THE MASSACRES OF ALEXANDRIA Difficulty of ascertaining truth about the massacres — Suspicion points to Arabi as particeps criminis — Arabi decorated by Sultan after the massacres — France declines joining England in any armed intervention, and recalls her fleet.

If truth lies at the bottom of a well, it may be safely asserted that the well, wherein lies concealed the real truth about any popular outbreak, must be of the very deepest order. When the outbreak is mixed up with questions of race and creed, the impossibility of ascertaining what actually did take place becomes more hopeless than ever. Those among my readers who "remember Mitchelstown," and recollect the utter conflict of evidence as to what occurred in the conflict between the Home Rule demonstrators and the Irish constabulary, will probably be able to realize the impossibility of solving the far more complicated problem as to what was the true character of the Alexandria massacres of the nth of June, 1882. \ The question, how many people were actually / killed in the riots, is never likely to be answered, v The broad fact, however, that a number of Europeans ;' were suddenly attacked in the streets by a mob of \