way, and have got on a wrong track by sending their ironclads to
Alexandria, and now, finding that there is nothing to be done, they want
the rest of Europe to help them out of their difficulty by means of a
Conference[364]."

[Footnote 363: Morley, _Life of Gladstone_, iii. p. 79.]

[Footnote 364: _Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History_, vol. iii.
p. 51.]

Already, on May 27, the Egyptian malcontents had ventured on a great
military demonstration against the Khedive, which led to Arabi being
appointed Minister of War. His followers also sought to inflame the
hatred to foreigners for which the greed of Greek and Jewish usurers was
so largely responsible. The results perhaps surpassed the hopes of the
Egyptian nationalists. Moslem fanaticism suddenly flashed into flame.
On the nth of June a street brawl between a Moslem and a Maltese led to
a fierce rising. The "true believers" attacked the houses of the
Europeans, secured a great quantity of loot, and killed about fifty of
them, including men from the British squadron. The English party that
always calls out for non-intervention made vigorous efforts at that
time, and subsequently, to represent this riot and massacre as a mere
passing event which did not seriously compromise the welfare of Egypt;
but Sir Alfred Milner in his calm and judicial survey of the whole
question states that the fears then entertained by Europeans in Egypt
"so far from being exaggerated, . . . perhaps even fell short of the
danger which was actually impending[365]."

[Footnote 365: _England in Egypt_, p. 16. For details of the massacre
and its preconcerted character, sec Parl. Papers, Egypt, No. 4 (1884).]

The events at Alexandria and Tantah made armed intervention inevitable.
Nothing could be hoped for from Turkey. The Sultan's special envoy,
Dervish Pasha, had arrived in Egypt only a few days before the outbreak;
and after that occurrence Abdul Hamid thought fit to send a decoration
to Arabi. Encouraged by the support of Turkey and by the well-known
jealousies of the Powers, the military party now openly prepared to defy
Europe. They had some grounds for hope. Every one knew that France was
in a very cautious mood, having enough on her hands in Tunis and
Algeria, while her relations to England had rapidly cooled[366].
Germany, Russia, and Austria seemed to be acting together according to
an understanding arrived at by the three Emperors after their meeting at
Danzig in 1881; and Ger