A general Council had been summoned at the Ministry of the Interior to consider the question of continuing the military preparations. It was attended by about a hundred Pashas, Ulemas, and merchants. After a number of violent speeches against the Khedive, the Coptic Patriarch remarked that the assembly had as yet heard only one side of the question, viz., that of Arabi, and that before coming to any decision it was necessary to hear the Khedive's side as well. The views of the Coptic Patriarch were adopted by the majority of the assembly, which proceeded to nominate a delegation.
The delegation consisted of Ali Pasha Moubarek (a former Minister) and five others, who were directed to proceed to Alexandria to see the Khedive, and ask His Highness what truth there was in the charges of the Arabists; they were also directed to ascertain whether all the Ministers were really in prison, as had been stated.
As regards the rebel military preparations, Mahmoud Pasha Sami had been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the army corps stationed in the neighbourhood of the Suez Canal. Arabi demanded that one-sixth of the male population of every province should be sent to Kafr Dowar. All old soldiers of every description were called upon to serve again, and horses and provisions were everywhere requisitioned for the army.
"Arabi's chief strength," wrote Mr. Cartwright, the Acting British Consul-General, "lay in his unscrupulous and barbarous mode of warfare." At the moment, there was such a terrible dread among the officials at the Palace of what might happen to their property in Cairo and elsewhere, that the Khedive's action was paralyzed, and His Highness was deterred from denouncing Arabi as a rebel by his unwillingness to incur the consequences of Arabi's retaliation. At an interview with the Khedive, Mr. Cartwright endeavoured to represent to him the moral effect which such a denunciation would produce, and the encouragement it would afford to those who remained faithful to His Highness.
On the 22nd the Khedive published a Decree dismissing Arabi from his post of Minister of War, and proclaiming him a rebel. Omar Loutfi was appointed in his place. The reasons for Arabi's dismissal as set forth in the Decree were the insufficient resistance offered to the British Fleet, the loss of 400 guns, allowing the English to land without resistance, the retreat to Kafr Dowar, and his disobedience in not coming to the Khedive when summoned.
Considering the relations existing between the Khedive and the British forces at this time, the Decree, issued at a period when Tewfik was no longer under any sort of coercion, is as curious a specimen of an Oriental document as generally comes to light. The proclamation itself may be regarded as a reply to one issued by Arabi against the Khedive, and transmitted to the Governors of the various provinces in Egypt.
On the 26th, Arabi telegraphed to the Sultan protesting his fidelity to the Khalifate, and saying, "That being provoked into a war, he was in possession of all that was necessary to overcome his enemies, thanks to the Divine assistance." He added, "That he did not believe that, as the enemies of his country and religion asserted, he would find Ottoman troops on his path, which would place him under the cruel necessity of treating as enemies his brethren in the faith."
Ali Pasha Moubarek succeeded in reaching Alexandria. He reported that at Kafr Dowar large numbers of soldiers were flocking to Arabi from the villages, arms were being distributed to all comers, and a total force of 30,000 men had been got together. Raouf Pasha, however, who came from the camp a few days later, gave the number of Arabi's men as only 15,000, and related that much sickness prevailed amongst them.
On the 3rd August the official journal of Cairo published the decision of a great National Council of the week before, to the effect that—
"In consequence of the occupation of Alexandria by foreign troops, of the presence of the English squadron in Egyptian waters, and finally of the attitude taken up by Arabi Pasha for the purpose of repulsing the enemy, Arabi Pasha was to be upheld as Minister of War and Marine, intrusted with the general command of the Egyptian army, and full authority in all that concerned military operations, and that the orders of the Khedive and his Ministers would be null and void."