50O THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATE.

predominant partner is tantamount to an instruction. The purport of the advice given after the capture of Khartoum was that Egypt should in future administer the Soudan conjointly with England. Logically, Egypt might have demurred to the proposed arrangement as one-sided. After all, Egypt had held and ruled the Soudan since the days of Mahomet Ali ; she had evacuated the Soudan, much against her own will, in obedience to the demands of England. She had recovered possession of the Soudan after a campaign in which the bulk of the troops engaged belonged to her own army ; and she might reasonably have considered that she was entitled to re-enter into the full possession of her re-conquered provinces.

Indeed, the main case of England as against France, in the Fashoda question, rested on the assumption that the Soudan belonged to Egypt, and that her tenure was only suspended, not cancelled, by her evacuation in 1884. Whatever may have been the view taken in Cairo concerning the abstract title of Egypt to the sole Suzerainty of the Soudan, the Khedivial Government was not disposed to raise any objection to the system of joint rule recommended by England. It was more than doubtful whether Egypt could retain her military hold over the Soudan by herself. It was absolutely certain that she could not hope to establish order in the Soudan, and to develop its resources, without the administrative and financial assistance of England. This assistance could obviously not be forthcoming except on