1. That the Mahdi made a trial of marching down the Nile
and speedily abandoned it, even in the first flush of his success.
2. That cessation of operations in the Soudan does not at this
moment mean our military inaction in the East. 3. That the
question is one of conflict, not with the arms of an enemy, but
with Nature in respect of climate and supply. 4. There remains
also a grave question of justice, to which I shall revert.

Should the idea of proceeding to Khartoum be abandoned, the
railway from Suakin, as now projected, would fall with it, since
it was adopted as a military measure, subsidiary to the advance on
Khartoum. The prosecution of it as a civil or commercial
enterprise would be a new proposal, to be examined on its merits.

The military situation appears in some respects favourable to the
re-examination of the whole subject. The general has found himself
unable to execute his intention of taking Berber, and this failure
alters the basis on which the cabinet proceeded in February, and
greatly increases the difficulty of the autumn enterprise. On the
one hand Wolseley's and Graham's forces have had five or six
considerable actions, and have been uniformly victorious. On the
other hand, the Mahdi has voluntarily retired from Khartoum, and
Osman Digna has been driven from the field, but cannot, as Graham
says, be followed into the mountains.(325) While the present
situation may thus seem opportune, the future of more extended
operations is dark. In at least one of his telegrams, Wolseley has
expressed a very keen desire to get the British army out of the
Soudan.(326) He has now made very large demands for the autumn
expedition, which, judging from previous experience and from
general likelihood, are almost certain to grow larger, as he comes
more closely to confront the very formidable task before him;
while in his letter to Lord Hartington he describes this affair to
be _the greatest __"__since 1815,__"_ and expresses his hope that
all the members of the cabinet clearly understand this to be the
case. He also names a period of between two or three years for the
completion of the railway, while he expresses an absolute
confidence in the power and resources of this country with vast
effort to insure success. He means without doubt military success.
Political success a