When the tidings of General Baker’s defeat at Teb were followed by news of the massacre of the garrison of Sinkat, Ministers, in obedience to public opinion, decided to abandon their policy of inaction in the Soudan. On the 10th of February, Admiral Hewett took supreme command at Suakim. On the 18th a small British force under General Graham landed at that place. By this time Tokar had fallen, but Graham, advancing from Trinkitat, fought and beat the Arabs under Osman Digna at El Teb. Osman retired to Tamanieb, and was attacked there by Graham on the 13th of March. At first the British force wavered and broke under the impetuous shock of the Arab charge, but in the end the Arabs were defeated, and Osman Digna’s camp was destroyed. Gordon had made an unsuccessful sortie from Khartoum on the 16th of March, and he had found not only his army but the civil population of the city honeycombed with treason. In vain he implored the Government to send two squadrons of cavalry to Berber to aid the escape of two thousand fugitives whom he proposed to send down the Nile. The Government, on the contrary, recalled General Graham and his troops from Suakim, thereby leading the Arabs to believe that Gordon was abandoned by his countrymen. His negotiations with the Mahdi proved to be a failure. In May his protests against the desertion of Khartoum were published in official form, and the Opposition then gave expression to popular opinion when they moved, though they did not carry, another vote of censure on the Ministry. The defence of the Government was that Gordon was in no danger, and that when he was, Ministers would quickly send him aid. The financial position of Egypt was now so bad that Mr. Gladstone resolved to ease the pressure of her debt at the expense of the bondholders. For this purpose it was necessary to summon a Conference of the Powers. France opposed the English project, and the diplomatic negotiations between England and France were seriously embarrassed by incessant interpellations from the Opposition in Parliament, and by their abortive votes of censure. In spite of these difficulties, however, Ministers were able, on the 23rd of June, to announce that they had come to an arrangement with France. She formally abandoned the Dual Control, which had really been destroyed by the Khedive’s decree in 1882, and bound herself not to send troops to Egypt unless on the invitation of England. England, on the other hand, agreed to evacuate Egypt on the 1st of January, 1888, unless the Powers considered that order could not be kept after the British troops were recalled. The question of the debt was virtually left to the Conference, but it was agreed that after the 1st of January, 1888, Egypt was to be neutralised and the Suez Canal put under international management. Even these arrangements were, however, to depend on the decisions of the Conference, which, Mr. Gladstone said, would in turn