The correspondent of the Standard at Cairo, though prejudiced against
the experiment which the British Government is trying there, knows Arabic, and has unusual means of access to the native Ministry. He states, in a telegram of January 31st, that General Gordon has telegraphed to Cairo, saying that the son of the Sultan of Darfur sent with him, and intended to rebuild the throne of that State as an independent ally of the Khedive, is an habitual drunkard, and totally incompetent for the work he has been released to do. The Pashas have accordingly discovered that they made a mistake, and say they have sent a lad of eighteen, instead of the true heir, who is thirty-two. Pashas do not make mistakes of that kind, and if this story is correct, we should not doubt that the authorities in Cairo intend General Gordon to fail. They hate him for stopping their bribes from the slave-dealers, and they received him with a cordiality which of itself suggests the despatch of secret and hostile orders to Khartoum. They would rather Khartoum were lost for a time, than that the slave-trade should be brought to a final end. It is more than doubtful, from the long accounts sent, whether the Egyptian officials on the coast are supporting General Baker with any cordiality.
