ENGLAND, FRANCE, AND EGYPT. 109 



career of intervention in Egypt, the known and felt jealousy, approach- 

 ing almost to the veiled hostility of France, in consequence of our 

 invasion and occupation of Egypt, should have been sufficient, in 

 itself, to have convinced Mr. Gladstone, and his colleagues, of the 

 unwisdom of a prolonged occupation. 



Between annexation and occupation, there cannot be a middle 

 course, and certainly occupation, without responsibility and control, 

 was an absurd, and, as it afterwards proved, a disastrous policy. 



Lord Granville, in. January, 1883, declared in his despatch 

 to the Great Powers, the determination of England to retain a British 

 force in Egypt for the restoration of law and order. Could anything be 

 more illogical, or more dangerous, than to shirk the responsibility of 

 controlling, and directing, during that occupation, the internal and 

 external policy of the Government of Egypt ? 



This was the supreme moment of the crisis in Eg)^t, and from 

 that one false step, committed by the Governrnent of England, under 

 the plea of irresponsibility, must be dated the succession of appalling 

 disasters, and humiliating blunders which marked, nay, which have 

 disgraced, the policy of England in Eg)fpt. 



To realise fully the position, it is necessary to give the facts re- 

 specting the conquest of the Soudan, and its relations with Egypt, 

 which can be done in a few words. 



It was under the Khediviate of Mehemet Ali, that his General, 

 Ibrahim Pasha, carried the flag of the " Crescent and the Cross,'' as 

 far as Kordofan and Sennaar, and when (in succession to Mehemet, 

 Ali, Aba Pasha, and Said Pasha) Ismail Pasha became Khedive, the 

 conquest of the Soudan, under the pretext of freedom for the slave, 

 was complete, and Colonel Gordon, afterwards General Gordon, was 

 appointed its first Governor-General. 



Under the wise and humane rule of this remarkable man, the 

 Soudan was regenerated, and the Soudanese, so long oppressed, 

 looked forward to a brighter, and higher standard of Government, 

 than they had ever enjoyed. 



But, alas ! for the instability of human affairs. When Ismail fell, 

 Gordon was recalled, and another " King arose in Egypt, that knew not 

 Joseph," And the result was, when Gordon was recalled, the Soudanese 

 were handed over to the rapacity and cruelty of the Circassians, 

 and Bashi-Bazouks, those anti-human species of Eastern barbarism. 



What wonder is it, then, that when the echoes of freedom reverber- 

 ated to the Equator, when the Soudanese heard of Arabi's heroic 

 stand for liberty at Alexandria, and T,el-el-Kebir, they longed for a.. 



