Note, as a remarkable indication of the awing in opinion
about Egypt, that the Pall Mall Gazette, which has been con- sistently forward in urging evacuation, now admits that it may be indispensable for the British Government to govern Egypt Proper directly for a time. The Egyptian Government is paralysed, our contemporary says, by fear of the Mandi, and will either expend its whole resources in an effort to reconquer the Soudan, or, if we forbid that course, will " strike," and leave us to govern Egypt as we may. That is very probable, and we shall be fortunate if we escape a rising as an accom- paniment of the strike, but we are a little surprised to see that the Pall Mall regards the contingency without alarm. Does it really imagine that if we take the control, and give Egypt sound finance, civil order, and a new tenure—the very first things we must do—we shall throw all into disorder again by retiring? The Pall Mall is as likely to make "pie " of its columns after they have been set up, and before printing them. We have, however, if the Khedive abdicates, one alternative,—the appoint- ment of an able Regent during his son's minority. It is a bad one, but it is there.
