THE SECOND NUBAR PASHA MINISTRY. 367 He Utterly ignored the existence of the Government he was supposed to serve ; he paid no attention to the remonstrances of the Prime Minister ; he disputed the authority of his British colleague, Sir Benson Maxwell, who held the post of Procureur-General ; and in the end his resolve to carry on the duties of his department in his own way, and after his own fashion, became so inconsistent with the respect due to his nominal superior, that Nubar tendered his resignation, and only withdrew it on the assurance that Clifford Lloyd's services would shortly be transferred to some less perilous sphere of action. The promise was carried out, and after a short return to Ireland, Mr.

Lloyd was appointed British Consul at Erzeroum in Persia, where he died of cholera soon after his arrival. Great excuse must be made for a man who was placed, against his will, in a position for which he was absolutely unfitted, and who was embittered by the consciousness that his appointment in Egypt, though nominally a promotion, was in truth a recognition of the fact that his services in Ireland had resulted in failure. All the same, I have always regarded it as a not unmixed "calamity that his diplomatic career should have been cut short before he had had time to embroil us in hostilities either with Russia or with Persia, or possibly with both. In respect to Egypt, the conflict between Nubar and Clifford Lloyd is only important as an instance of the constant opposition which the former had to face throughout his Premiership.