SECOND STAGE OF INTERVENTION. 18$ that the interest then falling due must be paid, and that if the interest was not paid, further action would become necessary. The Khedive next appealed to the British Government, through our then Consul-General, Mr. Vivian, who had succeeded Colonel Stanton in 1877 ; but in spite of the opinion expressed . by the British representative in favour of this appeal, the Foreign Office instructed him to impress upon the Khedive the urgent importance of making no default in the payment of the interest on the Unified Debt while the Commission was pursuing its inquiry, and thereby implicitly endorsed the action of France, When it was seen that England and France were* prepared to act in harmony, the Khedive realized/ that further resistance was dangerous, and by some S means or other money begun again to flow rapidly I into the public treasury, and the May coupon ) was duly paid. How this payment was effected has never been clearly ascertained. Some months later Omar Pasha Lutfi, who had more or less succeeded to the position of the Mufettish, stated — in reply to a request- from the Nubar- Wilson Ministry, as to what amount of money they might rely on receiving within a certain time — -that the ministers had only to name the amount required for their purpose and the time within which it must be paid, and they might rely on their requirements being met, on the sole condition " that no questions must be asked as to how it had been procured." The offer was rejected, but the fact of its being made indicated clearly enough how