THE SECOND NUBAR PASHA MINISTRY. 369 insurgents. I remember Nubar telling me at this time how much he was impressed, from the private reports which reached the Government daily, by the faculty of organization displayed by the Mahdi, and by the system of secret communication he had established throughout all parts of Egypt. I never gathered that Nubar had himself the slightest apprehension as to the military safety of Egypt under our occupation. But I am convinced he regarded the insurrection of the Soudan as a matter of graver importance than was attributed to it by our British authorities.

This view, though on somewhat different grounds, was shared by the Khedive. Tewfik owed his restoration to the throne to the army of occupation, but any sentiment of gratitude he may have entertained on this account was greatly impaired by the manner in which, from his point of view, England, after the victory of Tel-el-Kebir, had espoused the cause of the soldiers who had rebelled against his rule. If he had been allowed to inflict upon the authors and promoters of the mutiny the punishment which, according to Oriental ideas, they richly deserved, he might, he was convinced, have recovered the authority due to his position as the Sovereign of Egypt. As it was, he felt that his people regarded him as a mere puppet, deprived of any power to reward his partisans or to punish his enemies, and only allowed to retain his nominal sovereignty so long as it served the interests of his protectors to maintain him upon the throne. I was much struck, on my return to Egypt, after the suppression 2 B