CHAPTER IV
- EGYPT AND THE SUDAN
THE MAHDI—GORDON
"And they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their
expectation, and of Egypt their glory."—ISA. xx. 5.
THOSE who draw morals from history will get a good
text for a sermon on the advantages of courage and can-
dour In politics from the policy of British Liberalism in
respect of Egypt and the Sudan. For British Liberalism*
in the person of its greatest exponent, Gladstone, had
succeeded to its own satisfaction in reconciling the occu-
pation of Egypt with its principles by-representing what
was really a peaceable and progressive national move-
ment and entitled as such to Liberal support, as being an
anarchy of Islamic fanatics that Liberalism was entitled
to suppress. This was neither clear-sighted nor candid.
And, curiously enough, it provided its own penalty by
creating what was a real anarchy of Islamic fanaticism
in the neighbouring Sudan. Now, the occupation of
Egypt was a popular and profitable enterprise, but a
campaign in and a conquest of the Sudan, with its wild
tribes and empty wastes, would have been highly un-
popular, and at that time unprofitable. Accordingly,
Gladstonian Liberalism abandoned the Egyptian Sudan
to savagery and slavery ; and, in trying to camouflage
this want of courage and consistency, got into difficulties
that badly discredited it at a very critical time in Its
history. We can trace the .turning-point in the fortunes
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