Sudan Archive

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ISO THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATE.

( France, Austria, and Italy, might have different pqlitical ends to serve, they had one common interest, namely, that of securing the regular payment of the dividends due to the bondholders. The most superficial acquaintance with the economical conditions of Egypt was sufficient to convince any man of ordinary intelligence, that the first step towards the restoration of Egyptian credit was the separation 1 of the revenues and expenditure appertaining to the I State from those appertaining to the Khedive in his personal capacity. The efforts of the Commission were therefore directed to ascertaining what portion of the revenues belonged by rights to the State, and what to the Khedive. Any investigation, however, of such a kind was fatal to the theory of Ismail Pasha that he was to remain the sole administrator of Egypt, and that the Commissioners had no right to inquire into the mode in which the revenue was collected '\ and expended, provided the interest on the public debt were duly forthcoming. Moreover, his Highness discovered, to his astonishment, that the Commissioners, as a body, did not consider their duty was fulfilled if they could be shown that the next /'dividend was duly provided for, but held that it was also their duty to discover whether the taxes were collected and their outcome expended in accordance ] with the welfare of Egypt, and, in consequence, with the interests of the bondholders. The Commissioners ; found themselves encountered with every sort of \ open, and still more of secret, opposition, as soon as r.

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