2i8 THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATE.

<r Ismail, apart from his personal interests, with an \ honest desire to uphold the separation from Turkish ( rule, which formed the great triumph of his dynasty.

He knew also too much of Turkish statecraft not to be aware of the fate that awaited him if he came off the worst in an armed conflict with Turkey on Egyptian soil ; and he had no illusions as to the certainty of his defeat in the event of such a conflict. There was not then— I doubt if there is now — any sentiment of Egyptian nationality to which the ruler of Egypt could have appealed as against Turkey.

In the East, nationality is a matter of creed, not of race.

It was absolutely certain that the Egyptian population would have offered no resistance to the deposition of the Khedive by the armies of the chief of Islam. It was therefore simple madness to defy the authority of the Sultan, acting, as he did, as the delegate of the great Christian Powers.

Ismail Pasha had the good sense to see that he had played the game, and lost He accepted his defeat with a dignity not unworthy of the position (he had held so long. He despatched a messenger to Tewfik, who was residing at Koubeh, a village about five miles to the east of Cairo, summoning (him to the palace of Abdin. On his son's arrival, Ismail saluted him after the Turkish ceremonial of (an inferior when addressing his superior, raising his hand gradually from the hem of his garments to his forehead, and then conducted him to the divan, on which he himself used to sit as Khedive, and remained