122 THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATE.

i duties, the landing of the cargoes was rendered more difficult than it had been hitherto. But the trade was too lucrative for the traders to be discouraged by an occasional loss. When once the cargo was stored away in a warehouse belonging to a foreigner, it was practically out of reach. The Government might have absolute knowledge as to how, and by whom, the goods had been smuggled, and where they were deposited ; but the knowledge was of no avail. By the Capitulations the Egyptian police cannot effect an entrance into any dwelling owned by foreigners, except with the sanction of the occupant's Consul. If the Consul decided that there was no evidence to show the goods contained therein had not been acquired in the course of legitimate trade, there was an end of the charge ; and, even if the consul admitted that the matter was open to doubt, the goods could only be seized after the alleged owner had been tried by a court composed of his fellow-countrymen, and in such a case his escape, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, was a matter of absolute certainty. The verdict once pronounced in his favour, the smuggled goods could be sold without risk at the full market price of the day. This contraband trade, I may add, was almost exclusively ■ in the hands of the Greek and Levantine merchants at Alexandria.

X Nubar, being then Minister of Foreign Affairs, \ obtained Ismail's consent to his making an attempt ■ to have the 'Capitulations modified in favour of Egypt. The proposal recommended itself on two I