They are politically hostile to the Sultan, and though they have no
design as yet of repudiating his Caliphal title, they are unlikely to be
faithful to his broken fortunes, and on the downfall of Constantinople
will doubtless proclaim a Caliph of their own. The family of Mohammed
Ali, if popular, may then hope for their suffrages, or it may be some
seyyid, or sherif, of the legitimate house of Koreysh. In any case, a
Caliphate at Cairo is a possibility which we must contemplate; and one
which, under the political direction and sole guarantee of England, but
enjoying full sovereignty there, might be a solution of the difficulty
acceptable to Mohammedans, and not unfavourable to English interests. It
seems to me, however, that it would be but a make-shift arrangement, not
a permanent settlement, and this from the complexity of foreign
interests in Egypt, which would keep the Mohammedan pontiff there under
restraints irksome to the religious sense of Mussulmans. It would be in
fact but the prelude to that final return to Arabia which Arabian
thought, if no other, destines for the Caliphate. The Sherif of Mecca
would hardly tolerate any further subjection to an Emir el Mumenin shorn
of his chief attributes of power, and unable, it might be, any longer to
enforce his authority.
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