-, J i86 THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATE.

the funds may have been raised to meet the coupon of the Unified Debt.

Meanwhile, private negotiations had already commenced between the Khedive and Nubar with the view of the latter's returning to power, and he had at last consented to accept office again, in the hope that he might convince his Highness of the absolute necessity for the immediate and wholesale restitution of his private estates to the State, and that, by so doing, he might modify the stringency of the International intervention, which must manifestly be the result of the Commission of Inquiry.

Nubar arrived in Egypt in August, 1878, and was received most affectionately by the Khedive. On being asked his advice, he replied, according to his own statement, that the report of the Commission must be adopted, and that the private estates must .be forthwith surrendered to the State. He found, J, however, that the attitude of the Khedive was un-C changed. ** Never," was the answer he received. His Highness suggested a variety of expedients to avoid the necessity. He proposed to place his estates in the hands of the Scheik el Islam at Constantinople, who would hold them in trust under the sacred law of the Koran. He next offered to give the Commissioners of the Public Debt the right to mortgage his estates to their full value, and to authorize them to employ the proceeds for the service of the debt ; but he kept on repeating that nothing would induce him / to part with his own property.