2 THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATE.

the interpretation placed upon the hieroglyphics in question was a correct rendering of the original. The answer, given with some hesitation, was that absolute certainty was out of the question, and that

all that could be fairly said as to the received inter-

pretation of hieroglyphics, was that it seemed to be the most probable rendering of the sense contained therein. On receiving this answer, I declined to express any opinion on the matter.

I allude to this incident at the opening of this book in order to warn my readers that they must

not expect to find therein any contribution to the history of ancient Egypt. I am concerned only with the latest of the countless series of Governments that

have held rule in the valley of the Nile, under which the ruling power in fact, if not in name, has been the Government of England. The remote past — the past of the pyramids, the tombs of the kings, the sphinx, and the statue of Memnon — has as little to do with

the period in question as the Phoenician ruins found, or said to be found, in Rhodesia have to do with the Jameson raid. For all practical purposes, the history

of the Egypt known to us to-day commences with the first years of the last century, when Mahomet Ali was appointed Pasha. From 1567, when the

Turks under Selim I. completed the conquest of

Egypt, the history of the country is an absolute blank. This missing link is accounted for in the

pages of the " Encyclopaedia Britannica" by the follow-

ing ingenious statement : " It would be tedious and