CHAPTER IV:  THE YEARS OF PREPARATION

In the summer of 1886, when all the troops had retreated to Wady Halfa and all the Soudan garrisons had been massacred, the British people averted their eyes in shame and vexation from the valley of the Nile.  A long succession of disasters had reached their disgraceful culmination.  The dramatic features added much to the bitterness and nothing to the grandeur of the tragedy.  The cost was heavy.  Besides the pain produced by the death of General Gordon, the heavy losses in officers and men, and the serious expenditure of public money, the nation smarted under failure and disappointment, and were, moreover, deeply sensible that they had been humiliated before the whole world.  The situation in Egypt was scarcely more pleasing.  The reforms initiated by the British Administrators had as yet only caused unpopularity.  Baring’s interference galled the Khedive and his Ministers.  Vincent’s parsimony excited contempt.  Moncrieff’s energy had convulsed the Irrigation Department.  Wood’s army was the laughing-stock of Europe.  Among and beneath the rotten weeds and garbage of old systems and abuses the new seed was being sown.  But England saw no signs of the crop; saw only the stubborn husbandmen begrimed with the dust and dirt, and herself hopelessly involved in the Egyptian muddle:  and so in utter weariness and disgust, stopping her ears to the gibes and cat-calls of the Powers, she turned towards other lands and other matters.

When the attention of the nation was again directed to Egypt the scene was transformed.  It was as though at the touch of an angel the dark morasses of the Slough of Despond had been changed to the breezy slopes of the Delectable Mountains.  The Khedive and his Ministers lay quiet and docile in the firm grasp of the Consul-General.  The bankrupt State was spending surpluses upon internal improvement.  The disturbed Irrigation Department was vivifying the land.  The derided army held the frontier against all comers.  Astonishment gave place to satisfaction, and satisfaction grew into delight.  The haunting nightmare of Egyptian politics ended.  Another dream began—­a bright if vague vision of Imperial power, of trans-continental railways, of African Viceroys, of conquest and commerce.  The interest of the British people in the work of regeneration grew continually.  Each new reform was hailed with applause.  Each annual Budget was scrutinised with pride.  England exulted in the triumph of failure turned into success.  There was a general wish to know more about Egypt and the men who had done these great things.  In 1893 this desire was satisfied, and yet stimulated by the publication of Sir Alfred Milner’s ‘England in Egypt.’  His skilful pen displayed what had been overcome, no less than what was accomplished.  By explaining the difficulties he enhanced the achievement.  He showed how, while Great Britain was occupied elsewhere,