SECOND STAGE OF INTERVENTION. 169 For the moment, Nubar's advice, in whatever quarters it may have been tendered, met with no immediate response. The year 1877 that of the Russo-Turkish war, of the siege of Plevna, of the capture of the Shipka pass, of the final defeat of the Ottoman armies after an heroic, but unequal conflict. War was declared in the April of 1877, and in the last days of the following December the Sultan was suing for peace. The Governments of Europe were too deeply occupied with the Eastern Question, and with the ulterior complications which might arise in the event of its being solved by force of arms, to entertain ( the idea of any direct intervention in Egyptian affairs ; and without the active support of their Governments, the creditors of Egypt had no power to bring about any drastic reform in Egyptian administration. Nubar thereupon bestirred himself in order to influence European public opinion in favour of active intervention. It was English opinion to which he attached the greatest / value. He has often explained to me the grounds on which he held that England was better qualified tharfj any other Power, or combination of Powers, to exerciser a paramount authority in Egypt; and in this opinion J he never varied, even when, at later periods, he had, or considered he had, cause to . complain of the methods in which this authority was exercised. His views were that England, as the ruler of India, had, since the completion of the Suez Canal, a special interest in Egypt, vastly superior to that possessed by any Continental Power ; that, however much