264 THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATK.

the Ministers, and high foreign officials, were absent from the capital, as the early part of September is the dead season at Cairo. In default of any other counsellor on whom he could rely, Tewfik "Pasha applied to the British Controller-General, who urged his Highness to refuse the demands of the insurgent soldiery, and to arrest Arabi, as their leader, on his presenting himself at the palace. With a courage worthy of his race, Mr. Colvin offered to stand by the Khedive, and share any risk the Khedive might encounter if Arabi declined to yield.

It is foolish to speculate on what might have happened if Tewfik had followed this advice. He was, as later events proved, by no means devoid of personal courage, but his courage was of a passive, not of an active, order. His instinct, save under very exceptional conditions, was to meet every difficulty by /postponement, not by action. After some hesitation, he resolved to temporize, and finding that Arabi would consent to withdraw his troops if the Ministry were dismissed, he agreed to the demands of the leaders of the mutiny, which were coupled with the express condition that the new Minister of War should not be a Circassian, and that no member of the reigning family should be included in the Ministry. Cherif Pasha, much against his will, consented to accept the presidency of the new administration, in which Mahmoud Sami resumed his old position of Minister of War. Order was thus restored for the time without any incident having occurred to justify the intervention of foreign Powers.