1 6 EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.

the results of the Bashi-Bazouk system, which excited so much

indignation some time ago in Bulgaria, will need to be told why

the people of the Soudan have risen in revolt against the khedive. The Turks, the Circassians, and the Bashi-Bazouks have plundered and oppressed the people in the Soudan, as they plundered and

oppressed them in the Balkan peninsula. Oppression begat dis-

content; discontent necessitated an increase of the armed force at

the disposal of the authorities; this increase of the army force involved an increase of expenditure, which again was attempted

to be met by increasing taxation, and that still further increased the discontent. And so things went on in a dismal circle until

they culminated, after repeated deficits, in a disastrous rebellion. That the people were justified in rebelling nobody who knows the treatment to which they were subjected will attempt to deny. Their cries were absolutely unheeded at Cairo. In despair they had recourse to the only method by which they could make their wrongs known; and, on the same principle that Absalom fired the

corn of Joab, so they rallied round the Mahdi, who exhorted them

to revolt against the Turkish yoke. I am convinced that it is an

entire mistake to regard the Mahdi as in any sense a religious

leader — he personifies popular discontent.

All the Soudanese are potential Mahdis, just as all the Egyptians are potential Arabis. The movement is not religious, but an outbreak of despair. Three times over I warned the late

khedive that it would be impossible to govern the Soudan on the

old system after my appointment to the governor-generalship. During the three years that I wielded full powers in the Soudan

I taught the natives that they had a right to exist. I waged war

against the Turks and Circassians who had harried the population.

I had taught them something of the meaning of liberty and justice, and accustomed them to a higher ideal of government than that

with which they had previously been acquainted. As soon as I had gone the Turks and Circassians returned in full force; the old

Bashi-Bazouk system was re-established; my old employes were persecuted; and a population which had begun to appreciate some-

thing like decent government was flung back to suffer the worst