Financial Reconstruction 171
The Sultan gave Abbas and his British mentor a good
start together, for he tried to alter the terms of the new
firman in Turkey's favour. Cromer delighted Abbas by
his repulse of this interference, and also by relieving him of
a Council of Regency for the few months of his minority.
He was counted as being eighteen by calculating his age in
Mahomedan years of two hundred and fifty-four days.
But the boy soon began to get into mischief. "The
Khedive is going to be very Egyptian/' wrote Lord
Cromer to Lord Salisbury (February 21, 1892). And this
dangerous game was, of course, encouraged by interested
parties like the French and the Turks and by no less
interested politicians like Tigrane and Mustapha Kamil.
This new nationalist gesture, for it was not yet a move-
ment, was still further encouraged by the return of the
Liberals to power in London (August, 1892). For the
Egyptians were unaware that Liberal Imperialism, as
represented by Lord Rosebery at the Foreign Office,
would observe a Conservative continuity of foreign policy
in respect of Egypt. The Khedive accordingly opened
fire (November, 1892) with a list of complaints as to
disrespect shown for his own dignity. When this was
ignored, he followed it up by an assertion of himself that
could not be overlooked. For he dismissed the Anglophil
Mustapha Fehmy and the no less Anglophil Ministers of
Finance and Justice (January 15, 1893). Cromer at once
countered by an increase of the British garrison—a rough
reminder of the sword of Damocles that stopped the
growing anti-British agitation. Having then secured
from the Liberal Government a declaration that:
<( His Majesty's Government expects to be consulted on
such important matters as a change of Ministers," Lord
Cromer dictated to the Khedive an undertaking "to
adopt the advice of His Majesty's Government on all