ISMAIL IN HIS GRANDEUR. 8i privilege of providing him with any funds he might require, had not become alarmed at the extent of his r indebtedness. / The first indications of any falling off in the facility for contracting fresh loans had, I believe, made themselves manifest in the year which witnessed the opening of the Suez Canal. But these indications were not sufficiently marked to disturb Ismail seriously.

If one capitalist, he probably argued, would not advance any more money, there were a dozen who would be pleased to raise fresh loans for his convenience ; and if the interest asked was a little higher, the extra price demanded was to him a matter of complete indifference. MoreoverTie had some cause -v for imagining that his display of apparently boundless 1 wealth at the inaugural ceremonies would remove any / hesitation the financiers of Europe might entertain as to the policy of increasing their loans ; and he had still more cause for assuming that the manner in which the !

Emperor Napoleon III. had identified himself with ' the Suez Canal by deputing the Empress to preside at its inauguration, would secure him the support of the Imperial Court, and, as a necessary corollary, the support of the French financial world. In common with many wiser men, in a far better position to judge of European politics, Ismail had never reckoned on the possibility of Sedan. It was the downfall of the Second Empire which brought about the collapse of Ismail, or, at any rate, rendered this collapse more sudden and more complete than it would have been otherwise.