THE FALL OF KHARTOUM. 377 common with all his fellow-officials, under the supervision of the British authorities in Egypt, it was, to say the least, possible that the evils of the slave trade might be mitigated. I have been told by British officials, who visited the Soudan shortly after the capture of Khartoum by our troops, that the one person whom the Soudanese seemed to know by name amidst the native and foreign notabilities of Egypt was Zobehr ; and that the one question they asked, when they learnt that the strangers hailed from Cairo, was whether Zobehr was coming back to the Soudan.

The Khedive, his Ministers, and Sir Evelyn Baring were all of opinion that the experiment of his return, as demanded by Gordon, was worth trying. Unfortunately, the British Government vetoed the proposal. From a party point of view, they were right. The appointment of Zobehr, the King of the slave-dealers, to the Governorship of the Soudan, following upon Gordon's proclamation re-establishing slavery, would have given dire offence to the chief supporters of the Liberal cause in the constituencies ; while the cry that the Government had handed over the Soudan, bound hand and foot to the slave-dealers, would undoubtedly have been made use of by their political opponents.

Possibly a Bismarck might have dared to defy popular sentiment. But Bismarcks are rare anywhere, and rarest of all in England. It must always remain matter for discussion whether the Gladstone Ministry were right or wrong in refusing to allow Gordon to avail himself of Zobehr's services. The only