446 THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATE.

foreign countries, as influenced by their interests, jealousies, and ambitions. Owing to his distrust of his father, and to his lack of cordial sympathy with his brothers, he had not at his service any intimate adviser on whom he could rely with confidence ; and, in common with all persons called upon to administer affairs of which they have no personal knowledge, he was at times unduly credulous ; at others, unduly suspicious. Moreover, he entertained a not altogether unjust conviction that all the persons with whom he came into official relations had interests in view which, more often than not, were in conflict with his own.

He had, however, the great qualities of common sense, and of an honest desire to do the best for himself and his country in a position of extreme difficulty. He was comparatively free, also, from the French proclivities which had often biased the judgment of his predecessor on the throne. At heart, I suspect, he had no liking for foreigners ; but of foreigners he disliked the English the least. The reasons for this preference are obvious. In the first place, he was convinced that England desired to maintain him upon the throne, while he could place no reliance in this desire being shared by any other of the leading European Powers. He was, indeed, shaken in his confidence in Great Britain at the time of our negotiations with Turkey ; but when these negotiations fell to the ground, his confidence was restored. He bitterly resented the enforced evacuation of the Soudan, but •when he saw that England felt it her duty to protect