52 THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATE.

written in 1869, the year of the opening of the Suez Canal, I think its justice would have been endorsed by most foreigners conversant with Egyptian affairs.

/ If his subsequent career belied the promise of y the earlier years of his reign, great excuses must, in S common justice, be made for Ismail, Unlimited power *(u (. is well-nigh sufficient to ruin the highest nature ; but when unlimited power is combined with unlimited wealth, rapid deterioration is a matter of absolute certainty. No partisan of Ismail can say much more yin his favour than that[he wished well towards Egypt, as the instrument of his own aggrandizement But good wishes of such a kind, however genuine, are insufficient to stand against the temptation of wealth beyond the dreams of avarice. The success of * /" Said Pasha's loan, to which I have referred above, /' - ; proved the ruin of Ismail Pasha, and almost the ruin of Egypt. From the outset of his reign Ismail entertained a variety of ambitions, some creditable, some otherwise, but all of which had this feature in common, that their achievement was only possible by lavish expenditure, carried to an extent utterly surpassing the normal revenues of Egypt It is, to say the least, conceivable that, if Ismail had realized that the policy he intended to pursue must necessitate a drain on the resources of Egypt, (. which the country was 'quite unable to support, he might have foregone, or at any rate restricted, its execution. But the experience of Said's reign had