There is no news of importance from Egypt, except that
General Baker has gone to Trinkitat with 3,000 Nubians, who are disaffected, and Egyptians, who will run away, to cut his way to Tokar. He is quite right, for delay in his position is de- struction; but the chances in favour of the annihilation of his force in the hills where Captain Moncrieff was killed are as three to one. He may, however, have bought over a tribe, and it is reported that the anxiety of the Sheikhs to avoid fighting each other, and so raising a new crop of blood-feuds just when they want to be united, is very great. General Gordon has seen the Khedive, has been appointed by him Governor-General of the Soudan, and has by the latest telegrams passed Assouan. His progress will not be facilitated by an indiscretion for which Renter's Agency deserve severe blame. They have very accu- rate intelligence from Cairo, the best very often which reaches us ; but their managers ought to have had the sense to suppress the statement about the money with General Gordon. Of course he has money with him, if only to pay troops, but to announce that fact, with details, is to invite every Sheikh on his route and every scoundrelly European—and Egypt literally swarms with white villains, to whom Carey was a gentleman—to murder him for his cash. Fortunately, the General is a Puritan, and not a humanitarian, and the certainty that an assassin, if he fails, will have within five minutes to explain himself in the next world, will have a highly conservative effect. That kind of villain, whether " Christian " or Mussulman, is never sure that his explanation will be satisfactory.
