tree opposite Cook's
office at Jerusalem in Toppet, belonging to an old family, and
protected by Sultan's Firman, which the Arabs consider will fall
when the Sultan's rule ends. It lost a large limb during the
Turco-Russian war, and is now in a decayed state. There can be no
doubt but that the movement will spread into Palestine, Syria,
and Hedjaz. At Damascus already proclamations have been posted
up, denouncing Turks and Circassians, and this was before Hicks
was defeated. It is the beginning of the end of Turkey. Austria
backed by Germany will go to Salonica, quieting Russia by letting
her go into Armenia--England and France neutralising one another.

"If not too late, the return of the ex-Khedive Ismail to Egypt,
and the union of England and France to support and control the
Arab movement, appears the only chance. Ismail would soon come to
terms with the Soudan, the rebellion of which countries was
entirely due to the oppression of the Turks and Circassians."

These expressions of opinion about Egypt and the Soudan may be said to
have culminated in the remarkable pronouncement Gordon made to Mr W.
T. Stead, the brilliant editor of the _Pall Mall Gazette_, on 8th
January 1884, which appeared in his paper on the following day. The
substance of that statement is as follows:--

"So you would abandon the Soudan? But the Eastern Soudan is
indispensable to Egypt. It will cost you far more to retain your
hold upon Egypt proper if you abandon your hold of the Eastern
Soudan to the Mahdi or to the Turk than what it would to retain
your hold upon Eastern Soudan by the aid of such material as
exists in the provinces. Darfour and Kordofan must be abandoned.
That I admit; but the provinces lying to the east of the White
Nile should be retained, and north of Sennaar. The danger to be
feared is not that the Mahdi will march northward through Wady
Halfa; on the contrary, it is very improbable that he will ever
go so far north. The danger is altogether of a different nature.
It arises from the influence which the spectacle of a conquering
Mahommedan Power established close to your frontiers will
exercise upon the population which you govern. In all the cities
in Egypt it will be felt that what the Mahdi has done they may
do; and, as he has driven out the intruder and the infidel,