NATIONAL LIFE IN A MUSSITLMAN COUNTRY.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPEOTATOR."1
S111,—In his able speech at Ripon last Monday Mr. Goschen said that "even M. Gambetta, Liberal as he was, was utterly unable to persuade himself for one moment that anything- could be done in the direction of developing national life in a Mussulman country." Mr. Gcechen himself seems to be of a different opinion, and his special acquaintance with-the Mussul- man system gives great authority to whatever he says on that .subject. But does not history bear out M. Gambetta's view
Is there an instance on record of a national life, developed under Mussulman rule I) I do not know of one. Islam has ever-been fatal to freedom and civilisation. Lord Ripon's laudable efforts to develope self-government in India are not in point, for in, India the paramount Power is not Mohammedan ; and that makes a radical difference. A Massulman ruler, wielding- independent sway, must govern in accordance with the tenets of the Sacred Law of Islam; and that law, wherever it prevails, is an insuperable barrier against human progress. Its inevitable- tendency is towards the extinction of national life and the absorption of all its votaries in one vast cosmopolitan theocracy.- The true Mussulman acknowledges only one conntry,—Dar-ul- Islam, the home of Islam. _ I do not urge this as a reason why England should undertake' the government of Egypt, for this country has no special mission to reform Mussulman territories. But it is well to- cherish no illusions. Egypt under uncontrolled Mussulman rule will be no exception to Mussulman rule all over the world.
Every Mussulman State, as Amari says, "bears the germ of inevitable dissolution in its system ;" and the progress in Egypt under Mussulman rule will not be towards nationalism, but towards decay, tyranny, and anarchy.—I am, Sir, &a., MALcotm MAcCoLt.
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