The Prime Minister put his case, and quite rightly, in
very much lower and gentler terms than it might have been stated. We wonder whether there came into his mind the reflection which came to Cromwell on a similar occasion : " Every sect saith : Oh, give me liberty ! But give it him, and, to his power, he will not yield it to anybody else." Cromwell went on to say that liberty was a natural right and " he that would have it ought to give it." Egypt is all for self-deter- mination for herself ; but will not for a moment yield it to the Sudan, though it is notorious that the Sudanese infinitely prefer their present system of government. It was not out of any overstrained Imperialism that Lord Cromer, after the overthrow of the Mandi, insisted that the Sudan should not be annexed to Egypt but should remain under an administration which flew the British flag. It was the monstrous misgovernment and slave-hunting of the Egyptian Government which caused the unrest in the Sudan which led to the revolt of the Dervishes and the overthrow of the Egyptian Government. * *