104 EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.

join the hordes of the false prophet in order to secure themselves; the whole country would be left to utter anarchy, and Egypt itself would be menaced. When the Egyptian garrisons and Egyptian government were removed, and he himself would be preparing to relinquish the arduous task that he had undertaken, who would consent to administer the government of the country? Who would be there to protect the people who had acted loyally towards him, and aided him with money, service, and provisions, in the expectation that they were not to be deserted and left to the exactions and retaliations of a conquering rebel, who claimed an authority above that of khedive and sultan, and behind whom were the worst of the petty kings, whose power needed to be checked by a native authority which would be recognized and accepted even though it should be opposed to the claims and the pretensions of the false prophet ?

These were the reflections that were constantly present to Gordon, and he could find no adequate solution for them except in the appointment of Zebehr. The necessity again confronted him almost at the moment he entered Khartum, for on the iSth of February he telegraphed: "In a previous memorandum I alluded to the arrival of an epoch when whites, fellaheen, troops, civilian employes, women and children of deceased soldiers, in short the Egyptian element in the Soudan, will be removed; when we shall be face to face with the Soudan administration, and when I must withdraw from the Soudan. I have stated that to withdraw without being able to place a successor in my seat would be the signal for general anarchy throughout the country, which, though all Egyptian element was withdrawn, would be a misfortune, and inhuman. Even if I placed a man in my seat unsupported by any government, the same anarchy would ensue.

Her majesty's government could, I think, without responsibility in money or men, give the commission to my successor on certain terms which I will detail hereafter.

If this solution is examined, we shall find that a somewhat analogous case exists in Afghanistan, where her majesty's government give moral support to the ameer, and go even beyond