176 THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATE.

selected. M. de. Lesseps, though he was doubtless desirous of promoting the interests of France, was strongly opposed to any interference with the supreme authority of the Khedive ; while Gordon, who was a child in business matters, entertained an unreasoning prejudice against capitalists in general and the Egyptian bondholders in particular. Amidst his many eccentricities, he had formed an opinion of his own about the Khedive, which, to say the least, was at variance with that of the world at large. Indeed, about this period, he had in conversation expressed a hope that, when he lay on his death-bed, he might feel that throughout his life he had been as honest a man as the Khedive. With his usual imperfect understanding of European politics, Ismail doubtless imagined that — de Lesseps and Gordon being both popular favourites in their respective countries — any report they might agree upon could commend itself to public opinion both in France and England, while, with his usual keen understanding of how things can be worked in the East, he felt confident their report could be so manipulated as to serve his own / ends. Gordon, however, with one of his rare flashes / of common sense, declined the offer; and Ismail had \ no choice but to accept the Commission as constituted in the way I have described. The Commission sat from the 13th April, 1878, up to the 19th August. At the outset Ismail still retained the hope that it would confine itself to ascertaining the general indebtedness of Egypt and the expedients by which the deficit