THE PACIFICATION OF THE SOUDAN.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR."]
Sts,—The very striking vaticination of Sayid Hassan e Morghani to which you have drawn attention in the Spectator of September 24th may not unfitly be followed by another. The brave sailor son of the late Sir Robert Peel went up the Nile and across the Nubian Desert in 1851. That, of course, was long before the iniquities of Ismail had brought Egypt low, and therefore before the English occupation had come within measurable distance. When he reached Khartoum he wrote in his journal as follows :—" Khartoum on the conquest of the country by the Egyptians only a few years back, did not even exist. It is now a very rising city From its position, it would soon, under a good government, become a place of the first importance." Then, in a singularly eloquent description of the course of the river Nile, he says :— "Surely the hand of the Almighty has traced it across the desert, that it might be the union of distant nations. Attacked on every side, receiving no supplies, but supporting an immense irrigation, threatened by the sand of the desert, or hemmed in by mountains, its surface lapped by a devouring heat, it holds on its course in all its unity and in all its
majesty, and is as great at Cairo as at Khartoum Its mission is not yet accomplished,—it is waiting patiently to be the road to civilise Africa. But it is not an Eastern nation, and not the Mahommedan religion, that can do it; and I am. one of those who hope awl, believe that Providence will destine it for England. An English Government and a handful of Englishmen could do it and could keep it." The' passages will be found, with other like words, on pp. 63-65 of a " Ride Through the Nubian Desert."—I am, Sir, &c.,
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