362 THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATE.

opinion that England was the Power best qualified to exercise this domination with the most advantage to Egypt. The course of events, which Nubar himself may probably have accelerated, had led to the deposition of Ismail, to the removal of the most flagrant evils p( personal government, and to the establishment of a state of things, under which security from foreign attack and the maintenance of law and order were guaranteed by the protection of England. Nubar was far too clear-sighted a man to entertain the crude ideas of constitutional government which were put forward in Lord Dufferin's report, and wfiich found favour with English Liberals. The ideas had indeed been embodied in a decree, and have ever since laid dormant ; and Nubar, being a statesman of far higher intelligence than poor Midhat, was never carried away by the delusion that Egypt, or any other Mahometan country, could be governed by a native Parliament. He fully realized also, that the practical, as distinguished from the constitutional, reforms recommended by Lord Dufferin, to whose introduction England stood committed, could never be carried into execution unless they were initiated under the advice of European officials. He was therefore in no sense hostile t the employment of foreigners in the Egyptian service, while he recognized that, under the circumstances ot the case, the great majority of these officials must English. But he held persistently to the contention n that the European element in the various departmenti:=5