Page:The European Concert in the Eastern Question.djvu/119

 drawn up by Nubar Pasha in 1867, and communicated to the Powers. Negotiations followed, and commissions of delegates of the Powers sat at Cairo in 1869 and at Constantinople in 1873. The result of their labours was a draft Règlement cV Organisation Judiciaire pour les Procès Mixtes en Égypte, by Art. X of which foreigners are empowered to bring actions against the Egyptian Government and the estates of the Khedive. The French Government gave its adhesion to the Règlement, with certain modifications, in a Protocol signed on behalf of that government and of the Khedive on l0th November, 1874. The Powers which sooner or later became parties to the arrangement were fourteen in number, viz. Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, France, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Sweden and Norway, and the United States. New Codes, to be administered by the Courts, came into The New operation on i8th October, 1875, and the Courts themselves were opened for business on 1st January, 1876.

The powers of the Courts, originally granted for five years, have been prolonged, by a series of Decrees, to 1st February 1882, to 1st February 1883 , to 1st February 1884 , and lastly to 1st February 1889.

The pressure of debt had already become serious. In November, 1875, the year preceding the opening of the Courts, canal the Khedive sold his Canal shares to the British government, and Mr. Cave was sent out, at the request of Nubar Pasha, to