summarises its contents.

As far back as the year 1875 the Khedive Ismail began to discover that
the financial position of his Government was bad, and that it would be
impossible to keep up the payment of the interest on the debt at the
high rate of seven per cent., which Egypt had bound itself to pay. He
therefore applied to the British Government for advice and assistance.
In response to his representations, a Financial Commission, composed
of three members--Mr Cave, Colonel Stokes, and Mr Rivers Wilson--was
sent to Egypt for the purpose of inquiring into the financial position
of that country. They had no difficulty in coming to the conclusion
that it was unsound, and that the uneasiness of Ismail Pasha had not
been expressed a day too soon. They recommended that an arrangement
should be come to with the bondholders by which all the loans were to
be placed on the same footing, and the rate of interest reduced to
some figure that might be agreed upon. It then became necessary to
negotiate with the bondholders, who appointed Mr Goschen for the
English section, and M. Joubert for the French, to look after their
rights. The result of their efforts in 1876 was that they united the
loans into one, bearing a uniform rate of six per cent, instead of
seven, and that four Commissioners were appointed to look after the
debt in the interests of the bondholders, while two other European
officials were nominated--one to control the receipts, the other the
expenditure. In less than two years Ismail Pasha discovered that this
arrangement had not remedied the evil, and that the Government was
again on the verge of bankruptcy. It was at this juncture that the
Khedive applied to General Gordon, in the hope that his ability and
reputation would provide an easy escape from his dilemma.

General Gordon agreed to accept the post of President of this
Commission of Inquiry, and he also fell in with the Khedive's own wish
and suggestion that the Commissioners of the Debt should not be
members of the Commission. This point must be carefully borne in mind,
as the whole negotiation failed because of the Khedive's weakness in
waiving the very point he rightly deemed vital for success. Having
laid down the only principle to which he attached importance, the
Khedive went on to say that M. de Lesseps would act in conjunction
with General Gordon, and that these two, with some vague assistance
from financial experts, were to form the Commission. It