96 THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATE.

i' creditors denounced the proposed decree as involving the permanent forfeiture of the chief source of income possessed by Egjpt for the sake of an utterly inadequate contribution in ready cash. Owing to native distrust and foreign protest, the scheme, based on the " law of the Moukabala, fell dead ; and the only practical \ outcome of the law was that a certain limited number of landowners paid down a considerable sum of money to free their estates from further taxation ; and from / that day to this have failed to obtain either the relief Vthey had purchased or any substantial return of their money Again, apart from the debts, more or less regularized by the issue of Treasury bonds, the Khedive, during the period of which I write, contracted any number of irregular debts with the tradesmen of Cairo, Alexandria, and the provincial towns. The debts, individually, were small in amount, but collectively they represented an enormous total. The accounts of the Palace were kept most irregularly, if at all ; and in order to avoid the necessity of immediate payment, the accounts sent in by the Vice-regal creditors were not, as a rule, disputed, however exorbitant their charges might have been.

Ismail, whatever his failings might have been, could certainly not be accused of parsimony, either in great matters or in small. Long before any serious doubts as to his solvency had begun to be entertained by his State creditors, the knowledge that he was short of money for his personal needs had