I 34 THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATE.

/were taken in the name of M. de Lesseps on account / of Said Pasha, it being understood between him and / the Viceroy that they were to be transferred to the S latter on paying the calls in due course. Upon Said Pasha's death, a question arose as to how far the calls \ then due on allotment constituted a liability on Said's \ private estate, or upon the nominal holder. Without I expressing any opinion on a moot point of law, it is obvious that if the liability in question had been seriously disputed by Said's successor, the Suez Canal Company and M. de Lesseps would have been placed in a position of extreme difficulty. Ismail was anxious to deprive the Company of certain privileges granted by the Said concession, which in his opinion militated against his own supremacy as the Lord Paramount of Egypt. At the same time he was very reluctant to do anything which might prevent or retard the completion of the Canal, and thereby expose him to the hostility of France and of the Imperial Court, both of whom had taken M. de Lesseps' scheme under their protection. In order, therefore, to disarm the opposition of M. de Lesseps to the proposed modifications of the original contract, Ismail volunteered of his own accord, not only to take over the whole liabilities of his predecessor in respect of his allotment of shares, but to forego the arrangement under which the calls were to be paid in fifteen successive years, and to hold the shares on the same footing as any ordinary shares. Thereby he acknowledged his liability to pay any calls that might be made by the Company. The