414 THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATE.

Government against invasion or insurrection, but in this case England reserved to herself the power of taking part in any armed intervention on the part of Turkey. The Great Powers were also to be invited, on the conclusion of the Convention, to recognize and guarantee the neutrality of Egypt. The real gist of the Convention lay in the fact that it established formally the provisional character of the British occupation ; that it fixed a positive date at an early period for the withdrawal of our troops ; and that it distinctly recognized the right of Turkey, as the Suzerain Power, to take upon herself, under certain probable contingencies, the military occupation of Egypt.

One would have said beforehand that, as in respect of Egypt, the one desire of France was, and is, to get England out of the country, and that of Turkey was, and is, to get back into the country, these two Powers would certainly have welcomed the Wolff-Mukhtar Convention. Happily for England, this anticipation was not realized. As soon as the terms of the Convention were made public, there was an outcry in France that it contained no recognition of her exceptional interest in Egypt, while it studied the susceptibilities of England by leaving a door open for a joint military occupation with Turkey, in which France was not even invited to take a part The French Ambassador at Constantinople was in-\ structed, in conjunction with his Russian colleague, to bring pressure to bear on the Porte, to secure L