The British Occupation 115
Ireland? Were not their French allies at the moment
conquering Tunis ? What was the objective of the
Toulon expedition? " Let them come/' said Arabi.
" Every man and child in Egypt will fight them." And
thereafter the army became the only hope of Egyptian
Nationalists, and Arabi became " el Wahid " (the Only
One).
The Joint Note ended all possibility of a constitutional
settlement. Colvin's view, as expressed by John Morley
(Fortnightly, July, 1882), was " That it was mischievous
in the highest degree. The Khedive was encouraged in
his opposition to the Chamber. The military or popular
party was alarmed. The Sultan was irritated. The other
European Powers made uneasy. Every element of dis-
turbance was aroused to activity." Mr. Blunt, who tried
to reconcile Arabi to its terms, found that the Nation-
alists had been irretrievably alienated (Secret History,
p. 190). Lord Cromer writes : " From the moment the
Joint Note was issued, intervention became an almost
unavoidable necessity" (Modern Egypt, p. 285). Un-
avoidable perhaps; but it was never in any respect
necessary.
The first result of the Note was that the militarist
Nationalists stiffened the Chamber to insisting on its full
claim to budgetary control. The British were prepared
to concede this, and pressed the French to do so (Janu-
ary 25, 1882). Gambetta refused, and eventually a Joint
Note was presented claiming that the Chamber could
not vote on the Budget without infringing the decrees
establishing control. This Note went on to propose
negotiations ; but the Chamber, holding that Sherif had
been unduly diplomatic, made the Khedive dismiss him
and appoint Mahmoud Sami Premier, with Arabi as
Minister of War. All the other Ministers were Nation-