1-150-929 - The Cartoon Collector/Heritage-Images

'Why Should England Wait?', 1884. John Bull, the representative of the British people, urges the Liberal Prime Minister, Gladstone, to unmuzzle the British Lion. This relates to the continuing difficulties in Egypt where a former government official from the Sudan had now taken to calling himself the Mahdi (Messiah). He was leading a revolt against Egyptian misrule in the area, but, at the same time British interests were threatened. The reference to the muzzle having been put on the Lion again relates to the Egyptian War of 1882, where, under the command of Sir Garnet Wolseley, Egypt had become a semi-official British protectorate. From Punch, or the London Charivari, February 16, 1884.