THE MILITARY DICTATORSHIP. 275 and for this purpose alone, he was authorized " to land a force if required, such force not to leave protection of ships' guns without instructions from home."

The first step in the mutiny, which had placed the welfare of Egypt, the interests of her creditors, and the safety of her foreign residents at the mercy of a military dictatorship, had been taken on the nth of February, 1881. It was not till the 29th of May, 1882, that the Governments represented by the Dual Control took any action to uphold their authority in Egypt; and even then this action was little more than a naval demonstration. The perusal of the Blue Books, cTin taining the correspondence which passed between/ Downing Street and the Quai d'Orsay during these fifteen momentous months, when the fate of Egypt was hanging in the balance, does not support the theory that our diplomacy was directed by an astute and deliberate design to acquire possession of the valley of the Nile. There is something almost pathetic in Lord Granville's persistent anxiety to avoid committing himself to any definite line of action. His favourite suggestion was that Turkey should be requested to put down the revolt, either by sending a Turkish general to restore discipline in| the Egyptian army, or, if the presence of a general was h not deemed sufficient, by despatching a Turkish army | to Egypt, accompanied by an English and a French 'l officer, whose duty it would be to see that the I Turkish system of restoring discipline was not in to flagrant opposition to European ideas. It was only"