France was more natural. She had made the Suez Canal,
and had participated in the Dual Control; but her mistake in not sharing
in the work of restoring order was irreparable. Every one in Egypt saw
that the control of that country must rest with the Power which had
swept away Arabi's Government and re-established the fallen authority
of the Khedive. A few persons in England, even including one member of
the Gladstone Administration, Mr. Courtney, urged a speedy withdrawal;
but the Cabinet, which had been unwillingly but irresistibly drawn thus
far by the force of circumstances, could not leave Egypt a prey to
anarchy; and, clearly, the hand that repressed anarchy ruled the country
for the time being. It is significant that on April 4, 1883, more than
2600 Europeans in Egypt presented a petition begging that the British
occupation might be permanent[374].

[Footnote 374: Sir A. Milner, _England in Egypt_, p. 31.]

Mr. Gladstone, however, and others of his Cabinet, had declared that it
would be only temporary, and would, in fact, last only so long as to
enable order and prosperity to grow up under the shadow of new and
better institutions. These pledges were given with all sincerity, and
the Prime Minister and his colleagues evidently wished to be relieved
from what was to them a disagreeable burden. The French in Egypt, of
course, fastened on these promises, and one of their newspapers, the
_Journal Egyptien_, printed them every day at the head of its front
columns[375]. Mr. Gladstone, who sought above all things for a friendly
understanding with France, keenly felt, even to the end of his career,
that the continued occupation of Egypt hindered that most desirable
consummation. He was undoubtedly right. The irregularity of England's
action in Egypt hampered her international relations at many points; and
it may be assigned as one of the causes that brought France into
alliance with Russia.

[Footnote 375: H.F. Wood, _Egypt under the British_, p. 59 (1896).]

What, then, hindered the fulfilment of Mr. Gladstone's pledges? In the
first place, the dog-in-the-manger policy of French officials and
publicists increased the difficulties of the British administrators who
now, in the character of advisers of the Khedive, really guided him and
controlled his Ministers. The scheme of administration adopted was in
the main that advised by Lord Dufferin in his capacity of Special
Envoy. The details, however, are too wide and comp