The Egyptian Problem

i MEHEMET ALT: CREATOR OF MODERN EGYPT 11
and 1870, and whose favourite pupil, von der Goltz, became the chief instrument and to some extent the inspirer of William II's fateful determination to use Turkey as " Germany's bridgehead to world dominion." But Nezib w#s a Pyrrhic victory for Ibrahim. Palmerston had come to regard Mehemet Ali as a danger to the peace of Europe in general and to British interests in particular. He ascribed his bold front, not altogether without reason, to French encouragement. For Mehemet Ali was putting forward the claim with which Egypt has been once more ringing—the claim to " complete independence." This was too much for Palmerston. " The more I reflect/' he wrote to Bulwer, the British Ambassador in Paris, " the more I am convinced that there can be no permanent settlement without making Mehemet Ali withdraw into his original shell of Egypt." He was prepared to compel his withdrawal, even if it meant a breach with France, though he was at one moment willing to accept a compromise which would have left Mehemet Ali in possession of Palestine. But the Pasha preferred to build upon the promise of French support, until it finally failed him with the retirement of Thiers and the appointment in his stead of Guizot, who flinched from the prospect of France's isolation. For England, Austria, and Russia were now at one with Turkey to drive the Egyptians out of the whole of Syria. Ibrahim conducted another gallant but losing campaign. The capture of Acre from the Turks had been the initial feat of arms of his victorious advance into Syria and Asia Minor in 1832. In 1839 he lost it back to a Turkish force supported by British and Austrian ships, and a few days later began the disastrous evacuation which ended Mehemet Ali's dream of empire outside Egypt.
Nevertheless, he snatched one brand from the burning. At the price of an abject letter of submission, all the more bitter for" him to write as it had to be addressed to his old implacable enemy, Khusrev, he obtained from the Sultan with the consent of the Powers, in return fort Ali's leaningse and strained the resources ofne to death in the streets of the capital. Egypt wasit in Egypt. Within the first year of the Occupation