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In 1854, Ferdinand de Lesseps, a French diplomat who had served in Cairo, used his good standing with Egypt’s ruler, the Khedive Ismail Pasha, to obtain the right to build a canal through the isthmus of Suez to link the Mediterranean with the Red Sea.
Despite scepticism about its viability, not least from British politicians and investors, the 120-mile (193-kilometre) long canal was constructed within a decade. Its opening was marked by ceremonies including fireworks and a banquet attended by the Empress Eugénie of France, although Verdi did not (as often believed) write his opera Aida for the occasion but for the inauguration of Cairo’s Opera House. De Lesseps himself, then 64, celebrated by marrying his second wife, who was 21. He subsequently tried but failed to build a Panama Canal.
With shipping no longer forced to sail around Africa and to brave the Atlantic, journey times between, for instance, Britain and India were greatly reduced. The strategic and economic importance of the Canal led Britain and France to invade Egypt in 1882 to restore the power of the Khedive following a rebellion by nationalists. (See Suez.)
14 May 1877
You know the result of our great cricket match. Australians will “blow,” to use Mr. Trollope’s word, about it for some time to come. It was played on the ground of the Melbourne Club, between Lillywhite’s eleven and a combined eleven of New South Wales and Victoria. We are told that it is the first match in which an English professional eleven has been beaten out of England. Each side was under a certain disadvantage. Pooley, the English wicket keeper, had been left in New Zealand, and Allan, the best Victorian bowler, upon whose services the colonial eleven almost entirely depended in his department, suddenly retired, and a substitute had to be found at the last moment. The betting was all together in favour of the Englishmen before the match began, but the splendid play of Bannerman, from New South Wales, soon altered the odds. He made 165 runs before he retired, not out, with his finger badly cut. The Englishmen declared that they had never seen a finer display of batting, not even by the great Grace. The other Australians brought up the score in the first innings to 245. The Englishmen then went in and made 196. The Australians followed and, with Bannerman disabled, made 104, leaving the Englishmen 155 to make to win, and a most interesting game was brought to a close with the fall of their last wicket for 108 runs, leaving our men the winners by 45 runs. This victory is certainly creditable to Australia. The scores were made against presumably the best English bowlers, among whom were Shaw, Emmett, Ullyet, and Southerton, the fielding of the team was excellent, and, although it is considered relatively weak in batsmen, Jupp, Charlwood, Greenwood, and Selby are said to be strong enough to give, at least, an average efficiency. As may be supposed, the game was watched with intense excitement by enthusiastic crowds, and those who could not get to the ground clustered round the newspaper offices to see the last despatches from the seat of war placarded on the door posts. It began and ended in good temper, and Lillywhite’s pecuniary success must have consoled him for his defeat.
The Times had ignored the staging of the first international football match, between England and Scotland, in 1872, but the gentleman’s favoured game of cricket was another matter.
English teams had toured abroad for many years – a trip to France in 1789 had to be abandoned when the Revolution broke out – but the matches played in Australia by James Lillywhite’s side in March and April 1877 are retrospectively regarded as the first Tests.
A rival tour organized by W. G. Grace’s brother had been cancelled at short notice and Lillywhite’s team of professionals featured few of the leading English players, such as Grace. The wicket keeper, Ted Pooley, had been left behind in New Zealand after being accused of an assault arising from his betting on a game he had been umpiring.
The Australian side similarly lacked their finest bowler of the era, Fred Spofforth, while most of their players had been born in England. Nonetheless, 12,000 spectators at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, among them this Australian correspondent, were delighted by Charles Bannerman’s feat of compiling what is still the highest percentage of a team’s runs in a Test innings. The sporting rivalry instituted between the two nations gave rise to The Ashes five years later.
9 February 1885
Sir C. Wilson, with a detachment of the Sussex Regiment and Soudanese, and accompanied by Lieutenant Stuart-Wortley and Captain Trafford, left Metammeh in two steamers on the morning of the 24th ultimo. At Gandabe they stopped for a supply of wood. Here the Sheikh of the Shageya sent them word that his tribe was ready to join the English when their power was established. Our victories had produced a great effect, the enemy saying that their total loss was 3,000 men. They have heard of another English army advancing up the Nile. Next day a few shots were fired from the west bank. One of the steamers ran on a rock.
On the 26th the steamer cleared the rock, and the men landed in order to pass the rapid, but the steamer grounded again and was delayed all day. The party stopped for the night on an island. Two Shageyas who came aboard reported that General Gordon had been fighting for 15 days. The advance of the English was greatly feared, and they repeated that they were only awaiting the turn of events to join us.
On the 27th they passed the Shabluka cataract, where the passage is 30 yards wide between the rocks. On the south side of the east bank at the village of Nefida, an Arab stated that some camelmen had passed that day from Omdurman reporting the fall of Khartoum and the death of General Gordon, but the rumour was generally disbelieved. Shots were fired from the west bank all day.
They started at dawn on the 28th. A man of the Shageya tribe stated that Khartoum had fallen two days before. At noon Lieutenant Stuart-Wortley saw Khartoum through his telescope, but no flag was flying on the Government House. The houses seemed wrecked.
Soon after the guns from Halfiyeh opened on the steamers, together with heavy musketry. The steamers answered with guns and volleys. The firing ceased until the steamers were abreast of Tuti Island, which they expected to find occupied by General Gordon’s troops, but a heavy fire was opened at 160 yards, and two guns shelled them from Khartoum. Presently musketry and four guns opened from Omdurman, and the enemy showed in large numbers in Khartoum. The steamers being protected by armour suffered little loss, only one killed and five wounded.
Sir Charles Wilson, seeing Khartoum occupied, ordered the steamers to go at full speed down the river, and they were soon out of range. They stopped at an island some miles down, and sent to collect news. The man soon returned, saying Khartoum had fallen on the night of the 26th by the treachery of Farag Pasha, who opened the gates for the Mahdi’s troops, and General Gordon was killed with all his men.
Britain’s involvement in Egypt’s affairs presented it with an unwelcome problem when an Islamist revolt broke out in the Sudan, which was administered by Cairo. General George Gordon, who had made his reputation fighting for China’s emperor during the Taiping Rebellion, was sent to Khartoum early in 1884 to organize its evacuation.
Gordon, who had strong religious convictions and no lack of self-belief, decided instead to prepare the city for a siege, with the eventual aim of defeating the army of the rebel leader, the Mahdi. The British Government initially left Khartoum to its fate but was forced by public opinion later in the year to mount an expedition to relieve Gordon.
