EGYPT UNDER BRITISH SUPERVISION. 43; were suspected at Abdin of being in favour of Ismail's restoration to the Vice-regal throne. In view of such a contingency, the Khedive was naturally anxious to assert his authority, and to free himself from the reproach of being a mere puppet in the hands of England. Nubar, at the same time, was hostile to the precedence claimed by the British officials in the administration of the country. Thus both his Highness and his Prime Minister had a common interest in clearing themselves at this period from the supposition that they approved of the policy pursued by England in regard to Egypt ; and this fact brought them into more intimate and friendly relations than had previously existed between the Khedive and the Premier. The collapse of the Convention preceded by a few weeks the death of Valentine Baker, who held the office of head of the police. Thereupon, Nubar, with the approval of his Highness, proposed that the successor to Baker should be a native ; that the British officers in the police force should be dismissed ; and that the duty of maintaining order, not only in the capital, but in the provinces, should be entrusted, as in former days, to the local native authorities.

If this proposal had been made some months earlier, while the negotiations with Turkey were thought likely to succeed, it might have had some chance of success. But when Turkey, acting under the influence of France and Russia, had rejected the Wolff- / Mukhtar Convention, our Government at last realized \ the truth, that our occupation of Egypt could not J