ny representative abroad with a right to complain of insufficient support
from a Gladstone cabinet.(115) On this aspect of matters, so raised by the
Queen, Mr. Gladstone had (March 15) expressed his view to Sir Henry
Ponsonby:--

Sir Evelyn Baring was appointed to carry onwards a declared and
understood policy in Egypt, when all share in the management of
the Soudan was beyond our province. To Lord Wolseley as general of
the forces in Egypt, and on account of the arduous character of
the work before him, we are bound to render in all military
matters a firm and ungrudging support. We have accordingly not
scrupled to counsel, on his recommendation, very heavy charges on
the country, and military operations of the highest importance.
But we have no right to cast on him any responsibility beyond what
is strictly military. It is not surely possible that he should
decide policy, and that we should adopt and answer for it, even
where it is in conflict with the announcements we have made in
parliament.

By the time of these critical cabinets in April Sir Evelyn Baring had
spontaneously expressed his views, and with a full discussion recommended
abandonment of the expedition to Khartoum.

On the second day the matter was again probed and sifted and weighed.

At the third cabinet the decision was taken to retire from the Soudan, and
to fix the southern frontier of Egypt at the line where it was left for
twelve years, until apprehension of designs of another European power on
the upper waters of the Nile was held to demand a new policy. Meanwhile,
the policy of Mr. Gladstone's cabinet was adopted and followed by Lord
Salisbury when he came into office. He was sometimes pressed to reverse
it, and to overthrow the dervish power at Khartoum. To any importunity of
this kind, Lord Salisbury's answer was until 1896 unwavering.(116)

It may be worth noting that, in the course of his correspondence with the
Queen on the change of policy in the Soudan, Mr. Gladstone casually
indulged in the luxury of a historical parallel. "He must assure your
Majesty," he wrote in a closing sentence (April 20), "that at least he has
never in any cabinet known any question more laboriously or more
conscientiously discussed; and he is confident that the basis of action
has not been the mere change in the public view (which, however, is in
some cases imperative, as it was with King George III. in t