Soldiers must endure when there is duty to be done
; but the duty to be done at Assonan is doubtful, and the English troops there are dying of the heat. On June 17th, the thermometer stood at 121, and eighteen deaths from heat-apoplexy occurred in twenty-four hours. It is said that one-third of the total force has been disabled, and there is no sign as yet that the heat will abate. The regiments at this station have been acclimatised, and the season is said to be unusually bad ; but the place is obviously fit only for negro troops. The Egyptian Government propose, it is said, to move the garrison of Assonan further smith, maintaining that dangerous activity prevails among the Arab tribes. That may be true, but there is no evidence of danger visible except to men who intend, if they oan, to keep the Soudan. The situation in Egypt is one of the first subjects which must be studied by a new Government. We cannot keep an army there for ever, and at present we seem as far either from retreat or settlement as we were two years ago. More than ten thousand troops are employed, with nothing to show for them.
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