748 



VICTORIA. 



the rebellious Pasha to yield. A treaty was signed 

 in 1S41 which left him his Egyptian, but took 

 a\vav liis Syrian possessions. In 1875 the Govern- 

 ment bought the shares of the Khedive of Egypt 

 in the Sue/ (anal, and Parliament voted 4,- 

 uso.ooO to pay for them. The measure was op- 

 po>cd l>v Mr. Gladstone and others of the Opposi- 

 tion. The Government explained that they had 

 negotiated the purchase, not as a financial invest- 

 ment, but as a political move for the purpose of 

 strengthening the empire. In 1876 France and 

 F.ngland interposed to secure the payment of the 

 delits that had been inclined by the Khedive, 

 l.-mail. the interest on the bonds not having been 

 met. The expenditures were placed under the 

 supervision of French and English comptrollers. 

 In 1880 an international Commission of Liquida- 

 tion was appointed. The debt amounted to about 

 $500.000.000. The loans had been negotiated with 

 English and French banking houses at from 7 to 

 9 per cent, interest, yet the Khedive had actually 

 received only about .">(! per cent, of the nominal 

 loans, the rest having gone in bankers' commissions 

 and the discount at which they were taken. The 

 annual interest and sinking-fund charges on the 

 nearly 33,000,000 owing in 1870 were about 12 

 per cent. Crops were pledged in advance and in- 

 terest mounted; the miserable ruler had to pay as 

 high as 28 per cent, for advances from the Anglo- 

 Egyptian Bank. The poor Egyptians were robbed 

 on every hand. A proposal to reduce the land tax 

 so that the people might live was rejected on behalf 

 of the bondholders. In February, 1879, the un- 

 paid army officers had mutinied. The Khedive 

 dismissed the European ministers, fearing, as he 

 said, a massacre. The English and French gov- 

 ernments retaliated by compelling the Sultan to 

 depose him and appoint his son Tewh'k to be 

 Khedive in his place. In 1880 the floating debt 

 was converted into bonds, the whole amounting 

 to 105,876,630. The Khedive had used the bor- 

 rowed money largely on public works, the Suez 

 Canal, the Nile canals, bridges, mills, docks, har- 

 bor improvements, lighthouses, waterworks, rail- 

 roads, and telegraphs ; he established public schools 

 and built opera houses and palaces. 



The salaries paid to foreign officials was one 

 source of discontent to the Egyptians. From a 

 report made in 1882 it appeared that the total 

 annual salaries to foreigners in public office was 

 :;7.!.4!)1 Egyptian pounds, and this and other 

 grievances gave ri>e to the so-called National 

 party. It did not seek to deny the obligation 

 of the debt, but complained of the employment 

 of foreigners at great salaries for work the natives 

 would have been glad to do for small ones; of 

 the exemption from taxation of the fine dwellings 

 nf Kiirnpeans while the poor huts of their neigh- 

 bors paid 12 per cent, on their valuation. 



An attempt at a constitutional government was 

 made, but the Assembly and the Khedive with 

 his counselors were at odds. The French and 

 Knglish sent squadrons to make a naval demon- 

 stration, to fortify the authority of the Khedive, 

 which anchored in the harbor of Alexandria. 

 Arabi Pasha, who stood for the National party, 

 was Minister of War. He was forced from the 

 Cabinet, but the Khedive was afterward compelled 

 to reinstate him. 



The powers interposed, and it is possible that 



rangements might have been made by which the 

 worst abuses complained of would have been done 

 away with, but the resentment of the long-suffer- 

 ing people broke out in a riot in Alexandria. An 

 was stnbbed in a fight by a Maltese; the 

 Arabs gathered in mobs and set upon the Euro- 

 peans, of whom about 70 were killed, while the 



number of slain Arabs amounted to over 600. 

 The Europeans fled. The army took possession. 

 The fact that the Egyptian soldiers were throwing 

 up earthworks and mounting guns was made the 

 occasion for action on the part of the British 

 squadron in the harbor, and the city was bom- 

 barded July 11, 1882. There was great loss of 

 life among the Egyptians, but the British lost 

 only 6 killed and 28 wounded. Arabi Pasha was 

 expelled from his office as Minister of War and 

 treated as a rebel, but he continued the hero of 

 the army and the people. 



A conference of representatives of the powers 

 had been going on for some time, but England 

 continued with preparations for war, and sent out 

 a force under Sir Garnet Wolseley, who arrived 

 Aug. 15. In a month the Egyptians were com- 

 pletely defeated. Arabi and two of his colleagues 

 were sentenced to death as rebels, but the sentence 

 was commuted to perpetual banishment. The 

 army of Egypt was reorganized under a British 

 officer. 



The rebellion in the Soudan under the leadership 

 of Mohammed Achmed, known as " the Mahdi." 

 began about 1881. In November, 1883, an Egyp- 

 tian army under Hicks Pasha was defeated near 

 El Obeid and completely annihilated; not a single 

 European came away alive. Again in February, 

 1884, Gen. Baker's Egyptian force, marching from 

 Trinkitat to Tokar to relieve the beleaguered gar- 

 rison there, was attacked near Suakim by a de- 

 tachment of Osman Digma's Arabs, defeated with 

 scarcely any resistance, and utterly annihilated as 

 a military force, with the loss of nearly two thirds 

 of its numbers. Meantime Gen. C. G. Gordon, 

 known as " Chinese Gordon," had been sent to the 

 Soudan, to report on the military situation there, 

 to take measures for the security of the Egyptian 

 garrisons and the safety of Europeans in Khar- 

 toum; also to consider what steps could be taken 

 " to counteract the stimulus which it is feared may 

 possibly be given to the slave trade by the present 

 insurrectionary movements." On the advice of the 

 British Government, Egypt had agreed to give up 

 her possessions in the Soudan except those border- 

 ing the Red Sea, and Gen. Gordon was to arrange 

 for the evacuation by the Egyptian troops in the 

 interior, and the restoration of their ancestral 

 powers to the chiefs who had been suspended from 

 them during the Egyptian occupation. 



His task of pacifying the Soudan was compli- 

 cated rather than forwarded by the campaign of 

 Gen. Graham against Osman Digma, in which 

 the Arabs were defeated at El Teb and Tamanieb. 

 Then Berber was taken by the rebels, who were 

 again repulsed at Dongola. 



The siege of Khartoum began about March, 

 1884, but Gen. Gordon found means to send dis- 

 patches, in which he asked for help and re-enforce- 

 ments, which he did not receive. After that the 

 town was so closely invested that it was difficult 

 to send dispatches; the siege was maintained for 

 seven months, all the dispatches received during 

 the time showing the desperate need of assistance. 

 This seems to have been delayed because the Gov- 

 ernment believed that he was not in accord with 

 their policy for evacuating the Soudan. They were 

 -everely criticised for their inaction, and have since 

 been held responsible for the sacrifice of Gen. Gor- 

 don. The truth seems to be that Mr. Gladstone's 

 Government were not in accord with the general 

 policy of England, which was particularly tangled 

 in regard to the all'airs of Kgypt. Mr. Gladstone 

 did not reeogni/e the right of the Anglo-Kgyptian 

 Government over the Soudanese apparently, and 

 it is possible that Gen. Gordon's proclamation at 

 the beginning of his Khartoum experience that he 



