THE ORIGIN OF THE KHEDIVIAL DYNASTY. 17

her sovereign rights over Egypt as a Turkish province,

or, in simpler words, accepting the payment of tribute

as a sign of suzerainty, agreed to recognize the claim ofl^ahomet Ali_to,the title_j:^. Viceroy of Egypt, ^nd

to grant the right of succession to the Vice-regal

throne to his lawful heirs.

The net result of this compromise was that France regarded hersel£_iind was^regarded in JEgypt. as_the

jgrotector of^ the Vice-regal dynasty, while England

was considered the .special champion pf Tjirkisb.

suzerainty. This impression, whether true or false,

had, and still has, a considerable influence on the * course of events in Egypt. At the period when

Mahomet Ali attained his lifelong ambition by being recognized as the hereditary ruler of Egypt, he was

well over seventy, an age far older in the East than it

is in the West He never quite recovered the dis-

appointment of his second aspiration, that of extending his dominions in Asia Minor till he had attained a

position from which he could dictate terms to Turkey.

He lived on for some years, soured and broken-hearted. "He abdicated in 1848 in favour of his son Ibrahim,

but resumed his Vice-royalty on the death of Ibrahim two months after his accession to the throne. The

death of his eldest son was the crowning blow in the

series of disappointments which embittered the last

days of Mahomet Ali's life. Ibrahim was a man after his own heart, fearless, unscrupulous, masterful, fitted

to complete the edifice of which his father had laid the

foundations. /That edifice may be briefly described as (^

c