SECOND STAGE OF INTERVENTION. 175 the Khedive had to bow to necessity, and in March,\ 1878, he issued a decree, appointing a Commission, j The decree, however, confined the functions of the I Commission to a general investigation of the public / receipts and expenditure of the State, and though it authorized the Commissioners to call on all the officials of the Government to furnish them with V any information they might require, it studiously / ignored the contingency of their desiring to obtain; any information as to the assets and liabilities of the/ Khedive in his personal capacity. Finding that tfilsP decree did not satisfy the demand for a searching!

inquiry, the Khedive issued a second decree in June, \ 1878, declaring "that the researches of the Com- ; \ mission of Inquiry should extend to all the features • of the financial situation, subject, however, to the legitimate rights of the Government." The Com- » mission as finally appointed consisted of M. de \ Lesseps, president ; of Mr. Rivers Wilson, together ; with Riaz Pasha, as vice-presidents ; and of Me3srs. * Bavarelli,. Baring, de Blignieres, and Von Kremer.

The records of this Commission have very little general interest at the present day. For my purpose, they are only noteworthy as illustrating the extraA ordinary energy and astuteness with which Ismail( fought against the inevitable. His first proposition \ was that the Commission should consist solely of / M. de Lesseps and General Gordon. Two men less [ likely to bring to light facts which Ismail was anxious \ to keep in the background could hardly have been/