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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6950, 26 February 1884, Page 4

The faU of Tokarha, interfered withlv plans of the British command! * tke * Soudan. The expedition *Z? tfca intended to, raiao the siege h« , I* Trinkitat, where for the%«£'"*« ' mams, pending fresh m^Z 3 V'" London. It 18 , however, to have J Oia with the enemy, who are gathering numbers dangerously near th, n M S« camp.' Tuis latest victory "L the rebels has materially 7 afS , b ? situation. It has rendered th« ?? tt3 of the British forces into Z "*• impossible for the present. TV T""'" 7 of the expedition was the relief," j^u*" . That being no longer possible 1> rof the capitulation of the 'caTi/on^ 1 forward movement could oalv i-« i * taken fox- the purpose of country of the rebels, a task whin, ? e force is unequal to, owingjtoita owners weakness. There are other Jl * l about whose fate nothing 13 known b is obvious that the present British 1 "'" pedition can do nothing m th« 61 " of aflording them relief or ascertain*" 1, their fate. For such a small f> , penetrate into a re R ion swarming,,? fanatical tribos flushed with vtctorv it ' ? be inexcusable rashness. It i 3 p " roi v that little or nothing will be done untif)'* result of Gordon Pasha's internes »■* the ilahdi ia known. Should the F- ' 4 Prophet accept 1113 piuposa! 3) f utl V 5 serious fighting will in all likelihood K, rendered unnecessary. This, hower« . a matter about which it is difficult'."" , speak with any great confidence. i t * not very clear whether the Mahdi sufficiently powerful to enforce obedient over the vast hordes of plundering c . throats who are now roaming through f'" Soudan. His influence at preset f unquestionably great. But u u ' , influence which arisee from hie religion" claims, which his military succeasej hn lent a colour to. By making terma ». t ! " the infidel," against whom he his '•„ , keeping with the role he ha 3 declared a war of extermination fo influence would dieappear as rtudl? as it arose. His claim to be regaidei aj the trne Slahdi would at once fall to h> ground. Another pretender would cone upon the scene ; indeed, he has abadr appeared, for the vanquisher cf Hi C ',', Pasha, and Sultan elect of Kordofau u not the only false Prophet who is in th field. It does not by any means folio* therefore, that a patched ap peace «tl the Mahdi would secure the pacifies. B ior ' of the Soudan. A decisive British victor) over the rebels would be far more hid] to accomplish that desirable consutnma " tion, if followed up by the permanea occupation of the territory from the Whiu Nile to the Red Sea. Nothing, hoireTe; is more certain than that if the Sondai or any part of the county knoirn by that name be left to the care of the Egytians, independent of the controlling influence of England, anaichy and bleed. shed must be indefinitely prolonged. In tranquility and pacification can only be secured by tho masterful anthontj of a strong Power. The Egyptians ara wholly unfit for the task. It remains fer England to undertake it. And, however much such a conrso may be opposed to the foreign policy of the Gladstone Mn.s'jy, it would be in conformity with nUicnil tendencies and the spirit of the age. It ia the destiny of England to eiteed !:er dominions. Sue has gone to Egypt. Wβ do not believe she will ever leave it She is now preparing to invade the Soudan. Seven years ago, Mr. Gladstone wrote these remarkable words :—''What I seel to impress is that territorial questions are not to be disposed by arbitrary limits; that we cannot enjoy the luxury of takuj Egyptian soil by pinches. We may leiu an Aden and a Penm, where there u no already formed community of inhabitant*, and circumscribe a tract at will. Bat our first site in Egypt, be it by larceny or he it by emption, will be tho almost certain I egg of a North African Empire, that will 1 grow and grow until another Victoria j and another Albert, titles of tho laVs sources of the White Nile, come withi.i our borders, and till we finally ]oiu hands across the equator with Natal and Cape Town, to say nothing of the Trsnsvaal and the Otauge River on the Soum, or of Abyesinia or Zanzibar to be swa'lowed by way of viaticum on uur journey." These words were written b> Mr. Gladstone when in the cold ehadea 0; opposition to damage and defeat the foreign policy of his great rival. Tht.) were not without their effect at the time. But no man can peer into the future. By the irony of events it has been reserved for Mr. Gladstone hirruelf to prepare the way for the realisation c; his prediction. He has occupied Egypt; he has marched a British army to the Soudan. In a word, he has laid the " egg of a North African Empire."