Possibly the whole question might have been peaceably solved had Gambetta remained in power; for he was strongly in favour of a joint Anglo-French intervention in case the disorders continued.  The Gladstone Government at that time demurred to such intervention, and claimed that it would come more legally from Turkey, or, if this were undesirable, from all the Powers; but this divergence of view did not prevent the two Governments from acting together on several matters.  Gambetta, however, fell from power at the end of January 1882, and his far weaker successor, de Freycinet, having to face a most complex parliamentary situation in France and the possible hostility of the other Powers, drew back from the leading position which Gambetta’s bolder policy had accorded to France.  The vacillations at Paris tended alike to weaken Anglo-French action and to encourage the Arabi party and the Sultan.  As matters went from bad to worse in Egypt, the British Foreign Minister, Lord Granville, proposed on May 24 that the Powers should sanction an occupation of Egypt by Turkish troops.  To this M. de Freycinet demurred, and, while declaring that France would not send an expedition, proposed that a European Conference should be held on the Egyptian Question.

The Gladstone Cabinet at once agreed to this, and the Conference met for a short time at the close of June, but without the participation of Turkey[363].  For the Sultan, hoping that the divisions of the Powers would enable him to restore Turkish influence in Egypt, now set his emissaries to work to arouse there the Moslem fanaticism which he has so profitably exploited in all parts of his Empire.  A Turkish Commission had been sent to inquire into matters—­with the sole result of enriching the chief commissioner.  In brief, thanks to the perplexities and hesitations of the Western Powers and the ill-humour manifested by Germany and Russia, Europe was helpless, and the Arabi party felt that they had the game in their own hands.  Bismarck said to his secretary, Busch, on June 8:  “They [the British] set about the affair in an awkward way, and have got on a wrong track by sending their ironclads to Alexandria, and now, finding that there is nothing to be done, they want the rest of Europe to help them out of their difficulty by means of a Conference[364].”

[Footnote 363:  Morley, Life of Gladstone, iii. p. 79.]

[Footnote 364:  Bismarck:  Some Secret Pages of his History, vol. iii. p. 51.]

Already, on May 27, the Egyptian malcontents had ventured on a great military demonstration against the Khedive, which led to Arabi being appointed Minister of War.  His followers also sought to inflame the hatred to foreigners for which the greed of Greek and Jewish usurers was so largely responsible.  The results perhaps surpassed the hopes of the Egyptian nationalists.  Moslem fanaticism suddenly flashed into flame.  On the nth of June a street brawl between a Moslem