mport. Yet Arabi was its
spokesman, or figure-head, rather than the actual propelling power. He
seems to have been to a large extent the dupe of schemers who pushed him
on for their own advantage. At any rate it is significant that after his
fall he declared that British supremacy was the one thing needful for
Egypt; and during his old age, passed in Ceylon, he often made similar
statements[361].

[Footnote 360: Sir D.M. Wallace, _Egypt and the Egyptian Question_, p.
67.]

[Footnote 361: Mr. Morley says (_Life of Gladstone_, vol. iii. p. 73)
that Arabi's movement "was in truth national as well as military; it was
anti-European, and above all, it was in its objects anti-Turk."--In view
of the evidence collected by Sir D.M. Wallace, and by Lord Milner
(_England in Egypt_), I venture to question these statements. The
movement clearly was military and anti-Turk in its beginning. Later on
it sought support in the people, and became anti-European and to some
extent national; but to that extent it ceased to be anti-Turk. Besides,
why should the Sultan have encouraged it? How far it genuinely relied on
the populace must for the present remain in doubt; but the evidence
collected by Mr. Broadley, _How We Defended Arabi_ (1884), seems to show
that Arabi and his supporters were inspired by thoroughly patriotic and
enlightened motives.]

The Khedive's Ministers, hearing of the intrigues of the discontented
officers, resolved to arrest their chiefs; but on the secret leaking
out, the offenders turned the tables on the authorities, and with
soldiers at their back demanded the dismissal of the Minister of War and
the redress of their chief grievance--the undue promotion of Turks and
Circassians.

The Khedive felt constrained to yield, and agreed to the appointment of
a Minister of War who was a secret friend of the plotters. They next
ventured on a military demonstration in front of the Khedive's palace,
with a view to extorting the dismissal of the able and energetic Prime
Minister, Riaz Pasha. Again Tewfik yielded, and consented to the
appointment of the weak and indolent Sherif Pasha. To consolidate their
triumph the mutineers now proposed measures which would please the
populace. Chief among them was a plan for instituting a consultative
National Assembly. This would serve as a check on the Dual Control and
on the young Khedive, whom it had placed in his present
ambiguous position.

A Chamber of Notables met in the closing