26o EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.

protect the boundaries of Egypt proper at Wady Haifa and the Red Sea littoral, where Colonel Chermside, the governor-general, had a number of Egyptian troops, our forces were being gradually but rapidly withdrawn from the Nile and the desert stations; and the war in Egypt and the Soudan was, so far as we were concerned, virtually at an end, though our few remaining troops had still to take part in occasional hostilities.

It was evident that government no longer contemplated either a continued occupation of any portion of the Soudan provinces or the retention of any large bodies of troops in Egypt itself The financial condition of the Egyptian government was not such as to warrant the maintenance of a foreign force, and though, on the 24th of March, the chancellor of the exchequer moved for leave to bring in a bill to sanction the participation of the English government in an international Egyptian loan of .£9,000,000, and the bill was passed through the Lords' committee a month afterwards, the tenure of the Liberal ministry was drawing to a close.

In the month of June Lord Salisbury's government succeeded to office, and the then impending general election took place in August, the Conservatives returning to power in the new parliament.

When once the policy of evacuating the Soudan and Dongola and gradually withdrawing troops from Egypt had been declared there was a considerable movement of our forces. The Black Watch went to Wady Haifa, and other changes were made which left Sir F. Stephenson, who was in command in Egypt, a much-diminished army with which to operate at various points. At Suakim some efforts were made to induce the friendly and neutral tribes to give allegiance to the British, and, of course, it was determined to hold Suakim though the landing of railway plant and material was suspended. Lord Wolseley had as early as the i6th of April sent a long despatch to Lord Hartington remonstrating against evacuating the Soudan and abandoning the intention of proceeding actively against the Mahdi or rather Mahdiism, and especially of retiring from the province of Dongola, the possession of which he (Lord Wolseley) declared meant supremacy and power. He concluded that as it was the intention of the government to maintain British garrisons in Egypt till such time as the country was strong enough to stand by itself, we were bound to prevent its falling a prey to the Mahdi or any other invader; and he argued that this could only be effectually achieved by advancing, as originally intended, and destroying his power in the neighbourhood of Khartum. He declared it to be his opinion that the struggle with Mahdiism must come sooner or later, and that, if we allowed all that had been done to go for nothing, and tried to stave off the final struggle for a few years, those years would be years of struggle and disturbance for Egypt, of burden and strain to our military resources, with the result that the contest that must come in the