FIRST STAGE OF INTERVENTION. 151 they tried to bring daylight into the administration ofN Egyptian affairs. The opposition they experienced v got noised abroad, and strengthened the distrust f entertained by the foreign bondholders as to Ismail) Pasha's having the will, even if he had the power, to carry out the composition he had imposed upon his creditors without their consent.

Before, however, the Commission had commenced its work, the demand on the part of the bondholders for a further inquiry into the financial position of the Khedive became too strong to be resisted.

Meetings were held both in Paris and London, urging the necessity of an independent iavestigation. M.| Joubert was selected to undertake the duty oi looking into the finances of Egypt by the Due de Cazes, who was then Foreign Minister of the French Republic ; while Mr. Goschen was nominated by the British bondholders to accompany M. Joubert as his colleague. If I am correctly informed, Mr. Goschen volunteered to undertake a very thankless and arduous task. On his accession to office, he had severed his connection with the great financial house founded by his father, and had a strong personal objection to identifying himself in any way with financial affairs.

He held, however, that, as a member of the firm by whom the first Egyptian loan had been floated on the London market, the English bondholders had a certain moral claim upon his services. His offer to investigate the financial position of Egypt, in conjunction with M. Joubert, a very well known