/ 292 THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATE.

the Chamber of Notables was reassembled at Cairo, , and, by the orders of Arabi, issued a decree, stating that — " Arabi Pasha was to be upheld as Minister of War, entrusted with the command of the Egyptian army and full authority in all that concerned military operations, and that the orders of the Khedive and his Ministers were henceforth \null and void." \ This decree was signed by the chief Ulemas. the religious authorities of Cairo, and by all the leading members of the Chamber of Notables. Thus for the moment, there were two rival Governments in Egypt : one, that of the Khedive, supported indirectly by Great Britain ; the other, J:hat of Arabi, supported by the Egyptian army ; and both professing equal hostility to the British invasion of Egyptian territory. Yet, soon after the appearance of this decree, his Highness requested Mr. Auckland Colvin, in whom he reposed greater confidence than he did in any of his native advisers, to urge upon the British Government the necessity for prompt and decisive action, in order to arrest the growth of Arabi's authority in Egypt. Indeed the whole attitude of Tewfik Pasha at this period is one of those complicated skeins, whose unravelment exceeds the capacity of any intellect other than that of an Oriental born and bred.