THE MASSACRES OF ALEXANDRIA. 283 had approved, if they had not actually initiated — having gone to further lengths than he had foreseen. Still the hard fact remains that this outbreak resulted in the brutal murder of some two score of Europeans, to take the lowest calculation, and that these crimes were attended with circumstances of exceptional atrocity. Two Englishmen, Mr. Ribton and Mr.

Pibworth, were literally done to death in the streets of Alexandria, and the British Consul, Mr. Qookson, was seriously wounded while proceeding to the police office, at the invitation of the Governor. For the murders committed on that black Sunday in Alexandria, Arabi was morally, if not legally, responsible. Of course Arabi repudiated all responsibility for the crimes committed by his partisans. Under his orders, a Commission of Inquiry was appointed to investigate the causes of the riots. The president o this Commission was Omar Pasha Lutfi, the then Governor of Alexandria, who, by his refusal to take immediate action in order to suppress the outbreak, lay open to grave suspicions. The inquiry was conducted under Omar Pasha s presidency, with the view of proving that the European community had provoked the outrages to which they fell victims ; but the investigation was so manifestly one-sided, that the British barrister appointed to attend the proceedings, on behalf of the British Consulate, withdrew from the case. The Commission thereupon collapsed without coming to any decision. The Sultan shortly afterwards sent Arabi the grand cordon of the Medjedieh,