Some information derived from a black nun, who has been
gaged in mission-work at El Obeid, has increased the im-
pression at Khartoum that the Mabdi is approaching. She affirms that be has divided his force into two bodies, one of which is marching on Khartoum, and the other crossing the Desert for Dongola, where, if it arrives, it will be far north of Khartoum. No confirmation has been received of this state- ment, except that Berber, north of Khartoum, on the river, has been attacked unsuccessfully ; but the confusion at Cairo evidently increases. The European Under-Secretaries cannot endure the Egyptian Ministers ; Mr. Clifford Lloyd declares the Mudirs, or Prefects, of the provinces to be all bad ; and at Suakim, the best European officers, including Colonel Giles, who commands the cavalry, are throwing up their commissions. The Ministry threaten to resign, and the Khedive proposes abdication, and all is a muddle,—and will be, till the British Government makes up its mind. The only way out of it is a Dictatorship, to last, in the first instance, for a well-defined period, and to be facilitated by a revision of the Law of Liquida- tion. Even a Dictator can do nothing, if the Jews absorb all the revenue.
