5o6 THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATE.

gratified by the good- will exhibited towards him by the British public. Moreover, the birth of a son and heir in the month of May, 1898, after three years of marriage, was a source of great gratification to his Highness, not only as a father, but as a Sovereign. The young Prince seems destined, in the course of nature, to succeed his parent on the throne of Egypt, as the fourth of the Khedives, and as the seventh — if we take into the reckoning the brief reign of Ibrahim — of the hereditary Viceroys. It does not appear probable, judging by the course of recent events, that any future occupants of the Vice-regal throne will ever again play so important a part in Egyptian affairs as was played by Mahomet Ali and by Ismail Pasha. But this view is not likely to be in favour at the Khedivial Court. Nor can I say that the opposite view is untenable. Egypt is, and always has been, the country of surprises ; and he would be a bold man who would venture to prophesy that the restoration of the personal rule of the Khedives under Abbas II. or his successors was an utter impossibility. The fact, therefore, that there is now an heir-apparent to the Egyptian throne cannot be regarded as a matter of indifference by all who are interested, one way or the other, in the politics of Egypt.

Within the last few months the Khedive has insisted, notwithstanding great opposition in Court circles, in carrying out a measure urgently demanded in the interests of Egypt. Up to the other day every