempted in Apulia; which Russia holds in view, and which Ireland must and will have—the only Land Act that can ever satisfy her. The most fertile of countries has been sorely injured by the absorption of small properties into immense Khedivial domains, monopolizing one-fifth of the area, and into the large tracts belonging to 'the Pashas.' The sooner these model 'landed estates' are redistributed the better. However, as a trip to the Helwán les Bains will show, there is still a large proportion of waste ground—Nile mud buried in shallow sand-sheets—which can be fertilized by canals drawn from up-stream. The Great Valley can still support ten millions, and even more when a system of damming shall be applied to her river. In the mean time all attention should be given to the Cadastre, or Revenue Survey, which wants a radical reform. The dawdling, feckless system of General Stone would have carried it well into the twentieth century. Better pension off 'hard bargains' than pay and retain them as standing obstructions.
"Egypt no longer wants the disproportionate armies and fleets with which Mohammed Ali and Ibrahim Pashas conquered their neighbours. But she must have a small body of Regulars—not less than ten thousand—to defend her against Abyssinian raids, and to protect her Equatorial Provinces, where (Chinese) Gordon (Pasha) did such noble work. As regards the harbour on the Red Sea, proposed for the acceptance of the 'king of kings,' Johannes, I may say that the measure is theoretically good and practically evil. The port would serve only for the importation of arms and ammunition, and would make the troublesome 'Highlanders of Æthiopia,' ever a nest of hornets, more dangerous than at any time of their turbid history. As it is, the Egyptians cannot fight in the mountains nor the Abyssinians in the plains, a consideration which tends to keeping the peace. But the breech-loader and the magazine-gun, when provided with cartridges, will wholly change the condition of the Æthiopian. It is to be hoped that the Egyptian army of the future, composed of Fellahs and negroes from the Súdán, and officered by Englishmen and natives, will be built on the lines of the old East India Company's force, a return to which is one of the crying wants of India. The management may safely be left in the experienced hands of (Val.) Baker Pasha, unless he has to work in the chains of home orders.
"And as with the army, so with the Egyptian fleet—a mere show, an article of luxury, costly moreover as it was useless. The country wants only a few heavily armed gunboats to guard her African coast, to put down the slave-export, and to prevent Arab piracy. Subsidized lines of steamers, the more the better, suffice to connect her with Asia as well as with Africa. The old doddering Egyptian men-o'-war which rot in Alexandria and Suez harbours, melancholy remnants of past power, may be carted away as soon as possible.