POSITION OF TEWFIK AFTER THE MUTINY. 451 engagements were fought, and the net result of these campaigns may be stated as proving that, so long as the British occupation lasted, there was no possibility of the Dervishes forcing their way northwards even as far as Assouan. In the Eastern Soudan, Osman Digma sustained a series of defeats, which somehow never ended in his capture, or in the complete suppression of the insurrection of which he, as the Chief Lieutenant of the Khalifa, was the leader. On the other hand, in as far as the scanty news which filtered into Egypt from the Soudan could be relied upon, the Khalifa had strengthened his authority within the Soudan, had crushed out all internal opposition to his rule, and had established something approaching to a settled government throughout the vast region over which he ruled as the successor of the Mahdi. Seven years elapsed between the withdrawal of the British army from the Soudan, after the fall of Khartoum, and the death of Tewfik, and yet, notwithstanding the success which had attended our arms during the various Soudanese campaigns, not a single attempt had been made to carry out the policy recommended by Ismail Pasha, and to advance the Egyptian frontier step by step southwards of Wady Haifa. Repeated representations had been made by the Khedivial Government, urging the expediency of advancing upon Dongola and restoring this once fertile province to the rule of Egypt. But these representations had met with an unfavourable reception at the Foreign Office, alike unden Liberal and Conservative Administrations.