THE ACCESSION OF ISMAIL PASHA. 53 led Ismail to believe that Europe was prepared to>. grant him an unlimited credit. He possessed a sort of superficial financial ability, which, in public as well as private affairs, is certain to lead its owner / into difficulties. He was surrounded by native and / foreign capitalists, who all vied with one another in/ their assurances that they were prepared to advance/ him any funds he might require, and that there would be no difficulty about renewing the loans effected for his behalf on the credit of Egypt. These\ assurances were not altogether fallacious. The credit )rpcJCi of Egypt as a borrower stood then exceptionally high f iiocn on the Stock Exchange of Europe. The period of ( i Ismail's accession coincided with the abolition of slavery 1 in the United States during the Secession War; and, \ L\/a owing to the cessation of cotton supplies from the Southern States, the price of Egyptian cotton rose by leaps and bounds. Those amongst my readers ; whose memories go back to the days of the Secession War, cannot fail to recall how universal was the \ belief in England, in 1863, that the Civil War in America would go on for an indefinite period, and ; could only terminate, if at all, in the complete destruc- / tion of the cotton industry in America.

Just about this period, I, having recently returned from America, had the honour of an interview with Mr. Gladstone, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, under Lord Palmerston's second Ministry, and in the course of our conversation was assured by him that the recognition of the Confederate States was agreed