The Egyptian Problem

vi THE SECOND PHASE OF THE OCCUPATION 113
Fehmi, who had had the impertinence to advise him in the early days of his Khediviate " to do nothing without consulting Lord Cromer." The year after Lord Cromer left Egypt Mustapha Fehmi retired on the plea of ill-health, and with him the staunchest believer during more than thirteen years of unselfish service in loyal co-operation in Egypt's best interests with the British controlling power.
The Khedive had now for the first time a considerable share in the formation of the new Cabinet. He deferred to Sir Eldon Gorst, with perhaps Macchiavellian alacrity, in the appointment of Butros Pasha Ghali, a Copt, who had been Minister for Foreign Affairs in the late Cabinet, to be Prime Minister, for to a Mahomedan people the appointment of a Christian to the highest post in the Government is always repugnant. He acquiesced also in the retention of Zaghlul as Minister of Education, and in the nomination of Ismail Pasha Sirri, an able engineer who had served under the great pioneers of irrigation, to be Minister of Public Works. But he got into the very important Ministry of the Interior a man after his own heart in Mohamed Said Pasha, who promptly introduced the apple of discord into the Cabinet. Fifteen months later, in February, 1910, when Butros was murdered by a young Nationalist fanatic, it was Mohamed Said who succeeded him in the Premiership at the Khedive's prompting. Some other Ministers exchanged portfolios and Zaghlul was shifted from the Ministry of Education to that of Justice, where he was far more certain to come some day into direct collision with the Khedive, and in 1912 he was, in fact, driven to resign.
The " patriotic " or extremist section of the Nationalist party, secretly backed by the Khedive for the purpose, had by that time killed the " popular " or more moderate section, who had ceased under the new dispensation to receive the British support which Lord Cromer had encouraged them to expect. Many of its former membershad hated Mustapha Pasha'n by the enactment of the " IPive