TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE MINISTRY AND THE SOTTDAN.
THE drama of Thursday night divided itself into two acts, in the first of which Lord Hartington appeared to explain affairs in the Soudan, and in the second Mr. Glad- stone stepped forward to defy the Conservative hosts, and dare them to continue in their obstructive course. The second act was a grand triumph for the Liberals. The intervention of their Chief had not been expected, and his burst of indignant oratory, supported as it was by facts, smelted into a rush of denunciatory lava by the passion of the speaker, carried all before it, cowed the leaders of Opposition, and stopped a debate which it had been intended to protract till morning. Mr. Gladstone denounced the motion for adjournment as the seven- teenth debate this Session on Egyptian affairs, declared such a method of resistance to the Franchise Bill unprecedented in Parliamentary history, even during the hot debates on Reform in 1831-32, and charged the leader of Opposition with " unknowingly " using the power which the situation gave him for "purposes of public mischief." He was saying things which must embarrass the Government in Egypt—as, for example, that General Gordon had failed—and lending his sanction to proceedings which, "constantly renewed, are out of all proportion to the urgency of the question, and have the effect of offering immense obstruction to urgent public busi- ness." As the impassioned sentences rolled out, and the House recognised the menace that lay beneath them of an appeal to the people to put down Conservative Obstruction, wilfully maintained by men careless of the interests of the country, the ascendancy of the master was once more manifest, the leaders of Opposition positively cowered, Lord Randolph Churchill walked out of the House, and the Franchise Debate, which it was the arranged object of the interpellations to stop, was suffered to proceed.
That was a triumph for the country as well as the party, for it showed that the Tory Chiefs are at last partially awakened to their danger. If they should force a Dissolution on Obstruction—and it is to this that all their manceuvres tend—with Mr. Gladstone to describe that obstruction and make it visible to the people, they may be crushed at the polls like snails under a roller, the whole weight of the popular will passing over and effacing them. The Opposition will henceforward, we trust, discuss Egypt with a view to Egypt, and not with a view to impeding the Franchise Bill ; and that is a great gain. They can discuss it, of course, if they have a policy to produce, but to go on'wasting time in everlasting talk about their inability to understand affairs in the Soudan is mischievous folly. Nothing could be more intelligible than the statement made by Lord Hartington as to the policy of the Ministry from Khartoum southwards, and, we may add, nothing less open to cavil. We do not pretend to like the course adopted in Egypt, because we do not believe that, even if a more decisive policy did involve the terrible responsibilities that Mr. Gladstone foresees, it can be permanently avoided ; but in the Soudan the Government is acting wisely enough. England does not want the Soudan, and though the Soudan wants her, she will not voluntarily take on herself so vast an additional charge. All the Ministry has to do is to avert the danger of a fighting State arising at Khartoum and threatening Egypt, whether such State is headed by the Mahdi or anybody else. This is their own avowal, though they think the special danger from the Mahdi is already averted, as he has shown no ability to follow up his victories, an opinion which may prove erroneous. Even experienced Ministers can- not wholly free themselves from the dangerous influence of the electric telegraph, or fully recognise the Asiatic indifference to time, or completely understand the bewildering Eastern habit of allowing long pauses in important action, lulls in the blowing of the cyclone. Is God going to die, that a year or two lost by his Agent should signify ?—that is the Arab thought, whether he is waiting for Omar, or for Ahmed Mahommed of El Obeid. If there is error, however, there, it matters nothing. No fighting Power, Lord Hartington concedes in unmistakeable and powerful words, must hold Khartoum. General Gordon was sent there to prevent that, and while he is there he is preventing it. It was to prevent it that his first plan was rejected. He wished to make Zebehr Pasha Sultan of Khar- toum, as the only adequate native opponent to the Mahdi ; but the Ministry, thinking of Egypt and Europe more than of the
Soudan, declined that advice. They raised no sentimental objection, but the precise objection that we offered,—that this- able and evil Pasha would be too successful, that he would reign too strongly, that he would form an army of Soudanese, whose valour Englishmen at least know, and that he- would be irresistibly impelled by his history and his in- terests to invade Egypt. That judgment we hold to be absolutely sound, and the Ministry, acting on it, accepted the alternative, and bade General Gordon stay in Khartoum till he could devise another plan. He is staying, and probably is devising, though his letters are delayed ; but at all events, he is there, and in no unreasonable danger. By his own account, he can defend himself, and even, when the Nile rises, punish his enemies, and secure time for the British Government to arrange for any support he needs. They refuse him no assist- ance, not even that of an expedition. All they refuse is to march at this season, when success is nearly impossible and when he himself has not lost hope. It is quite evident, from the allusion to the Nile, that he is in no hurry, and the Govern- ment is perfectly justified in waiting for his summons, or his- alternative plan. General Gordon may, of course, be over- sanguineor mistaken, and we do not wonder that the public begin to mistrust his judgment. The abject worship paid to' him by the Pall Mall Gazette and some other papers, which write as if he were a supernatural being, or the Destiny of Britain incarnate in the flesh, is enough of itself to make ordinary men pronounce him an over-estimated fanatic but nevertheless he is a soldier of originality and resource,. and the Government is perfectly right in waiting for his opinion, before it produces a new plan for the settle- ment of Khartoum, or engages in a most serious cam- paign. That is what it is doing, and if men were not crazy with the irritation produced -by the daily throbbings of the telegraph wire, which act on the country, and even on states- men, as the screams of a patient awaiting an operation which yet must be delayed act on the doctors, no one would seriously object to their action. At all events, that is their action, and whatever its demerits, want of intelligibility is not one of them..
As to Egypt itself, everything remains as before. The Government refused to answer questions as to the financial settlement to be made, and Mr. Gladstone denounced in just terms the greediness of the Rings which are working the Con- tinental Press, in order to drive England into a guarantee of their debts ; but we suspect, from Lord Hartington's words, that- another temporary arrangement will be made. Unless the Law of Liquidation were to be revised and the Sinking Fund suspended, it would not be necessary "to consult the fourteen Powers who are parties to that agreement." We doubt the wisdom of any makeshifts, believing that we shall ultimately have to pay for them ; but it is useless to deny that the Government is consistent. It is doing the best that is possible,. if it intends to retire, and clearly has not surrendered the hope that retirement will yet be possible. We have, and the majority of Englishmen have ; but that is the only point of difference, and it ends with most Englishmen, as with our- selves, in the decision that Mr. Gladstone must try his plan, and when it has failed, use his powers to make the other one thoroughly succeed.
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