5i8 THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATE.

adjacent bazaars. The Europeanization of Cairo had commenced before the opening of the Suez Canal, and made rapid progress during the era of the loans, when money flowed into Egypt like water. In the course of. a few years the waste ground lying behind the Esbekieh gardens became covered with a new suburb, called Ismailia, composed exclusively of European houses. The collapse of Egyptian credit in 1874 stopped the extension of Cairo, and little or no progress was made towards the completion of the new city during the troubled years of Ismail's deposition, of the Arabi insurrection, and of the period of suspense which ensued after the British occupation. It was only when it became evident that our occupation was destined to be permanent, that confidence was felt by all classes of the Egyptian community, native as well as foreign, in the lasting maintenance of law and order under British supervision. When Egypt once realized the advantages of the new order of things, money once more flowed into the Treasury, not as formerly, derived from foreign loans, but provided from the hoards of the wealthy natives and from the pockets of European investors in Egyptian agricultural and industrial undertakings.

In the course of the ten years which preceded the re-conquest of the Soudan, Cairo was completely reconstructed by private enterprise. Anybody who had last seen it, say in the days of the Wolfi" Mission, would fail, I think, to recognize the new capital which has replaced the Cairo of a preceding generation.