i62 THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATE.

fully realized, while there was grave reason to doubt how far, in the event of any conflict between their authority and that of the Khedive, they could rely 9n foreign intervention to uphold their jurisdiction. As soon, however, as the floating-debt creditors discovered that, by the decree in question, they were left out in the cold, they instituted suits before the International courts. I do not see how, either in law or equity, these tribunals could have come to any other conclusion than that debts contracted by the absolute ruler of the State were debts due from the State, no matter how they had been contracted ; as under the system of government exist-I ing in Egypt, there was no possible distinction between the personal and public liabilities of the yKhedive. This, at any rate, was the view taken by the courts in question. Judgments were given in favour of the plaintiffs ; and, in virtue of the clause of the Egyptian code, to which I have referred before, the Khedivial Government was requested to put these judgments into execution. No immediate action was taken on either side. Both the Khedive and the courts were anxious not to push matters to extremities, and the resources of the law — even more numerous and ingenious in Egypt than elsewhere — for the pro-• longation of legal proceedings, were called into play, in order to postpone any definite decision. Meanwhile fthe bare fact that the State had been declared by ' . the recognized legal tribunals of the country to be I liable for the unfunded debts, tended to discredit the "\