THE NEW DEPARTURE IN EGYPT.
THE Government has shown great decision in its arrange- ments for the defence of Egypt, and great want of decision in its arrangements for governing the country. It required nerve, not to say audacity, to insist on the abandon- ment of the Soudan and the withdrawal of the boundary to the Second Cataract. We profess not to govern Egypt, but only to maintain order there, and in such circumstances to order the Khedive to give up five-sixths of his nominal dominion, and a considerable portion of his actual dominion —for he did reign in Khartoum—was, to say the least of it, a strong resolve. "Europe," moreover, was pretty sure not to approve the decision. Europe is always willing to enjoy in- fluence and trade in wild regions governed at somebody else's expense, and in this instance rather enjoyed the prospect of seeing Great Britain involved in a gigantic and quite un- remunerative undertaking. Prince Bismarck would like to see everybody, except himself, entangled in Africa ; France is sullenly spiteful about English influence in Cairo ; and the remaining Powers, Italy especially, have a general idea that there is money to be made in the Soudan, if England would kindly keep a corps d'armee there. Lastly, the Egyptian Ministry, on receiving such an order, was sure to resign. The leading Pashas have for years been in league with the slave- dealers, and have grown rich out of the league ; the Ministry feared to become unpopular with their own class ; and the Government as a body was sick of the incessant and, as they think, senseless English interference. What are Fellahs to Mr. Clifford Lloyd, that he should worry Pashas to death by remonstrances against false imprisonment and torture ? Nobody is torturing him or his kinsfolk, and for whom else should a sen- sible man interfere Nevertheless, the British Cabinet insisted, and after a struggle with the Khedive, who, in spite of his pretty speeches, is as angry as his nature allows him to be, they were obeyed. The orders to abandon the Soudan were issued, the Ministry were allowed to resign, and a new Ministry was appointed, with a definite understanding that they are always to act in accordance with the advice of Sir Evelyn Baring and their English Under-Secretaries,—Mr. Vincent, Mr. Clifford Lloyd, and Colonel Moncrieff. Nubar Pasha, the Premier, an astute and unscrupulous Armenian, who understands modern ways, and makes money without committing cruelties, is to be cloak to Sir Evelyn Baring ; Fehmy Pasha, as Finance Minister, to Mr. Vincent ; another Pasha, as Minister of the Interior, to Mr. Clifford Lloyd ; and a fourth, as Minister of Public :Works, to Colonel Moncrieff. In every department there is an Egyptian on £3,000 a year to be puppet, and an Englishman on £2,000 a year to pull his strings.
As regards the boundary, the British Government is, we believe, entirely in the right. Egypt, crushed by the demands of the Jew Financial Rings, which are now sanctioned by international compacts, has not the strength to reconquer the Soudan. Her native soldiers are either unable or unwilling to face the revolted tribes, and she has not the money either to raise sufficient mercenaries or to buy the Sheikhs, if indeed, amidst the excitement caused by the Mandi's victories, they are any longer to be bought. Expeditions sent into the interior would only be cut up, while the stationary garrisons, as Colonel Coetlogon officially reports from Khartoum, are
hopelessly unreliable. The work, therefore, if it is to be done at all, must be done from India, and to despatch an Indian corps d'armee to conquer El Obeid would be a wicked waste of human life and treasure. We could not hold the Soudan a month , after our troops retired, and where is a permanent army of occupation for so vast and
poverty-stricken a region to come from Will Parliament vote £2,000,000 a year for the 20,000 men required, or are we to take the money from the burdened peasantry of India I The project was too foolish for anybody but a Jingo Clubman, and as it could not be attempted, it was indispensable, what- ever the consequent troubles, to say so with decision. This has been done, and well done ; but the reorganisation which necessarily followed has not been well designed. Nubar Pasha is able, but he is hated by the Pashas, is a thorough self-seeker, and is an adept in devising " refcrms " which
leave all serious evils untouched. He will not be heartily obeyed, and, rich as he has become, he will be by no means sorry, when the storm thickens, to resign. The single good of him is that, being an Armenian, he rather chuckles at seeing Mussulman Ministers reduced to servitude, and admits that the English rule with almost cynical plain- ness, telling the Standard's correspondent, for instance, when he asked for " the Minister of Finance" (Fehmy Pasha), that " Mr. Vincent had just gone out." The remaining Ministers are mere Pashas, who, so far as they dare, will thwart their Under-Secretaries ; while the latter will feel degraded by the necessity of appearing to take the orders of men whom they know to be either untrustworthy or recalcitrant. These Ministers, too, whatever the " understanding," can thwart the Europeans, if they please, for they know the country, they understand its people, and they can threaten all underlings with torture, to be inflicted as soon as the English retire. That is a valid threat, too, for Pashadom forms a corporation ; and an enraged Asiatic does not relent from his purposes of vengeance like an English squire. Shimei must be slain, if it be under a new King and at the horns of the altar. The divorce between actual power and nominal power is not understood in the East, where the weakest Sovereign can always execute the strongest Pre- mier ; and the arrangement will either prove useless or openly give way, the Ministers resigning when called on to carry out any unpopular reform. It is believed, for ex- ample, that the British Government intends, most rightly though inconsistently, to abolish slavery. Nubar will not mind that ; but the Ministry, who know that the order, if honestly carried oat, means the extinction of the present harem system, and a social revolution, will most certainly resign, leaving all the work to be done over again. The Europeans must be made Ministers at last, and might as well be appointed at first, more especially as the chief of them is avowedly a Christian.
Besides, and here we raise a question which Mr. Gladstone should seriously consider, is all this trickery or make-believe worthy of a Government like ours I Either we intend to rule Egypt temporarily, or we do not. If we do not, it is most unjust to hamper the Egyptian Ministry with European con- trollers, and to burden the Egyptian Treasury with their use- less salaries. If we do, why can we not be frank, and stand forward as rulers, stating, if necessary, that such rule is in- tended to continue only for a defined time ? There would be much more truthfulness in that course, and the Egyptian Government would be much more energetic, while Europe would see no difference, or rather would welcome the material pros- perity which would instantly arise in Egypt. Intrigue and pecu- lation and menace would be over at once, and the four British Ministers could devote themselves to a radical reorganisation which would at least rescue the country temporarily from its slough. We cannot see who would be offended by such frankness, while we can see that Englishmen condemned to seem subordinates while they really rule have half at least of their force taken out of them. Englishmen never work well in such circumstances, even when the superiors are also Englishmen, but when they are Asiatic Mussulmans the capacity for work is half-destroyed by loathing. We understand entirely the desire to respect a nationality and to govern Egypt through Egyptians, and are quite willing to go on trying to do it ; but when that is given up, when it is acknowledged that we must interfere, and that Englishmen must be the real rulers even in detail, we do not understand these fictions, which suit neither the national ways
nor the national character. A despotic government can manage a comedy such as is now to be played in Cairo, but in a Parliamentary Government everything comes out, and the Ministry will be held responsible for every act of the Egyptian Home Office; while Mr. Clifford Lloyd will report that though he is never resisted, he never gets his way. let him be Minister for five years, and he would get it without friction, to the infinite relief of all men in Egypt, excepting the Pashas.
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