Baring wrote to the home government that the situation was so far improved that in his judgment “it would take a series of untoward events seriously to endanger the stability of Egyptian finance and the solvency of the Egyptian government.”  The corner had been turned, and progressive financial relief was at length afforded the long-suffering Egyptian people in the year 1890.  After several years of financial betterment, it was decided to devote future surpluses to remunerative objects, such as works of irrigation, railway extension, the construction of hospitals, prisons, and other public buildings, and in the improvement of the system of education.  Great difficulty was experienced in making use of this surplus, on account of technical hindrances which were persistently placed in the way of the Egyptian government by the Caisse de la Dette.  These difficulties are now almost entirely removed.

In 1896 it was decided, as has been narrated, to be for the interest of Egypt to start a campaign against the dervishes.  Appeal was made to the Caisse de la Dette to raise additional funds for the necessary expenses of the projected campaign.  The Caisse, following its universal precedent, immediately vetoed the project.  England then made special grants-in-aid to Egypt, which both aided the Egyptian government and greatly strengthened her hold upon Egypt.  By means of this timely assistance, Egypt was enabled successfully to pass through the period of increased expenditure incurred by the reconquest of the Sudan.

During the lifetime of Khedive Tewfik, who owed his throne to the British occupation, there had been little or no disagreement between the British and Egyptian authorities.  In the year 1887 Sir Henry Drummond Wolff prepared a convention, in accordance with which England promised to leave Egypt within three years from that date.  At the last moment the sultan, urged by France and Russia, refused to sign it, and the occupation which these two Powers would not agree to legalise even for a period of three years was now less likely than ever to terminate.  The following year Tewfik dismissed Nubar Pasha, who had, by the advice of the foreign Powers, stood in the way of reforms planned by the English officials.

Tewfik died in 1892, and was succeeded by Abbas Hilmi Pasha, called officially Abbas II.  He was born in 1874, and was barely of age according to Turkish law, which fixes magistracy at eighteen years of age in the case of the succession to the throne.  He came directly from the college at Vienna to Cairo, where his accession was celebrated with great pomp; and the firman, confirming him in all the powers, privileges, and territorial rights which his father had enjoyed, was read from the steps of the palace in Abdin Square.  For some time the new khedive did not cooperate with cordiality with Great Britain.  He was young and eager to exercise his power.  His throne had not been saved for him by the British, as his father’s had been, and he was surrounded