Egyptian Sudan 60 The seventh article of the agreement of January 19, 1899, between Egypt and England, immediately gave great political importance to Monsieur Courdjean, the French political representative in Cairo. We have no need at the end of this chapter to mention Gladstone's speech in 1877 about England's determination to occupy Egypt and extend its authority over Sudan. He said in an article published in the Nineteenth Century magazine in September of that year: "If our feet tread Egypt, it will be a good seed for the establishment of our North African empire, then we will cross the White Nile and the Blue Nile to the equator, and from there extend our hands to Natal and the Cape, and reach Abyssinia on our way." What they are continuing today, they laid its foundations long ago, resorting to force, and by force alone, with no difference between Liberals and Conservatives, and Gladstone, whose words we cite, is the undisputed leader of their Liberals.