THE ARABI MUTINY Origin of the mutiny — Wholesale reduction of army — Jealousy between Circassian and Egyptian officers— Understanding between Ismail and the discontented officers — Appointment of Mahmoud Sami as Minister of War— Order to arrest the "three colonels" — Troops intervene to prevent arrest — Emeute before Abdin palace.

Apart from the general causes of discontent to which I alluded in the last chapter, there were special reasons for the state of apprehension and distrust which prevailed throughout Egypt after the downfall of Ismail ('Pasha. The power of the Khedivate was necessarily < impaired. The authority of Europe, as embodied in C the Dual Control, was certainly not increased. To the Western mind, it might seem that the fact of Ismail having been dethroned because he had incurred the displeasure of England and France, would have augmented popular respect in Egypt for the might and strength of the Western Powers. To the* Eastern ' mind, the moral conveyed by the deposition was entirely different. England and France, as it seemed to the Egyptians, had failed in effecting the deposition } of Ismail Pasha, and it was only when the Sultan ( came forward and gave the word of command that the r