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 little light upon the international aspects of the questions at issue

The battle of Tel-el- Kebir was fought on 13th September. In the following month Lord Dufferin was sent to Cairo to report upon the situation. In December England agreed, though France demurred, to the abolition of the Dual Control The Dual which was effected by a Decree of 18th January, 1883. During this year Egypt continued under the de facto control of England, and little occurred to define her international position, beyond the repeated assurances of the English Government that its forces would be withdrawn at an early date. But in 1884 it became evident that the revenues of the country were insufficient to meet its expenditure without some relaxation of the Law of Liquidation. Preliminary negotiations took place with France, of which Parliament was informed in June, and on the 28th of that month a Conference of the Great Powers met at London for the discussion of the Egyptian question, primarily in its financial aspects. The Conference, at which the Ottoman representative took occasion to call attention to the Sovereign rights of the Sultan, broke up, without arriving at any conclusions, on 2nd August. The next step taken by the British government was to send Lord Northbrook to Egypt to examine into the state of its finances on the spot. On his recommendation the operation of the sinking fund provided by the Law of Liquidation was suspended by a ministerial letter, dated 18th September, till 25th October. The illegality was hardly to be avoided, but an action was thereupon commenced by the Caisse against the government, in which judgment was given