Note 196 — Chapter XXVII · GENERAL GORDON’S MISSION.

When Ismail abdicated under the pressure of France and England it was not made clear that he abandoned all his rights as a private landowner in Egypt. Theoretically the Khedive could not, according to Oriental usage, own any land in his dominions save as head of the State, in which capacity he owned all land. Hence, when he ceased to be Khedive, his private domains reverted to his successor. Hence Lord Granville always rejected Ismail’s claim. But in 1888 Lord Salisbury, through the agency of Mr. Marriott, Judge Advocate-General, commuted all Ismail Pasha’s claims for a lump sum, calculated on the allowances he was bound to make his family, and which he himself might fairly demand to support his position as ex-Khedive. Lord Salisbury’s object was to prevent these claims from being ever made the basis of operations for diplomacy hostile to England.