On Monday, Lord Carnarvon raised a rather fruitless dis- cussion
on Egypt in the House of Lords. We had five courses open tons there :—(1), Evacuation; (2), handing back Egypt to the Turks ; (3), drifting ; (4), making a scientific and defensible Southern frontier ; (5), announcing to the Powers that we in- tend to stay without any definite limitation of time, and that we intend to keep faith with the bondholders. Of these courses, the last was far the most satisfactory. Lord Salisbury replied that, whether it was the most satisfactory or not, it was not one which we could follow consistently with the pledges we had given to the European Powers, and that the present Government could not be held singly responsible for a policy which had been initiated by their predecessors, and in the execution of which they had merely taken up and pursued a thread handed over to them by others. They at least had not vacillated, and had Lord Granville been present, he would have borne witness to the responsibilities incurred for them by their predecessors. Lord Herschel!, who represented the Opposition, virtually signified his assent.
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