PROBLEMS OF EMPIRE.
The policy of pin-pricksThere is not the least reason to doubt that the mass of the French people were exceedingly mortified at the decision of the French Chambers. The Paris newspaper, Le Matin, frankly acknowledges that 'From time to time we' (the French) 'inaugurated the policy of pin-pricks on Great Britain, a policy which had no definite object, and which was bound to turn out badly. We now find ourselves confronted by people who have at last been exasperated by the continual pricks we have given them.' What are the pricks here alluded to? Among them are the demands for the evacuation of Egypt, when Egypt was manifestly unable to stand alone; when, if we had left the country, either France would have stepped into our place or Egypt would have been overrun by the Mahdi's hordes; the obstacles which were thrown in our way in the reform of administration, and the refusal to allow the Egyptian Budget surplus to be used for the alleviation of taxation or the development of the country; the refusal by the French representatives on the Caisse de la Dette to allow funds to be used for the expedition which gave back to Egypt the Province of Dongola. I need not dwell on French action in Tunis, in West Africa, or in Madagascar, where they have established the protective duties usual in French Colonies, in defiance of their pledges, but Lord Rosebery's words at Epsom, on October 13th, are well worth quoting:—
Lord Rosebery at Epsom.'There has been a disposition in the last two or three a years to encroach and impinge on the rights of England in various parts of the world in a way which is not gratifying to Englishmen, and which I do not think is calculated to promote those cordial relations with other Powers, which it must be the wish of a great com-234
