Now that the war is over, it is really impossible for Radicals to accept a policy based upon administering Egypt, partly for the good of its inhabitants, but mainly for the good of the bond-holders. I am a bondholder, so it cannot be said that I am personally prejudiced against such a policy. But I am sure that it will not go down, and indeed that our whole course of action has been so tainted with it, that there will be great disaffection in the Radical ranks throughout the country unless the tree be now made to bend the other way. You are now the man in possession in Egypt, so you can make terms with Europe. I would therefore humbly suggest that you should, after insisting upon an amnesty, call together the Notables and hand the country over to them, stipulating alone that there should be Ministerial responsibility, and the control of the purse. {199} The International Obligation of Egypt to pay its bondholders was _bon à professer_, when the Expedition had to be defended, but it is in reality a pure fiction. Moreover, if it were not, we cannot decently join in a holy alliance to maintain Khedives, and to deprive nations of what is the very basis of representative government. Having handed Egypt over to the Notables, you can then go before Europe with a clean bill of health--propose that the connection of the country with Turkey shall be a purely nominal one and that, henceforward, no European power shall directly or indirectly interfere with its internal affairs. At the same time, you ought to take advantage of your being in Egypt to establish yourself in some vantage post on the Suez Canal. This once done, Egypt separated from Turkey, and all European powers warned off, we remain in reality absolute masters of the position. Very probably the Egyptians will make a muddle of these finances, but this will no more affect us than the mistakes of Spanish finances affect our tenure of Gibraltar. Controllers, a swarm of foreign bureaucrats, European administrators, Khedives ruling against the wishes of their subjects, an English army of occupation or an army commanded by my esteemed friend, Baker, composed of black ex-slaves, Ottoman cut-throats, and Swiss cowboys, are abominations, only equal to that of concerning ourselves with the payment of interest on a public debt. To attempt these things will be to keep open a perpetual Radical sore, and in the end will only land us in another expedition.