i88 THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATE.

It was obvious that if the Commission continued its investigations on these lines, they would ultimately J recommend that Egypt should be placed under a system of International control, by which the administration would be taken out of his own hands and transferred to those of Controllers appointed by the European Powers. According to his own phrase, repeated to me about this time, On veut fne mettre en Syndicat. He still shrunk from a final decision. When, however, he learnt that the members of the Commission of Inquiry had left one by one for Europe ; that Mr. Rivers Wilson was leaving in a day or two, accompanied by Nubar Pasha ; and that, in the event of his absolute refusal to carry out the recommendations of the Commission, immediate action would be taken on the arrival of the Commissioners in Europe, his resolution gave way, and he consented to sign the decree, handing over his private estates to the State.

The announcement of his Highness's intention to carry out the report of the Commission was made to Mr. Rivers Wilson, as the acting President of the Commission, and the only one of its members then remaining in Egypt, and was accompanied by a statement that the Khedive intended to establish Ministerial government in Egypt in lieu of personal government, in order to carry out the spirit as well as the letter of the report drawn up by the Commission of Inquiry.