Ever since the conquest of Egypt by the British,
as long ago as 1882, Anglo-Saxon institutions have been gaining
ground from the Nile to the Euphrates, and from the Euphrates to
the Indus. Soon after the great stroke of diplomacy in 1887, by
which Great Britain practically became ruler of all this vast
territory, the railroad was introduced, and before many years had
passed the railroad system of Europe was linked with that of India.
The pent-up riches of the fertile Euphrates valley thenceforth
began to find channels of commerce, and to be distributed through
less fertile regions. The ancient historic cities of these lands,
Damascus especially, began at once to increase. Jerusalem, as soon
as the Turk departed and the Anglo-Saxon entered, was purified,
cleansed, and finally rebuilt. Great numbers of Jews from all parts
of the world then returned and gave the city the benefit of their
wealth, but all the commerce of the East keeps in the hands of
Britons and Americans. English is, therefore, the chief language
spoken from Beyrout to Bombay.

There is, however, a great cloud hanging over the East which causes
dismay to thinking men, and threatens to mar the general prosperity
of all the lands. Great as has been the increase of the Anglo-Saxon
race, the numbers of the Sclavonic race have kept pace. The Sclavs,
unfortunately, retain much of their old brutish disposition and
ferocity in the midst of all the civilizing influences of modern
times, so that statesmen foresee an inevitable collision in the
not distant future between the Sclav and the Anglo-Saxon. It is
disheartening in these days of splendid progress, when we had
hoped that war was for ever banished from the world, to find that
humanity has yet to endure the old horrors once more. How fearful
these horrors will be, and how great the destruction of life, it is
hardly possible to conceive, so terrible are the forces at man's
command nowadays, if he uses them simply for destructive purposes.
The Sclav has spread from South-Eastern Europe and multiplied
greatly in Asia, till his boundaries are coterminous with British
territory, and it is his inveterate aggressive disposition which
causes all the gloomy forebodings. Before we return to our own
happy Canada, let us glance at Africa, the "dark continent" of the
last century. Civilization has long penetrated to the upper waters
of the Nile, and to the great fresh water lakes which rival our
Huron and Superior. The be