t. In the long run circumstances proved
too strong for it, and it had to undertake a great deal more than it
originally intended. Each little change in the administration engendered
a multitude of others, so that the modest attempts at reform were found
to be like the letting out of water. A tiny rill gradually became a
boisterous stream, and the boisterous stream grew into a great river,
which spread to all sections of the administration and ended by
inundating the whole country.

The Sudan question.

Of the numerous questions awaiting solution, the first to claim
immediate attention was that of the Sudan. The British government had
begun by excluding it from the problem, and by declaring that for events
in these outlying territories it must not be held responsible. In that
sphere of activity, therefore, the Egyptian government might do as it
thought fit. The principle of limited liability which this attitude
assumed was soon found to be utterly untenable. The Sudan was an
integral part of the khedive's dominions, and caused, even in ordinary
times, a deficit of L200,000 to the Egyptian treasury. At that moment
it was in a state of open rebellion, stirred up by a religious fanatic
who proclaimed himself a mahdi of Islam. An army of 10,000 men under an
English officer, Colonel William Hicks, formerly of the Bombay army,
otherwise Hicks Pasha, had been sent to suppress the revolt, and had
been annihilated in a great battle fought on the 5th of November 1883,
near Obeid. The Egyptian government wished to make a new attempt to
recover the lost province, and the idea was certainly very popular among
the governing class, but Sir Evelyn Baring vetoed the project on the
ground that Egypt had neither soldiers nor money to carry it out. In
vain the khedive and his prime minister, Sherif Pasha, threatened to
resign, and the latter actually carried out his threat. The British
representative remained firm, and it was decided that the Sudan should
be, for the moment at least, abandoned to its fate. Nubar, though as
strongly opposed to the abandonment policy as Sherif, consented to take
his place and accepted somewhat reluctantly the new regime, which he
defined as "the administration of Egypt under the government of Baring."
By this time the Mahdi was master of the greater part of the Sudan, but
Khartum and some other fortified points still held out. The efforts made
to extricate the garrisons, including the mission of General