86 THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATE.

in inextricable confusion with the personal accounts of the Khedive. Receipts and expenses were transferred and re- transferred from one account to another, according as it suited the policy of the Government to increase or diminish the respective liabilities of the Sovereign and the State. The accounts, in as far as they were kept at all, were kept entirely by Coptic clerks, who possess an unrivalled reputation in the East for manipulating accounts in any way which may be acceptable to their employers. It was not till the control of the accountant's office came into English hands, under the Anglo-French Ministry, that any reliable evidence could be obtained as to the re-/ , . . ppective liabilities and revenues of Egypt and her / ruler ; and even the creditors of the Khedive utterly \ failed in their various attempts to make out any / satisfactory account of the financial position of ' j Egypt previous to the time when her finances were [ subjected to European supervision.

Moreover, Ismail was suspicious by nature even beyond the wont of Oriental potentates. His ministers, courtiers, confidants, and agents, even those who enjoyed his especial favour, and with whom he was on the terms of the closest intimacy, never failed to discover, sooner or later, that his apparently outspoken frankness always concealed some arriere paisk. In all his endless financial complications, he never gave his absolute confidence to any one person, but was wont to employ a number of separate gobetweens, armed with different instructions, and acting