Lord Cromer : a biography . though in my humbleopinion unwise, was not so absurd as it looks at first explanation is that the Law of Liquidation fixed an idealfigure for the national expenditure—a sum which in theopinion of the Powers Egypt ought not to go beyond. If therevenues of the Government exceeded this sum then theGovernment was to be regarded as having a surplus, nomatter what its real expenditure might have been; andin that surplus the Caisse might, under certain circumstances,have a claim. We have already seen how the intolerableinconvenience of the arrangement actuallv dr
Lord Cromer : a biography . though in my humbleopinion unwise, was not so absurd as it looks at first explanation is that the Law of Liquidation fixed an idealfigure for the national expenditure—a sum which in theopinion of the Powers Egypt ought not to go beyond. If therevenues of the Government exceeded this sum then theGovernment was to be regarded as having a surplus, nomatter what its real expenditure might have been; andin that surplus the Caisse might, under certain circumstances,have a claim. We have already seen how the intolerableinconvenience of the arrangement actuallv drovethe Egyptian Government within a few weeksof the perusing of Sir Evelyn Barings despatchinto a technical breach of the law ; and it is acurious illustration of the inability of even thissagacious and farseeinof observer to forecast thefuture relations between that Government, underhis guidance, and the Commissioners of theCaisse, that he should have shown himself at thisperiod so much more solicitous to strengthen the. HI CEW< CO O < < CQ LUI H is a THE CONSUL-GENERAL AS FINANCIER 227 controlling hands of the latter than to enlarge theadministrative freedom of the former. But a brief recapitulation of the principal viewsenunciated by him in the despatch above quotedwill better enable us to define the position whichhe then occupied, and thus to measure thedistance to which he was soon to advancebeyond it. (1) He was at that time evidently contem-plating only a temporary and probably a notvery protracted prolongation of British militaryoccupation of Egypt and British direction ofher civil affairs. In this spirit he congratulatesHer Majestys Government on their being—mostwisely in his opinion—not prepared to assumethe government of Egypt, whether permanentlyin the form of annexing the country, or tem-porarily in the form of establishing a Pro-tectorate ; and he discusses the financialarrangements that should be made against theperiod when the British occupation c
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