of taking
Egyptian soil by pinches. We may seize an Aden and a Perim, where is no
already formed community of inhabitants, and circumscribe a tract at will.
But our first site in Egypt, be it by larceny or be it by emption, will be
the almost certain egg of a North African empire, that will grow and grow
until another Victoria and another Albert, titles of the lake-sources of
the White Nile, come within our borders; and till we finally join hands
across the equator with Natal and Cape Town, to say nothing of the
Transvaal and the Orange River on the south, or of Abyssinia or Zanzibar
to be swallowed by way of viaticum on our journey."(45) It was one of the
ironies in which every active statesman's life abounds, that the author of
that forecast should have been fated to take his country over its first
marches towards this uncoveted destination.

I

For many months after Mr. Gladstone formed his second ministry, there was
no reason to suppose that the Egyptian branch of the eastern question,
which for ever casts its (M28) perplexing shadow over Europe, was likely
to give trouble. The new Khedive held a regularly defined position, alike
towards his titular sovereign at Constantinople, towards reforming
ministers at Cairo, towards the creditors of his state, and towards the
two strong European Powers who for different reasons had the supervision
of Egyptian affairs in charge. The oppression common to oriental
governments seemed to be yielding before western standards. The load of
interest on a profligate debt was heavy, but it was not unskilfully
adjusted. The rate of village usury was falling, and the value of land was
rising. Unluckily the Khedive and his ministers neglected the grievances
of the army, and in January 1881 its leaders broke out in revolt. The
Khedive, without an armed force on whose fidelity he could rely, gave way
to the mutineers, and a situation was created, familiar enough in all
oriental states, and not unlike that in our own country between Charles
I., or in later days the parliament, and the roundhead troopers: anger and
revenge in the breast of the affronted civil ruler, distrust and dread of
punishment in the mind of the soldiery. During the autumn (1881) the
crisis grew more alarming. The Khedive showed neither energy nor tact; he
neither calmed the terror of the mutineers nor crushed them.
Insubordination in the army began to affect the civil population, and a
national party came into op