It can hardly be doubted that the victory of Tel-el-Kebir
has saved Europe from a ghastly contest with the whole Mahom- medan world. We mentioned last week that the Moors in western Algeria on hearing the news gave up plans of insurrec- tion, and information comes in day by day showing the deep ex- citement of the Mussulman world. It is believed that in Mecca the new Khalif has been proclaimed. In Syria, and especially Damascus, the Christians were trembling for their lives, and the Mahommedaus were so convinced of Arabi's invincibility that they refused to believe the fall of Cairo. In Suda the Turkish soldiers collected for Egypt declared that they should join Arabi, whose success was openly desired in Constantinople, Even in the in- terior of Crete, where the Christians are a majority, they were threatened by the Moslem. The defeat of Sir Garnet Wolseley would have been followed by explosions which would have com- pelled Europe to begin a crusade. Had the British Govern- ment shrunk from its work, a million lives might have been lost in a movement which has been suppressed with an expenditure of less than six thousand. Nor is life the only thing that has been saved. Civilisation has been saved with it. "Civilisation" is a "vague" word, to European publicists ; but if they were dying in the citadel of Cairo under the tortures inflicted by Suleiman Zogheib, who is only an ordinary Asiatic in tem- porary power, they would recognise that it has at least one definite meaning. How many policemen here in England should we expend, to save Mr. Bright from being thumbscrewed
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