THE RISING OF THE MAHDI. 321 gathered about a campaign conducted without any reports of its progress beyond the meagre accounts published in the Cairo papers, the Egyptian troops — under-fed, ill-paid, and badly officered — had no heart in the warfare, and, even when they had obtained a victory, were unable or unwilling to follow it up. The net result was, that at the end of October, 1882, Abd-el-Kader, who had replaced Raouf Pasha in the Governorship of the Soudan, wrote to Cairo to the effect that, unless an army of 15,000 men was despatched to his support, he would be compelled to evacuate Khartoum and retire from the Soudan. In response to this demand, it was determined that, as soon as the condition of internal affairs rendered it possible for the Government to reconstitute the army. a force of the amount requested should be sent to the Soudan to suppress the Dervish insurrection for once and for all. Before this army was organized, the Khedive requested the assistance of the British Government, whose troops were then occupying Egypt. The request, however, was refused peremptorily, on the ground that England's interest in Egypt did not extend to the Soudan. To say the truth, the British Government at this period were so anxious to dissociate themselves from any permanent responsibility in respect of Egypt, that, though they were advised by their representatives at Cairo that the proposed expedition was certain to end in failure, they could not make up their minds to prohibit its despatch, lest, by so doing, they might appear to recognize any