The financial difficulty remained. In spite of the prosperity of Egypt, she is, as everyone acquainted with her history is aware, bound hand and foot by international fetters in matters financial. The Caisse de la Dette, founded to protect Egyptian creditors against the dangers of bad administration, has remained to be an obstacle to any improvements that must benefit these interests. The practical outcome of the system is that, if the Caisse be hostile—and hostile it has often been—no public work like the Nile Reservoir can be carried out without the imposition of extra taxation to the amount of double the annual expenditure required. Time passed, the need became more pressing, but the prospects of the Reservoir seemed further off than ever. Besides the regulation of her water-supply, Egypt had on her hands the question of the Soudan. From every point of view the reconquest of that province and the upper waters of the Nile was a prime necessity; no one could tell how long the war might last, or how great the expense might be. It seemed impossible that she could bear the cost of two such enterprises simultaneously, and under such circumstances her credit would not have been sufficient to raise the capital sum required on anything like reasonable terms. Not only so, but by the peculiar constitution of Egyptian finance it was illegal for her to raise a loan without the consent of the Caisse, a consent which it was impossible to obtain. But, fortunately for Egypt, there were a few men with clearer vision and more faith in the future, and chief among these was Lord Cromer. The statesman who had controlled the tangled destinies of Egypt through so many dark years, and baffled so many tortuous intriguers, as well as more open foes, was not the man to despair in such a situation. In 1897 the first negotiations were quietly opened with Sir E. Cassel. Then came the vote of the majority of the Caisse to grant £500,000 towards the Soudan Railway, and the successful action taken in the Courts against that vote. Everyone knows how this seeming defeat was turned to overwhelming victory by the decision of the English Government to grant £750,000 for the railway on certain conditions. The enemies of England in Egypt received a staggering blow. But the story was not yet complete. In April, 1898, Sir E. Cassel arrived at Cairo; in one day the details of the arrangements to finance the Dam were settled; all that night the lawyers drafted the necessary documents; a Council of Ministers was hastily called in the morning, and the contracts were signed. Sir E. Cassel was to provide the necessary funds for the execution of the work, £2,000,000; repayment by the Egyptian Government was to be deferred altogether for five years, and then to be spread over a period of thirty years. The first payment of about £78,000 is included in the Budget for 1903.