f all possible courses, the London cabinet looked to the
Sultan as the best instrument for restoring order. Here they were
confronted by two insurmountable obstacles: first, the steadfast hostility
of France to any form of Turkish intervention, and second, that strong
current of antipathy to the Sultan which had been set flowing over British
opinion in the days of Midlothian.(48)

(M29) In December (1881) the puissant genius of Gambetta acquired
supremacy for a season, and he without delay pressed upon the British
cabinet the necessity of preparing for joint and immediate action.
Gambetta prevailed. The Turk was ruled out, and the two Powers of the west
determined on action of their own. The particular mode of common action,
however, in case action should become necessary, was left entirely open.

Meanwhile the British cabinet was induced to agree to Gambetta's proposal
to send instructions to Cairo, assuring the Khedive that England and
France were closely associated in the resolve to guard by their united
efforts against all causes of complaint, internal or external, which might
menace the existing order of things in Egypt. This was a memorable
starting-point in what proved an amazing journey. This Joint Note (January
6, 1881) was the first link in a chain of proceedings that brought each of
the two governments who were its authors, into the very position that they
were most strenuously bent on averting; France eventually ousted herself
from Egypt, and England was eventually landed in plenary and permanent
occupation. So extraordinary a result only shows how impenetrable were the
windings of the labyrinth. The foremost statesmen of England and France
were in their conning towers, and England at any rate employed some of the
ablest of her agents. Yet each was driven out of an appointed course to an
unforeseen and an unwelcome termination. Circumstances like these might
teach moderation both to the French partisans who curse the vacillations
of M. de Freycinet, and to the English partisans who, while rejoicing in
the ultimate result, curse the vacillations of the cabinet of Mr.
Gladstone, in wisely striving to unravel a knot instead of at all risks
cutting it.

II

The present writer described the effect of the Joint Note in the following
words written at the time(49): "At Cairo the Note fell like a bombshell.
Nobody there had expected any such declaration, and nobody was aware of
any reason why it should have