ssary. At the same time (June 1), M. de
Freycinet told the Chamber that there were various courses to which they
might be led, but he excluded one, and this was a French military
intervention. That declaration narrowed the case to a choice between
English intervention, or Turkish, or Anglo-Turkish, all of them known to
be profoundly unpalatable to French sentiment. Such was the end of Lord
Granville's prudent and loyal endeavour to move in step with France.

The next proposal from M. de Freycinet was a European conference, as
Prince Bismarck presumed, to cover the admissibility of Turkish
intervention. A conference was too much in accord with the ideas of the
British cabinet, not to be welcomed by them. The Turk, however, who now
might have had the game in his own hands, after a curious exhibition of
duplicity and folly, declined to join, and the conference at first met
without him (June 23). Then, pursuing tactics well known at all times at
Constantinople, the Sultan made one of his attempts to divide the Powers,
by sending a telegram to London (June 25), conferring upon England rights
of exclusive control in the administration of Egypt.

This Mr. Gladstone and Lord Granville declined without even consulting the
cabinet, as too violent an infraction, I suppose, of the cardinal
principle of European concert. The Queen, anxious for an undivided English
control at any price, complained that the question was settled without
reference to the cabinet, and here the Queen was clearly not wrong, on
doctrines of cabinet authority and cabinet responsibility that were
usually held by nobody more strongly than by the prime minister himself.

Mr. Gladstone and his cabinet fought as hard as they could, and for good
reasons, against single-handed intervention by Great Britain. When they
saw that order could not be re-established without the exercise of force
from without, they insisted that this force should be applied by the
Sultan as sovereign of Egypt. They proposed this solution to the
conference, and Lord Dufferin urged it upon the Sultan. With curious
infatuation (repeated a few years later) the Sultan stood aside. When it
became necessary to make immediate provision for the safety of the Suez
Canal, England proposed to undertake this duty conjointly with France, and
solicited the co-operation of any other Power. Italy was specially invited
to join. Then when the progress of the rebellion had broken the Khedive's
authority and