SECOND STAGE OF INTERVENTION. i8i had proved to him that all the embarrassments of Egypt were due in the past to the fact that the Khedive had treated the revenues of Egypt as his own, and that no arrangement they might make for the settlement of the State debts could possess any element of stability so long as his Highness retained the power of appropriating the revenues of the State to his own private use, he yielded to their representations, and finally became a partisan of their ideas. The Italian delegate, M. Bavarelli, was more desirous than any of his colleagues to avoid any drastic measures in respect of Ismail Pasha, and indeed his attitude, in common with that of most of the Italian officials in Egypt, gave some credit to the story current at that period that, in the days of his prosperity, Ismail Pasha had lent a very large sum of money to Victor Emmanuel on the security of the royal estates at Caserta. The Austrian delegate, Herr von Kremer, took up no very distinct line of his own, but, on the whole, sided with the majority.

I fancy the action of the Commission would not have been as decided and as unanimous as it proved / to be in the end, if Ismail had not to some extent!

over-reached himself by his own astuteness. The I word of order given to the officials of the Egjrptian / Government was to throw difficulties in the way of ( the Commission's obtaining the information necessary l for the discharge of their duties. By article No. 3 oy the decree appointing the Commission of Inquiry, " All ministers and functionaries of the Government