THE ROAD TO RUIN. 103 Parliament. No other statesman of our time would have had the courage to risk his personal position, to Ignore the absence of all precedent, and to take upon himself the sole responsibility of a momentous decision which of necessity called for immediate action. Lord Rowton has often told me how, as the Premier's private secretary, he was sent into the city to ascertain from the then head of the great house of Rothschild whether he would lend the British Government ;4,coo,ooo sterling on no security whatever except the assurance of the Premier that Parliament would endorse his action, and to state that an answer, yes or no, must be given within an hour. The answer was in the affirmative, and (before twenty-four\ hours had passed, from the time when the proposal was first submitted to the British Government, ai a y telegram had been despatched to Cairo, authorizing! Xf the purchase of all the Suez Canal shares held by V q «'> ] the Khedive, who agreed to pay five per cent. \ , interest on the sum advanced till such time as the Aj ' shares began to participate in the profits of the canal. / The arrangement proved a most advantageous one! financially, as well as politically, for England. Fori Egypt it was far from being equally profitable. With \ the sale of these shares Egypt forfeited her one chance \ of obtaining any return whatever for the vast sums she / had contributed to the construction of the canal. The ' result would have been the same if the shares in question had been bought by France or by any International Syndicate. Still I could have wished that,