As on former occasions I was allowed by the Commander-in-Chief to undertake this duty, the Assistant-Commandant and Brigade-Major carrying on my duties at Chatham in my absence. The Commission held its first meeting in Paris on the 26th. Novr. and did not conclude its labours till the 29th. April 1880.

We decided to visit the harbours of Marseilles, Genoa and Naples on our way to Egypt, leaving Leghorn, Trieste and Venice to be visited on our way home. We started on the 28th. Novr. for Marseilles which is a very interesting harbour, entirely artificial, and created by the construction of a huge breakwater across the front of the town, inside of which are docks, quays and wharves. Here we took various information as regarded the mode of conducting business in the port, the dues levied, the class of ships and the extent of the works. My companions on this journey were M. la Roche from France and M. Dionisio the Italian. I took with me as my private secretary, Mr. Bensley, a retired Admiralty official now married to one of the Miss Rankens.

We left Marseilles on the 1st. Decr. for Genoa. We had a long cold journey and put up at the Hotel Isotta which was very good. We visited the port works next day, and found them most interesting.

The Gulf of Genoa forms a far better natural harbour than that which exists at Marseilles and the works thrown out there protect it against the roll of the sea. It was a lively day and the town of Genoa looked beautiful from the water. We visited various public offices and took evidence on some subjects as before. Here, at Genoa, I met some old Galatz friends the Rodocanachis, with whom it gave me great pleasure to renew my acquaintance of ten years before. Beautiful as had been the day when we were inspecting the harbour, when we left Genoa on the night of the 3rd. Decr. we started in a perfect blizzard of wind and snow, so heavy that we had difficulty in arriving at the station. We got off, however, and arrived the next day at Rome where we remained only a few hours, barely sufficient for me to take my friend Bensley for a hurried drive through the ancient city. It was just enough to make the impossibility of staying longer and seeing more most tantalising to him. From Rome we went on to Naples, where the harbour did not offer much to help us. On the second day after our arrival we went on to Foggia; where we slept, and thence the next day to Brindisi and, after a fairly good voyage, reached Alexandria on the 11th. Decr. I met on board Lady Augusta Loftus on her way to join her husband, then Governor of New South Wales, whom I had previously known as H.M. Ambassador at Berlin.

At Alexandria our principal work began. We visited the new harbour works, which had been constructed by Sir George Elliott, though his name did not appear, the nominal Directors being Greenshields and Company. Here I became acquainted with Capt. Blomfield R.N. who was Captain of the Port, and Morice Bey who was the head of the lighthouse service. The Consul, Mr. Cookson, was an old Constantinople friend. We had many conferences with the contractors, engineers, and merchants of the place, as well as with the above named people. I was invited by Cookson to meet Sir Richard Burton the traveller at dinner. He was an interesting man but I was so disgusted with his language that I took an early opportunity of leaving the table. After nearly a fortnight, I went up on the 24th. Decr. to Cairo in order to pass my Christmas there.

During my stay at Alexandria I had received secret instructions to endeavour to obtain from the Egyptian Government the removal of the obstacles in the channel leading into the Alexandrian harbour through the outer reef, which made it impossible for vessels to enter at night-time or in bad weather. The fine harbour works constructed by Elliott would, it was judged, gain very much in value by the opening of a good, straight, deep channel into the outer harbour.

The Egyptian Government had hitherto steadfastly opposed any improvement of this kind on account of their wish to keep it difficult for the Suzerain Power, or, indeed for any Power, to send large vessels of war into the harbour.

In order to carry out my instructions, I had several interviews while at Cairo with the young Khedive, Tewfik Pasha , whose acquaintance when heir apparent, I had made on a previous occasion, and with his Grand Vizier, Riaz Pasha. I succeeded in inducing both Tewfik Pasha and the Grand Vizier to see the advantage of completing their fine works by deepening the entrance; and I undertook to persuade the merchants of Alexandria to consent to such a tariff of dues as would repay the cost of the works. I had already sounded the principal merchants there on the subject, and had found a strong disposition on their part to facilitate this improvement, by consenting to a moderate scale of harbour dues to cover the expense.

In all of this negotiation I received the cordial and warm support of Mr. Mallet, who had succeeded my friend Stanton as Consul-General.

While I was dining with him one evening, we were startled by the announcement that Gordon Pasha had arrived, and presently in he walked, straight from his dangerous mission to King John of Abyssinia. With his usual simplicity of character he took his seat as though he had just come in from next door. All he had to say was of the greatest interest, and, as he had not been heard of for some time, anxiety had been felt for his safety.

After twelve days at Cairo I went down with M. Victor de Lesseps and others to the Suez Canal. M. Laroche joined us at Ismailia and we went on to Suez, from whence we made a voyage through the Canal, carefully visiting various points and reaching Port Said on the 7th. January. M. Laroche was specially interested in this inspection as he had passed many years of his life at Port Said, where he was the engineer in charge of the construction of the harbour and piers. All the employees and workpeople of the Canal remembered him well, and he was, therefore, pleased to see them all again. We stayed a short time at Ismailia on our way back, to get certain information that I required, and thence made our way to Alexandria by train. Here we resumed our examinations of the various officials with a view to obtaining data on which to frame the tariff of dues that we meant to submit for adoption to the full Commission on our return to Paris. 1, at the same time, carried on negotiations with the merchants, and held one or two meetings to consider the question of the tax they would consent to for the improvement of the entrance to the harbour. The result was that we framed a tariff for harbour works with such an eventual addition to the various dues as would pay for the entrance channel works, if they were ever undertaken. I had carried my negotiations with Riaz Pasha and the Khedive so far, when in Cairo, that they had consented to the appointment of a small international Commission of Engineers to meet in London, for the purpose of making recommendations as to the best mode of deepening the entrance.

I therefore had the satisfaction of feeling, on leaving Alexandria, that I had fully carried out the secret instructions which I had received. This I had done, not as if I was instructed to do so, but as if, on my own initiative.

I had carried with me my International technical colleagues, and it was they who were eventually appointed by the Egyptian Government to be members of the International Commission to meet in London. During my last week at Alexandria, on the 16th. January, I received the grievous news from my dear Gina that her Mother had been stricken down again by another stroke of paralysis, and was not expected to live for more than two or three days. In this trouble I had the warm sympathy of my friends, the Blomfields. Mrs. Blomfield was an especially nice, kindly person. Happily, two days later I had better news from Gina, which was confirmed later.

We left on the 23rd. January for Venice and Trieste.

I received great assistance at Alexandria from Mr. Chapman, the Agent of the P. and 0. Company, Mr. Carver one of the leading merchants, Mr. Cookson, the Consul, and Morice Pasha, in my arrangements with the Alexandrian people.

We had a fairly smooth passage to Brindisi and up the Adriatic, reaching Venice on the 28th. January. We did not stay any time in Venice, but took train to Trieste, which we reached the same evening. Here I had the pleasure of meeting M. Zamara, who had been one of my Austrian colleagues on the Constantinople Commission in 1873. We visited the authorities of the Port, and received every assistance from them in inspecting the harbour and examining the works, as well as all the details of the harbour management, the port dues etc. We also went over the establishments of the Austrian Lloyds S.N. Company.

During our stay at Trieste I visited the palace of Miramar, which was formerly the residence of the ill-fated Archduke Maximilian, before he became the Emperor of Mexico. The most attractive thing to me in the palace was a portrait of the Empress Maria Theresa, a portrait worthy of the strong personality rendered especially interesting to me owing to my long residence in the neighbourhood of the Hungarian frontier.

I stayed rather longer at Trieste than my colleagues, and before leaving there called on Mrs. Burton the wife of Consul Burton, the great traveller, whom I had met and disliked at Alexandria a few weeks before. She was almost as eccentric as her husband, but a fine looking woman and very tall.

Mr. Brock, the Vice-Consul, was very attentive and obliging. He took me for a drive in the country on the last day of my stay. A great feature of the hills round Trieste is their hard, sterile look; they are covered with stones. Mr. Brock told me that in the old Napoleonic Wars, England drew her supplies of oak from these parts, which accounted for the hills being so denuded of timber. The authorities were, at the time of my visit, trying to get plantations of the Pinus Austriacus to grow on the stony hill sides, and I walked along the rows of plants - each carefully rooted in the soil underlying the stones. These stones were of varying sizes, from a cricket ball to a man's head. By careful watching and nursing the plants were beginning to grow well.

I started on the 2nd. Febr. on which day I travelled through Bologna to Florence, and the next day went on to Leghorn, where I was met by M. Laroche and Dionisio. We there visited the harbour works and went, on the 5th. to Genoa.

Leaving Genoa at a very early hour on the 6th., I had a delightful journey to Marseilles: the day was lovely and the scenery most exquisite. The railway follows the coast, plunging through short tunnels, from one little bay into another; a succession of lovely pictures of the coast is thus presented to the traveller.

At Marseilles we again visited the port and authorities, and the harbour works, after which we started for Paris.

Our first days at Paris were devoted to drawing up the report of the technical committee which had visited the various harbours, for the consideration of the full body of the Commission. This took nearly a week, at the end of which I returned home for a few days to see my poor wife. I found her in a most grievous condition. She was helpless and unable to speak or do anything for herself, and, being hardly able to swallow, it was a matter of great difficulty to keep her alive.

I happily reached England in time to be present at my son Alfred's Public Day at Woolwich, which came off on the 17th. February. His commission in the Royal Artillery was dated 18th. February 1880. My poor wife's seizures seemed always to come at moments which deprived her of special pleasures. The first happened when I got the K.C.B. and then again when her dear son got his commission. It would have been a source of joy and pride if she could have realised it.

After a few days in England I returned to Paris, to continue my work on the Alexandria harbour dues Commission. During my absence in Egypt, unfortunately for me, a change of Government took place, so that, instead of finding Lord Salisbury at the head of the Foreign Office, I had to deal with Lord Granville. I was indeed favourably known to him in former years, but in this particular mission in which I had been engaged, he did not take any interest; and, therefore, my successful accomplishment of the secret instructions I had received, did not meet with any response from him.

I reached Paris again on the 23rd. Febr. and resumed, with M. Laroche and M. Dionisio, the consideration of our technical Report, which we revised, and completed by recommendations as to the tariff of dues to be levied. This tariff was framed on the lines that I had agreed upon with the Merchants at Alexandria. I was much occupied also in discussing with my colleague, Mr. Rainals, various points in a memorandum which he had drawn up, as it was important that he should be thoroughly well informed and able to support my views independently in the full Commission. M. Branca, the senior Italian delegate, was coached in the same way by M. Dionisio.

On the 5th. March I again returned home and stayed there till the 29th. when I returned to Paris to resume the discussion of the Alexandrian dues.

The Commission re-assembled on the 1st. April, and after holding 18 meetings, presented a tolerably harmonious Report to the Governments represented in it, but I do not remember ever to have had any acknowledgement even of the receipt of our despatches on the subject, still less any thanks for a very laborious duty.

At the end of April I had the great delight of welcoming my dear Edith on her return from Australia after an absence of nearly two years.

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