vi PREFACE.

Egypt as a source of peril to her Empire. The extravagance of Ismail Pasha, and the indebtedness

which Egypt, under his reign, contracted abroad, necessitated International intervention by the Euro-

pean creditors. The Arabi mutiny led to the massacres of Alexandria, and to the armed inter-

vention of Great Britain. The campaign, which ended at Tel-el- Kebir, brought about the military occupation of Egypt by British troops. The occupa-

tion, which was intended to be temporary, became permanent, owing to the insurrection of the Mahdi in the Soudan. The necessity of rendering Egypt capable of defending herself against external attack and internal disturbance led England to undertake

the reorganization of Egypt under British supervision. The system of supervision developed, by the logic of facts, into British administration ; and finally the reconquest of the Soudan by the Anglo-Egyptian army converted our nominal control into a virtual

Protectorate.

It has seemed to me that a consecutive narrative

of the events, which, under the Khedivate, has rendered

England the permanent Power in Egypt, has not yet been given. It has seemed to me also that my

personal acquaintance with the personages by whom,

willingly or unwillingly, consciously or unconsciously, British authority has been made supreme in Egypt, gave me special facilities for writing such a narrative. Whether I have succeeded or failed in giving an intelligible account of a very curious chapter of