388 THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATE.

prosecution of the war appears to have died away. The discovery that the railway across the desert could not possibly be completed in time to be of any assistance to the campaign — however great its use might be in keeping open our communications with Khartoum, in the case of a British occupation — seems to have come upon the Government as a surprise. The works already commenced on the railway were discontinued, in obedience to orders from home. The unloaded plant and machinery were returned to their owners, and finally the expedition, despatched in hot haste after the fall of Khartoum in order to crush the insurrection in the Eastern Soudan, was recalled, having accomplished nothing beyond making an ineffective demonstration, which left the Mahdi and his lieutenant Osman Digma as powerful as ever.

The chapter of accidents had furnished the Gladstone Administration with an excuse for the abandonment of the Soudan campaign, which the majority of its members, with the Premier at their head, were only too glad to seize. The news that a Russian army was advancing towards Herat, and that the Afghans had been attacked by Russian troops at Pendjeh — a place which, according to local contention, lay within Afghan territory — occasioned a panic in England — a panic which was increased by the attitude of the Government, who forthwith called out the reserves, and demanded a war credit of ;ii,cxx),ooo.

No doubt if there was any reasonable prospect of our