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| THE STORY OF THE EMPIRE
. ' EDITED BY
HOWARD ANGU S K ENNEDY
THE STOHY OF THE EMPIRE
1/6 SERIES. -- 1/6
THE RISE OF THE EMPIRE.
By SIR WALTER BESANT.
THE STORY OF INDIA.
By DEMETRIUS C, BoulgeR.
THE STORY OF AUSTRALIA.
By FLORA L. SHAw.
THE STORY OF CANADA,
By HowARD A. KENNEDY.
THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA,
By W. BASIL WoRSFOLD.
NEW ZEALAND. -
By WILLIAM PEMBER REEVES,
THE STORY OF THE WEST INDIES.
By ARNOLD KENNEDY.
THE STORY OF WEST AFRICA.
By MARY H. KINGSLEY.
THE STORY OF EGYPT,
By W. BASIL WoRSFOLD.
THE STORY OF THE UGANDA
PROTECTORATE,
By GENERAL F. T. LUGARD.
THE STORY OF EGYPT
J
... ºf BY
Wy
wº BASIL WORSFOLD
LONDON
HORACE MARSHALL & SON
TEMPLE HOUSE
E.C.
#
CONTENTS.
MAP OF EGYPT.
*** *** * *
CHAP.
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
ANCIENT EGYPT - - -
THE MOHAMMEDAN CONQUEST -
*.
MOHAMMED ALI AND HIS DYNASTY -
INTERNATIONAL CONTROL - -
THE BRITISH OCCUPATION - A -
THE BEGINNING or Reforms -
THE LOSS OF THE SUIDAN ,- .
CONFLICTING AUTHORITIES -
IRRIGATION - * - - -
PAGE.
77
86
97
II 6
XI.
XII.
XIII.
XIV,
. JUSTICE - - - - -
EOU CATION - tº- *- - -
INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS - -
THE RECOVERY OF THE SUDAN -
THE INTERNATIONAL, FACTOR -
INDEX - * * º-
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CHAPTER I
ANCIENT EGYPT
HE story of Egypt goes back far into
the past. Two thousand years ago,
when the Greeks and Romans, the two great
nations of ancient Europe, were in their
prime, scholars and travellers used to go to
Egypt to look with reverential awe upon the
monuments, and learn the wisdom of the
priests. These monuments were the remains
of cities founded still another 2,000, or per-
haps even 3,000 or 4,000, years before ; that is
to say, they were further removed from the
men of the Graeco-Roman age, than the
remains of ancient Athens and Rome are
removed from us to-day. While Christ was
still on earth, a great Roman General, Ger-
manicus (so called because he had subdued
the savage tribes of Germany) visited Egypt;
and the few words of Tacitus in which his
visit is recorded, show what there was in the
2
2 THEBES
remains of ancient Egypt at that time to
attract the traveller from Imperial Rome:
“Germanicus sailed up the Nile . . . start-
ing from the town of Canopus. . . . Ere long
he surveyed the mighty remains of ancient
Thebes. Inscriptions in Egyptian characters
on obelisks remained, summing up its former
greatness; and one of the older priests, who
was bidden to interpret the national tongue,
related that at one time it had a population
of 700,000 men of military age,” and that
with that army King Rhamses had become
master of Libya, AEthiopia, the Medes and
Persians, Bactria and Scythia, and the coun-
tries inhabited by the Syrians, Armenians,
and the neighbouring Cappadocians; and
that thence his Empire had stretched on the
one side to the Euxine, and on the other to
the Lycian Sea. The tributes appointed to
the several races were read out ; the weight
of silver and of gold, the number of arms and
horses, and the contributions for the temples
in ivory and perfumes, and the amounts of
corn and of Supplies in general, which each
people paid—a revenue no less ample than is
to-day exacted by the might of Parthia, or
the authority of Rome.
“But Germanicus studied the other marvels
also, of which the most notable were the
*This would give a total population of five times that
number, i.e. 3,500,000 inhabitants.
ANTIQUITY OF EGYPT 3
stone image of Memnon, which gives a vocal
Tsound when struck by the rays of the Sun,
and the Pyramids raised mountains high
among the loose and almost impassable Sands
by the ambition and power of the Kings, and
the Lake dug out of the earth to hold and
store the overflow of the Nile ; and else-
where, the Cataracts and the abysmal depth
which no explorer can fathom. Then he
went to Elephantine and Syene, once the
gates of the Roman Empire, which to-day
stretches to the Indian Ocean.”
The tourist of to-day visits these same
sights, except that Lake Moeris, which served
to store the waters of the Nile for ancient
Egypt, has gone—it became converted into
fruitful land during the period when Egypt
was a Roman province—and the Nile Reser-
voir, which English engineers are making
to fulfil the same useful purpose, is being
constructed at Assuan (Syene), some 5oo
miles higher up the river. Moreover, to
the marvels of ancient Egypt have been
added the remains of mediaeval Egypt; and
in particular Saracenic Cairo, the Moham-
medan capital which grew up a thousand
years later, provides a wilderness of beautiful
and fantastic architectural forms. º
* The note of Egypt, then, is its extreme
antiquity ; and with this antiquity the
civilized world has long associated the idea
4. WISDOM OF EGYPT
of immobility, adopting as the symbol of
Egypt the Pyramid, which is perhaps the
most ancient and the most permanent of all
the works of man. But to the ancient world
the wisdom of Egypt was as impressive as its
antiquity. The Greeks derived their earliest
knowledge of the arts, and of the principles
of religion and of government, either directly,
or indirectly through the Phoenicians, from
Egypt. Four hundred years before the time
of Germanicus, Herodotus, the “father of
history,” and Plato, the philosopher, had
visited Egypt to study and observe. Im-
pressed by the combined antiquity and
learning of the country, Herodotus writes:
“the real Egyptians, that is to say, the
inhabitants of the cultivated area of Egypt,
are by far the most learned people I have
come across, for they preserve the memory of
the past more than any other race.” A
thousand years still earlier than Herodotus,
Moses, who, Strabo asserts, was himself an
Egyptian priest, had used the social and
economic principles of Egypt to give a
constitution to the Jews. Not only has this
ancient constitution served to keep them
even now a separate people, in spite of their
dispersion among the European nations, but
it was from this people that the world
received a body of ethical teaching so
valuable that its principles remain to this
**
THE JEWS 5
day the foundation of our social life. Strabo,
who visited Egypt when the country had
just come under the rule of Rome—an event
which happened some thirty years before the
birth of Christ—says definitely that the Jews
were an offshoot or colony of the Egyptians;
and that Moses, the priest, led his following
away from their settlements in Lower Egypt,
because he and they could not endure the
state of affairs. Their grievance was a
religious one. “For he [Moses] said and
taught that the Egyptians were wrong in
representing the Deity in the form of wild
beasts and cattle . . . nor did he approve
even of the Greeks making images of the
gods in human form. According to him, God
was simply that which contains us all, and
the land and sea—what we call, the “heavens’
and the “universe' and “nature.” How could
any intelligent being, he argued, hope to
form an image of God, as thus understood,
by a likeness of any object known to our
senses 2 All images must be abandoned,
therefore, and His temple must be a place
apart, with a sanctuary in which no image
was set up ; there the holy and the just could
hold converse with Him by dreams in their
sleep, both for themselves and others; they
alone and not the unrighteous must hope to
receive a blessing and a sign.” -
Whether we accept Strabo's account of the
6 THE MONUMENTS
origin of the Jews, or prefer that of Moses
himself, there is no doubt but that the Jews
inhabited Egypt for some centuries;” and the
close contact between them and Egypt,
and the consequent light which Egyptian
antiquities throw upon Old Testament his-
tory, invest the study of ancient Egypt with
an additional and independent interest.
The remarkable thing is that we know
more about ancient Egypt now than the
Greeks and Romans did, although we are
2,000 years further away from it than they
were. This fact is full of significance. The
reason is that our outlook upon the Egypt of
the Pharaohs is obtained not mainly from
books, but from inscriptions carved on the
walls of the monuments, from these monu-
ments themselves, and from the actual
objects which the men and women of that
remote period used in their daily life,
marvellously preserved in tombs and sar-
cophagi. Moreover, the pictorial art of
ancient Egypt was so closely associated with
architecture, that the chief representations of
contemporary life by their artists consist of
Scenes engraved upon the walls of these
monuments. The preservation of the records
and monuments, with all they contain, is
due in part to the solidity of the materials
employed, and in part to the climate and
physical characteristics of the country.
|

*43o years according to Exodus, xii., 40. i
|
THE COUNTRY 7
This latter cause—the physical charac-
teristics of Egypt—must have a moment's
consideration.
Egypt, says Herodotus, is “the gift of
the Nile.” In this illuminating phrase we
have embodied the most striking character-
istics of the country. For Egypt, alike
to-day and in the past, is just so much of
the desert of north-eastern Africa as is
fertilized by the waters of the Nile. A
strip of cultivated land on either bank of
the Nile, and the funnel-shaped district
known as the Delta at the river's mouth,
which has been formed by the deposits that
the stream brings down, constitute inhabited
Egypt. The rest of the vast parallelogram
marked “Egypt” on the map is desert—
Twestwards of the Nile Valley the Libyan,
eastwards the Arabian/ In contrast to the
glittering white sands on either side, the
riband of fertile soil looks dark, and this
effect is reflected in the earliest name for
Egypt, the “black land ” as it is styled in
the hieroglyphics (Kem). The Hebrew name
is Mizraim, or Mazor, which survives to-day
in the Arabic Misr, or Masr, used by the
present inhabitants to designate their coun-
try. This name also is significant ; for the
common form Mizraim is dual in number,
and means “the two Egypts.” It points,
8 THE NILE
therefore, to that early period when Upper
and Lower Egypt had not as yet been united
under a single crown.
Apart from the fact that inhabited Egypt
is merely the “black land ” converted out of
desert sand by the Nile, two other physical
conditions remain to be noted—the dryness!
of the climate, and the abundance of stone.”
Upper Egypt is absolutely rainless; and in
Middle and even Lower Egypt the rainfall is
so slight, that the fields must be supplied
with moisture by irrigation. In fact, the
country depends for its supply of water solely
upon the river Nile, which fills its stream
from the great lakes of Central Africa and
from the mountains of Abyssinia. It is
owing to the extreme dryness of the atmos-
phere that the most ancient monuments, and
even the vegetable and animal matter buried
in the tombs, have been preserved through
thousands of years without decaying. The
existence of stone of the finest quality also
helped to make Egypt the land of monu-
ments. Not only had nature provided
abundant material for the ancient builders,
but the hills by which this material was
provided lay close to the stream of the great
river, on whose waters it could be conve-
niently carried to the sites which had been
chosen for cities and temples. Moreover,
in the marshy ground at the mouth of the
MANETHO 9
Nile grew a plant, the papyrus—a word
surviving in our “paper"—which afforded a
convenient substance, at once more durable
and more pliable than the skins of animals,
upon which the learned could write the
records of events: and so a literature was
early created, and works of literature were
widely distributed, at an earlier period in
Egypt than in any other ancient seat of
civilization. All of these circumstances have
combined to afford abundant material for the
archaeologist of to-day, and to make the Nile
Valley and the Delta the richest field of
antiquarian research.
Although four thousand years of Egyptian
history remains to be reconstructed out of the
isolated facts revealed by the monuments and
the papyri, yet we know enough already to
make the main features of successive epochs
sufficiently distinct. For this work of recon-
struction we possess a valuable auxiliary in
the thirty dynasties of Manetho, the historian
of ancient Egypt, who was high priest of the
Temple of Isis at Sebennytus, in Lower
Egypt, and lived at the beginning of the
Ptolemaic period (332–30 B.C.). He wrote
a complete history, which has perished with
the exception of some fragments embodied in
the works of other writers; but his list of the
successive kings, arranged in thirty dynasties,
has been preserved almost entire. These
IO THE DYNASTIES
thirty dynasties fall into three main groups.
The kings of the first to the eleventh dynasty
form the “old monarchy,” with its capital at
Memphis, a little southward of Cairo, and,
like the Mohammedan capital, commanding
the junction of the Delta with the Nile
Valley. The “middle empire * extended
from the twelfth to the seventeenth dynasty.
The period was characterised by the union of
Upper and Lower Egypt, and by the founda-
tion of Thebes, situated some 400 miles
southward of Memphis, which afterwards
became the most splendid of the cities of
Ancient Egypt. The kings of two of the
dynasties—the fifteenth and the sixteenth—
included in this period were aliens, and were
called the Hyksos or “Shepherd Kings.”
They seem to have been Syrian Beduins,
who, having overrun Egypt and established
themselves in the place of the Pharaohs,
adopted the manners of their Egyptian
subjects. The third period begins with the
expulsion of these alien rulers, and the
restoration of the Pharaohs. Afterwards
Thebes is adopted as the capital, and a
splendid era dawns in which the Egyptian
kings conquer the nations of Western Asia,
and endow their imperial capital with the
magnificent works of architecture the remains
of which are still standing after more than
3,000 years on either bank of the Nile.
FOREIGN RULE I I
It is in this last period—the period of
Empire—that the history of Egypt is mingled
with that of the Jews. Among the kings of
the nineteenth dynasty, which commences
roughly at 1450 B.C., are Ramses II.,
commonly identified as the Pharaoh of the
Oppression, and his successor Memptah,
probably the Pharaoh of the Exodus. Under
the earlier kings of this period the rule of
the Pharaohs was gradually extended, and the
conquest of Western Asia was achieved by
Ramses III., the first king of the twentieth
dynasty. During this period Egypt joins the
central stream of the world’s history, and
when the power of its kings has eventually
declined it surrenders its independence before
the victorious advance of Persia, under Cam-
byses, in B.C. 525. Henceforward, with the
exception of a brief interval (about 414—340
B.C.), in which the Pharaohs are restored,
the old Egypt is governed by a succession of
foreign masters, and the Original inhabitants
of the Nile Valley are submerged under
successive waves of immigration.
Before saying the little that must be said
of this period when Egypt was governed by
Persian and Greek kings, and then incor-
porated into the great System of the Roman
Empire, it will be useful to refer to certain
practical achievements, which placed the
ancient Egyptians ahead of the rest of the
|ll
I 2 LAKE MOERIS
world for many centuries. I have already
mentioned the Nile reservoir, known as Lake
Moeris. Herodotus, who saw it during the
period of Persian rule, describes it and the
vast group of temples and pyramids known
as the “Labyrinth,” which had been built on
its banks. The lake, he says, was artificial ;
and its waters were not produced by any
natural source—since the neighbourhood in
which it lay was absolutely rainless—but
were brought from the Nile by a canal.
“For six months it floweth inwards into the
lake, and for six months it floweth outwards
into the Nile again.” And so by the wisdom
of the Pharaohs the surplus water of the Nile
flood, instead of being poured uselessly into
the sea, was stored in Lake Moeris, and then
returned to the channel of the river in the
season of low Nile, to be used in watering the
fields. In addition to the canal, the lake had
an independent and subterranean vent by
which its own surplus waters were drained
off into the Libyan desert, westward of the
range of hills at the back of Memphis. The
existence of this work affords a striking proof
of the extent to which the ancient Egyptians
had advanced in civilization ; for, although
this storage of the water of the Nile is a
primary necessity for the development of the
country, Egypt has never possessed a Nile
reservoir since Lake Moeris was allowed to
PHARAOH NEKO I 3
fall into disuse in the Roman period. And
it is only to-day that the deficiency is being
remedied by the great stone dam which the
Tritish engineers are now constructing at
Assuan. But the achievements of the ancient
Egyptians were not confined to their own
country. In the reign of Pharaoh Neko
(about 665 B.C.) Africa was circumnavigated,
‘āńd the exploit of Vasco da Gama, the
Portuguese navigator, was anticipated by
2,000 years. The account of this exploit, which
is given by Herodotus, is interesting, because
the Greek historian refuses to believe that part
of the narrative which to us is the strongest
evidence of its truth. The Phoenician navi-
gators employed by Neko stated that in the
course of their voyage round the continent
from east to west—for they started in the
Red Sea—they saw the sun on their right
hand instead of on their left. This state-
ment would of course appear incredible to
persons who had never been south of the
Equator, and the fact that the Phoenician
sailors made it in the face of this incredulity
is the strongest possible proof that they had
accomplished their difficult task.
“Libya (Africa) is clearly surrounded by
sea,” says Herodotus, “with the exception of
the space covered by the isthmus which joins
it to Asia. Neko, the Egyptian king, was
the first to demonstrate this. Upon the
I4 EGYPTIAN SCIENCE
completion of the canal which connected
the Nile with the Arabian Gulf, he despatched
some Phoenician navigators, with instructions
to sail back round the continent to the
Northern Sea through the Pillars of Hercules,
and thus reach Egypt. The Phoenicians
accordingly started from the Red Sea and
sailed over the Southern Sea. And when-
ever their supplies gave out they put in to
the shore, and proceeded to sow the land with
seed. They did this at the several points of
•the continent which they reached in the
course of their voyage, and waited for the
harvest. After they had reaped the corn
they set sail, and thus, after two years had
gone by, in the third year they bent their
course through the Pillars of Hercules, and
came to Egypt. And they said—what I
refuse to believe, though others may do so if
they like—that in sailing round Libya they
had the sun to the right of them. The fact
of Libya being surrounded by sea was first
established by this expedition.”
Lastly, it is to Egyptian science that the
civilized world owed the information by
means of which the 365 days of the calendar
were harmonized with the actual duration of
the solar year. Eudoxus, who accompanied
Plato in his long residence in Egypt, obtained
from the Egyptian priests at Heliopolis a
knowledge of the fraction of the day and
ALEXANDER THE GREAT : 5
night by which the solar year exceeds the
365 days of the calendar. And it was by
means of this information that he was able to
revise the Greek calendar. Moreover, when
Julius Caesar, in B.C. 45, revised the Roman
calendar—which had at this time fallen two
and a half years behind the solar year—he
based his reforms upon the “Egyptian"
calendar introduced into Greece by Eudoxus.
This Roman calendar, called the “Julian *
calendar, or the “old style,” remains the
‘standard of time in some parts of Eastern
Europe to this day. And the western nations
continued to use it until the scientific advance
Öf the Renaissance had afforded the increased
, accuracy which was embodied in the calendar
introduced by Pope Gregory XIII., in 1582.
It was not, therefore, until the end of the
sixteenth century that the Egyptian priests
were outstripped in this respect by modern
science.
The rest of the story of ancient Egypt
must be sketched very briefly.
The period of Persian rule—with the
exception of the interval already mentioned
—lasted from 525 B.C. to 332 B.C., when
Alexander added Egypt to the conquests
which he had already achieved in Asia
Minor and Palestine, and founded on the
shores of the Mediterranean the new capital
which bears his name. In the following year
I6 THE PTOLEMIES
the defeat of Darius at Arbela was succeeded
by the downfall of the Persian Empire and
the victorious progress of the Macedonian
conqueror to the banks of the Indus. Upon
the death of Alexander (323 B.C.), and the
consequent partition of his empire, Egypt
fell to Ptolemy, the son of Lagos," his
general, and Arsinde, and the sovereigns of
this line — the Lagidae or Ptolemies —
governed the country to the year 30 B.C.,
when Egypt became a province of the Roman
Empire. During the Ptolemaic period Greek
officials and Greek ideas were paramount, and
Alexandria, the Ptolemaic capital, became the
centre of Greek art and thought. The natural
wealth of the Delta and the Nile Valley was
developed under the early Ptolemies, and
these native resources, together with the
command of the maritime trade of India and
the East Coast of Africa, made Egypt the
great emporium of the east and west, and
Alexandria a commercial centre which re-
mained for many centuries the rival of Rome
itself. After the death of Cleopatra and the
formal incorporation of the kingdom of the
Ptolemies into the system of Rome, Egypt
was governed from Rome until the division
6f the Empire in 395 A.D., when it passed as
* Ptolemy was the reputed son of Lagos and Arsinòe,
a concubine of Philip ; but it is believed that Philip
of Macedon—Alexander's father—was the real parent,
, ALEXANDRIA 17
part of the Eastern Empire into the control
of Byzantium or Constantinople. The main
interest of Egypt during the Roman period is
centred in its connection with the early
history of the Christian Church. It was at
Alexandria during the fourth century of Our
era that the battle of the Trinity was fought.
At this time the Archbishop, or Patriarch, as
he was afterwards called, of Alexandria,
possessed an influence more powerful than
that of any civil authority. “The struggle
of Athanasius for the doctrine of the divinity
of Christ is as heroic and momentous as the
conflict of Caesar and Pompeius for the
supremacy of the empire. Although the
doctrine of the Trinity had been ratified by
the Council of Nice in A.D. 325, the cause of
the Arians revived under the Emperor Con-
stantius, and George of Cappadocia was
thrust into the seat of Athanasius by the
forces of Sebastian. Two centuries later-—in
A.D. 528—the Patriarch Theodosius was
removed by Justinian because he refused to
recognize the decision of the Council of
Calcedon (A.D. 48 I); but the succession of
‘orthodox’ Patriarchs, maintained by the
arms of the Emperor of the East in the
patriarchal throne of Alexandria, did not
avail to secure the submission of the great
majority of the Christians of Egypt, nor
prevent the election of rival Patriarchs, sup-
3
18 THE COPTIC CHURCH
ported by the voluntary contributions of their
followers in lieu of the official stipends
appropriated by the Orthodox prelates. And
to this day the Christian Church of Egypt
is governed by the successor of Theodosius,
and the members of that Church, under the
name of Copts, or Egyptians, alone afford a
link by which the inhabitants of the Valley
of the Nile can be identified with the
Egyptians of antiquity.” ”
Although the prosperity of Alexandria was
seriously diminished by the expulsion of the
Jews through the action of the Patriarch
Cyril in 415 A.D., the town retained its com-
mercial importance as the emporium of the
eastern trade until the Byzantine period was
closed by the invasion of the Saracens in
638 A.D. Once more the land of the Nile was
destined to pass into the hands of an alien
race, and to have a new civilization grafted
upon the ancient stock of its inhabitants.
The change which was brought about by this
event was so complete, and the effects of that
change are so intimately connected with the
present condition of the country and its
inhabitants, that the narrative of the Moham-
medan conquest must be assigned to a separate
chapter.
* 7he Redemption of Egypt, by W. B. Worsfold.
CHAPTER II
THE MOHAMMEDAN
CONQUEST
THERE is no page in the world's history
more marvellous than that which
relates the rise of the Mohammedan power.
It is the most significant instance of what
personal energy, unaided by any single attri-
bute of power except its own fire, can achieve;
and it furnishes a standing refutation of
the materialist view which, by representing
man as enclosed in a web of circumstance,
would limit at once the opportunity and the
responsibility of the individual.
Mohammed was a Beduin Arab, who was
born at Mecca in 569 Å.D. His immediate
ancestors were the princes of that city, and
the hereditary priests of its sacred Temple, the
Kaaba; but he himself was an orphan, whose
share of the inheritance was cut down to an
2O MOHAMMED
insignificant pittance by the rapacity of his
uncles. At the age of 25, he became the
servant of Khadijeh, a wealthy widow, whom
he subsequently married, thereby securing the
independence of which he had been hitherto
deprived. In 609, when 40 years of age, he
assumed the mission to which he had been
called in his mystic communings with the
Divine Spirit, on Mount Hira, and, like Moses,
preached the Unity of God. The new
faith—the faith of Islam—was embodied in
the simple formula, There is but one God,
and Mohammed is his prophet. The principles
of the creed were alleged to have been divinely
revealed through his supernatural intercourse;
but they were, in fact, so much of Jewish
traditions and of the ascetic practices of
primitive Christianity as could be adapted to
the circumstances of the Arabian tribes. The
isolated utterances of Mohammed were
inscribed by his disciples, as they fell from his
lips, upon palm leaves and fragments of bone;
and it was not until two years after his death
(632 A.D.) that the sacred collection was
gathered up into one book, and the Koran
(book) became a standard of faith and
manners destined to be introduced to a third
of the world's inhabitants by the Arab nation,
now definitely launched upon its career of
conquest. .
For thirteen years Mohammed laboured at
FLIGHT TO MEDINA 2 I
Mecca. During this period he instructed
Khadijeh and his immediate associates in the
doctrines of Islam—the faith of resignation;
and the little circle of disciples thus won
became known by the title of Moslems—that
is, practisers of Islam. By the end of this
period his preaching and his conversions had
made sufficient stir in the heathen city to draw
down upon him the hatred of his enemies,
and, in order to avoid the effects of their
malice, he fled to the rival community of
Medina, where he and his Moslems were
welcomed by a band of sympathisers. This
event—the Hegira, or Flight of Mohammed—
as marking the commencement of the active
career of the Prophet, was subsequently
adopted by the Mohammedan world as the
first year of their era. At Medina his
influence increased, and, in accordance with
the customs of primitive peoples, he added
the office of Judge to that of Prophet. Six
years later, a force of 1500 Arab warriors,
sworn professors of the creed of Islam, and
devoted to the person of their sacred leader,
assembled to his banner. In the following
year, Mecca was entered in triumph, the
Kaaba was purged of the motley symbols of
an idolatrous worship, and the people adopted
the faith of the victorious exile. Only three
years of life remained to Mohammed, but
they sufficed to spread his faith throughout
22 CONQUEST OF ARABIA
Arabia, and to leave the germ of the
conquering hosts, which afterwards swept
over so large a portion of the world, at the
disposal of the first Khalif, or Vicar,
Abubeker,
The conquest of Arabia by Mohammed,
and the rapid successes of the armies of the
Khalifs, is a military phenomenon which
requires a word of explanation. The success
of the Mohammedan arms was due to two
doctrines, which united to produce an
abundance of intrepid soldiers. By the
doctrine of the holiness of war the Arabs
were taught to flock willingly to the standard
of the Prophet. “The sword,” says Moham-
med, “is the key of heaven and of hell: a
drop of blood shed in the cause of God, a
night spent in arms, is of more avail than two
months of fasting or prayer; whosoever falls
in battle, his sins are forgiven : at the day of
judgment his wounds shall be resplendent as
vermilion and odoriferous as musk; and the
loss of his limbs shall be supplied by the
wings of angels and cherubim.” And the
warriors thus assembled were endowed with
a fanatical courage by the fatalistic creed
which taught them to believe that the hour
of their death depended solely upon the
decree of heaven; and that while on the one
hand they were absolutely safe even in the
* As quoted by Gibbon.
THE KHALIFATE 23
hottest quarter of the battle, until their hour
had come, on the other, no prudence—not
even the shelter of home—could protect them
from the doom of God. As for the inhabi-
tants of the conquered countries, they were
offered the terms embodied in the famous
phrase—The Koran, the Tribute, or the
Sword. In other words, if they adopted the
faith of Islam, they were admitted to equal
privileges with the conquerors; if they elected
to retain their own religion, they were allowed
to do so upon payment of the tribute
arbitrarily fixed by the Moslem authorities;
but if they would neither submit nor be
converted, they were ruthlessly exterminated.
By this rigorous policy of incorporation, the
religion and the political system of the
Saracens” were alike rapidly extended, and
within the first century of the Hegira, Persia,
Syria, Egypt, Roman Africa, and Spain, were
Moslem countries.
The circumstances under which the first
successor of Mohammed was appointed must
be briefly mentioned, since they explain the
subsequent divisions of the Khalifate, and of the
Moslem world. On the death of the Prophet,
three men possessed conspicuous claims to
the office of Khalif: Ali, by title of kinship,
*The derivation of the word “Saracen” is uncertain.
It appears, however, to have been a term applied to
the Moslem hosts by their Christian adversaries.
24 FIRST KBIALIFS
for, beside being Mohammed's cousin and
disciple he had married Fatim: Mohammed's
daughter; Omar, the General; and Abubeker,
the friend and counseller of the Prophet,
Of these rival claimants, Ali's succession was
rendered impossible for the moment by tribal
jealousy, and a division — ruinous to the
common interests of the Moslem cause—was
avoided by the self-denial of Omar, who with-
drew his candidature in favour of Abubeker.
Abubeker, the first Khalif, was succeeded by
Omar, and Omar by Othman, before the choice
of the Moslems placed Ali at the head of the
Mohammedan world in 655 A.D. Ali’s son,
Hassan, resigned the Khalifate, and then the
office became hereditary in the family of
Moawiyah, by whom the seat of the Khalifate
was established at Damascus. Nevertheless,
the claims of the children of Ali and Fatima,
in whose veins was the actual blood of the
Prophet, were so pre-eminent, that the sub-
sequent recognition of the sole right of their
descendants to the Khalifate divided the Moslem
world into Shiites-- that is, the heretics who
saw in Ali the Vicar of God—and the Summates,
who followed the orthodox tradition (Sunna)
which made Ali inferior to his predecessors
in the Khalifate. It led also to the establish-
ment of Fatimite Khalifates in Egypt, Persia,
and elsewhere. ,
The conquest of Egypt was commenced in
CONQUEST OF EGYPT 25
the fourth year of the Khalif Omar, 638 A.D.
Amru, one of the most famous of the
Moslem captains, marched upon the Byzantine
garrison at Babylon, a point on the Nile
opposite Memphis and a little south-east of
the apex of the Delta. After he had driven
the Greeks from this central position, he
marched through the Delta to Alexandria,
and reduced the capital after a siege of fourteen
months, in the course of which 23,000 of the
Saracen host perished. “I have taken,”
wrote Amru to his master," the great city of the
West. It is impossible for me to enumerate
the variety of its riches and beauty; and I
shall content myself with observing that it
contains 4,000 palaces, 4,000 baths, 4ootheatres
or places of amusement, I2,Coo shops for the
Sale of vegetable food, and 40,000 tributary
Jews. The town has been subdued by force
of arms, without treaty or capitulation, and
the Moslems are impatient to seize the fruits
of their victory.”* The maritime position of
Alexandria, which made it accessible to the
Byzantine fleet, and its commercial importance,
made an attempt to regain the city almost
inevitable, and it was not until the Imperial
armies had been twice dislodged, that the
conquest of Egypt was accomplished.
But the courage of the Saracens and the
leadership of Amru are not in themselves
* As quoted by Gibbon.
26 AMRU
sufficient to account for this rapid success.
Just as the Greek conquest was assisted by
the liberal policy of Alexander, who recog-
nized the Egyptian deities which the Persian
kings had outraged, so the Arab conquest of
Egypt was assisted by the alliance of Amru
with the leaders of the Jacobite Church.
We have already seen that the removal of
Theodosius by Justinian in 538 A.D., and the
subsequent establishment of an “orthodox"
Patriarch and clergy by force of arms, resulted
in the organization of the native Egyptian
Christians or Copts” as a separate Church.
The members of this Church made common
cause with the Saracens against the civil and
ecclesiastical officials of the Eastern Empire,
and it was owing to this native co-operation
that Amru was able to clear the Delta of the
Imperial forces, and advance almost without
opposition from Babylon to the walls of
Alexandria.
The government of Egypt was entrusted
by the Khalif to his victorious general, and
Amru's arrangements for the administration
of the country appear to have been wise and
just. The privileges promised to the Copts
were confirmed, and one-third of the tribute,
which was fixed on an economic basis, was
appropriated to the maintenance of the canals
* The word is probably connected with Ayvirros
(Egyptian).
MOHAMMEDAN CAPITAL 27.
necessary for the irrigation of the fields. At
the same time the influx of the victorious
Arabs brought Egypt once more into close
commercial relationship with Asia, and an
era of commercial and industrial development
set in.
The Mohammedan capital of Egypt was
established near the town of Memphis, a
situation which reflected the change which
had come over the political relationship of
the country and its inhabitants. With the
expulsion of the Imperial troops the long
period of European rule was terminated, and
Egypt was once more brought into connec-
tion with the East. Alexandria had looked
forth over the Mediterranean towards Greece
and Rome, but the junction of the Nile
Valley with the Delta was the natural position
for the capital of an Egypt which formed
part of a political system whose centre was
at Damascus and Bagdad, possessing as it did
the control of the Nile, and an easy commu-
nication by land with Syria and the East.
The first Arab capital grew up around the
spot where Amru pitched his tent outside
the walls of Babylon, and the site of Fostat, or
“the tent,” is marked to-day by the ancient
Mosque which still bears the name of the
second Khalif—the Mosque of Omar-and by
the mingled remains of the Roman fortress, and
the Coptic Church and town, hidden among
Ś t?
6%
28 CAIRO
the dilapidated dwellings known collectively
as Masr-el-Atika, or Old Cairo. From this
spot, which lies on the east bank of the Nile,
opposite the Pyramids of Gizeh, Fostat spread
northwards, until 200 years later it reached
the limits marked by the great Mosque of
Tulun. At this time, Ahmed-ibn-Tulun, who
had been made Governor of Egypt by the
Khalif of Bagdad in 869 A.D., renounced his
allegiance and established himself as an inde-
pendent Sultan. A century later (972), when
the government of Egypt was assumed by the
dynasty of the Fatimite Khalifs, the founda-
tions of a new and more splendid Arabian
capital were laid out northward of Fostat.
The political supremacy of Bagdad had been
renounced by Tulun ; the establishment of
the Fatimite Khalifs at Masr-el-Kahira,” or
Cairo, freed Egypt from its religious depen-
dence upon the eastern Khalifate, and the
foundation of Cairo marked the commence-
ment of a period in which Mohammedan
Egypt attained its highest political and in-
dustrial development.
During the 200 years of the Fatimite period
(A.D. 972—A.D. I 17I), Cairo was surrounded
with lofty walls, and embellished with public
buildings. The materials for these works
* Masr, or Misr, is used to designate both the country
of Egypt and its capital. Thus Masr-el-Bahri is Lower
Egypt, and Masr-el-Kahira (literally Masr the victorious)
is the city known to Europeans as Cairo.
SALADIN 29
lay ready to hand in the vast ruins of the
deserted quarters of Memphis; and from this
time onwards mosques and similar buildings
were added by successive Khalifs and Sultans.
The great Citadel which still dominates Cairo
was built by Saladin” in 1166, upon the
western spur of the Mokattam Hills; and the
groups of tomb-mosques outside the city walls
were created subsequently by the military
Sultans of the Turkoman and Circassian
Mamlukst (A.D. 1250—A.D. I517). With these
exceptions the architectural wealth of the
Arabic capital, which delights the traveller
to-day with its marvellous profusion of grace-
ful forms, represents a process of gradual
development carried on from the foundation
of Cairo at the beginning of the Fatimite
period to the year 1517, when Egypt fell
under the dominion of the Ottoman Turks,
and the progress of Saracenic Egypt was
finally checked by the loss of its independence.
* The actual style and title of the Kurdish mercenary
thus known in history (Saladin), who made himself master
of Egypt on the death of the last Fatimite Khalif, was
Salah ed-Din, Yusuf ibn Eyyub—Joseph, the son of Job,
Saviour of the Faith.
# The word Mamluk means “bought slave.” They
formed the guards which first protected the person of the
Khalif, and then afterwards usurping Supreme power,
formed a military caste, which provided Egypt with rulers
for three centuries. The Mamluks survived the Ottoman
Conquest, and they were not finally destroyed until the
* of the Mamluk Beys by Mohammed Ali in
IöII. *
:
*
i
3O SARACENIC ART
Prior to this date, Saracenic architecture,
springing from Byzantine models, was carried
to perfection in the construction and decora-
tion of the Mosque, while at the same time
the lesser arts, including the enamelling of
metals, the manufacture of lustrous porcelain
and enamelled glass, and the inlaying of
surfaces of metal and of wood, reached a
development which has never been surpassed,
and possibly never equalled, by the oraftsmen
of any other country, or of any subsequent
period. Under the second Fatimite Khalif
the Mosque El-Azhar became the seat of
the famous Mohammedan university, which
rendered Cairo a centre of scientific know-
ledge during the Middle Age, to which the
western nations of Europe were repeatedly
indebted.” Moreover, during the centuries
which intervened between the rise of the
Mohammedan power and the discovery of the
maritime route to India by Vasco da Gama
in 1497, the trade between Europe and the
East passed through the hands of the Moham-
medan powers. During this period Egypt
was closely connected with the maritime
Republic of Venice, and enjoyed to the full
the commercial benefits arising from the
transit of the merchandise brought from
India and the east coast of Africa to the
* For a full account of mediaeval Cairo and the Mosques
: the reader is referred to Zhe A’edemption of Ægypt.
r a
t?
. . .”
3.
º
DECLINE OF ALEXANDRIA 31
Red Sea ports, and thence transferred to the
Mediterranean. So long as this lucrative
traffic was maintained, and the Mohamme-
dans remained the commercial intermediaries
between the East and the West, Alexandria
retained its commercial importance in spite
of the rise of Cairo. But when once the
enterprise of the Portuguese navigators had
brought the western nations of Europe into
direct communication with the East Indies,
Alexandria rapidly declined, until in 1798, at
the date of Napoleon's invasion of Egypt, it
had dwindled to a town of 5,000 inhabitants.
The international conflict of which Egypt
became the scene at this period brought
about a series of changes which, as we shall
see, led to the introduction of European
civilization once again in the land of the
Pharaohs.”
*The word “Pharaoh’’ means literally “great house,”
2.e. the dwelling of the King is used to indicate his
person. So too, the “chief justice” was called the
“gate,” or the “gate of justice,” in allusion to the
eastern custom of dispensing justice at the gate of
the city.
CHAPTER III
MOHAMMED ALI AND HIS
DYNASTY
*
URING the century which preceded
the Christian Era, Egypt was the
scene of the final struggle between first
Caesar and Pompey, and then Anthony and
Augustus, for the mastery of the Roman
world. In the closing years of the
eighteenth century it became a battle-ground
in the final struggle of the long conflict
between France and England for the
supremacy of the Sea.
_The object of Napoleon's invasion of Egypt
and Syria (1798–1891) was to Secure a base
from which he could attack the British
“possessions in India. His design was frus-
“trated by the destruction of the French fleet
in the battle of the Nile, by Nelson, in 1798,
and by the subsequent victory of Abercrombie
º
MOHAMMED ALI 33
over the French Army of occupation, under
General Menou, which compelled the French 2^
to evacuate Egypt in 1801. The object of
England being merely to parry the blow
which Napoleon had aimed at India, the
British force was withdrawn in 1803 under
the terms of the Treaty of Arniens, when the
authority of the Sultan of Turkey had been
re-established. Among the Sultan's troops
co-operating with the British force was a
body of Albanian levies, in which an Albanian
officer, Mohammed Ali by name, served as
second in command. After the retirement
of the English the Sultan's authority was
disputed by the Mamluks, who headed the
nationalist party in an endeavour to throw
off the Turkish supremacy, and in the con-
fusion of the conflict Mohammed Ali, by
means of his control of the Albanian troops,
succeeded in himself obtaining possession of
Cairo, thereby displacing the Sultan's own
representative, and finally wrested from the
Sultan a recognition of his position as Pasha
of Egypt in 1806. In the following yeaf a
second English expedition was sent to Egypt
with a precisely opposite object ; namely, to
support the nationalists in their effort to
throw off the yoke of the Sultan and his
Pasha. The 5,000 British troops were on
this occasion ignominiously defeated by
Mohammed Ali, and one of the most
: 4.
34 MASSACRE OF MAMLUKS.
inglorious campaigns in the history of the
British Empire was terminated after nine
months by the ransom of the British prisoners,
who had been conveyed to Cairo, and by the
retirement of the remaining troops.
After this brilliant commencement of his
military career, Mohammed Ali used the
resources of Egypt to create a formidable
army and navy. But before he ventured to
employ these forces outside of Egypt, he
insured himself against internal disturbance
by exterminating the Mamluks, who were
the natural leaders of the nationalists. His
purpose was accomplished by an act of cold-
blooded treachery which is remarkable even
in the turbulent annals of the East. Four
hundred and eighty Mamluk Beys" were
invited to the Citadel of Cairo, and there shot
down in the narrow roadway which leads from
the gate el-Azab to the Palace on the summit
of the hill; while the lesser members of this mili-
tary caste—some 5,000 in all—were forthwith
massacred in the provinces. It is necessary
to remember, however, that the Mamluks,
upon whom vengeance was wreaked in this
repulsive manner, were the most shameless of
all the foreign oppressors of the indigenous
population of Egypt.
* The title Bey indicates military rank approximately
equal to that of Colonel, while the title Pasha indicates
military rank equal to that of a European General.
CONQUEST OF SUDAN 35
2^
The main features of the subsequent career
of Mohammed Ali must be briefly indicated,
because they lead directly to events which
cannot be neglected in any account of the
Egypt of to-day. Between the years 181 I and
I818 the Egyptian Army was employed at
the request of the Sultan in reducing the
Wahabis, a robber tribe of Beduins who had
established themselves in central Arabia and
defied the authority of the Sultan. After
this achievement Mohammed Ali embarked
upon the conquest of the Sudan. This task
was accomplished during the years 1820 to
1823, and in the course of this enterprise,
Khartum was founded as the seat of the
Administration thus established. In 1824
the victorious Pasha of Egypt was com-
missioned by the Sultan to reduce the Greeks
who were then fighting for their indepen-
dence. The sentiment of Europe, however
was on the side of Greece, and the united
Egyptian and Turkish fleets were destroyed
at Navarino, in 1827, by the combined
Squadrons of England, France and Russia,
under Admiral Codrington. As the result of
this event Mohammed Ali was compelled to
withdraw his troops from the Morea; Greece
was temporarily occupied by a French force,
and its independence was finally secured by
the treaty of Adrianople in 1829. -
After this unsuccessful effort in the cause
36 IBRAHIM PASHA
of the Sultan—an effort in which the Porte
was convicted of treacherous intentions
towards its powerful vassal—Mohammed Ali
refused to accede to the further demands of
his suzerain, and having drifted into a state of
open defiance, he ordered his step-son.”
Ibrahim to invade Syria with an Egyptian
army in 1831. Two years later, in conse
quence of Ibrahim's rapid successes in
Asia Minor—successes which would have
threatened the safety of Constantinople but
for the presence of a Russian fleet—he was
recognized by the Sultan as Pasha of Syria as
well as of Egypt. Through the subsequent
intervention of the Powers under the terms
of the Treaty of London (1840), Syria was
, , , restored to Turkey, but Mohammed Ali was
permitted, through the action of England, to
retain the Pashalic of Egypt in hereditary
tenure, and his relationship to the suzerain
power was defined and his rights were recog-
nized by the Firmans of February 13th and
June Ist, 184I. . -
From this date Mohammed Ali sank
gradually into dotage; and the Government
was administered first by Ibrahim, who died
in 1848, and then by Abbas, as Regents.
This latter, being the son of Tussun (the
second—or first, if Ibrahim be omitted—of
* Ibrahim is generally believed to have been the son
of Mohammed Ali's wife by her former husband,
MOHAMMED ALI 37
Mohammed Ali's sons), succeeded as Pasha
of Egypt in 1849.
In spite of his military successes, and of the
veneer of western civilization with which he
covered his ignorance, Mohammed Ali was
essentially a Savage. The mingled brutality
and incapacity of his mind appeared in his
administration of the Sudan. The prosperity
of this desolate region depended upon the
caravan trade, by means of which the natural
products of the more fertile areas of the
interior were conveyed to Egypt and the
Red Sea coast. Under Egyptian rule this
commerce was broken up by a shameless
encouragement of the slave trade, and by the
reckless deportation of Sudanese recruits for
the armies of the Pasha. In Egypt his
brutality was tempered by his ambition,
which led him to encourage European enter-
prize in the hope of aggrandizing his position
by the development of the natural resources
of the Delta. On the one hand, the Fellahin,
the tillers of the soil, were oppressed by
excessive taxation, and the land was exhausted
by uneconomic methods of culture; on the
other, the cultivation of cotton—now the
staple industry of Egypt—was introduced,
canals were constructed, and an attempt was
made to improve the irrigation of the Delta.
In particular he renewed the prosperity of
Alexandria by the construction of the

&ra.
38 FRANCE AND EGYPT
Mahmoudieh Canal in 1819. By means—of
this work Alexandria was joined once more to
the Nile; and when land” and water com-
munication had been established with Cairo,
Alexandria quickly recovered its position as
the chief seaport of Egypt. By these
schemes, and by the encouragement which he
gave to European capital, Mohammed Ali
made known the industrial capacity of Egypt.
At the same time a commencement was made
of European education. Schools with Euro-
pean teachers were established, and young
Egyptians, whom the Pasha intended to
employ as officials in the Government, were
sent to France to be educated. Thus France
was the country which was first instrumental
in introducing European ideas into Egypt.
The military success of Mohammed Ali, and
of his warrior son, Ibrahim, were largely due
to the organization of the Egyptian army
upon European lines, which was accom-
plished by the French soldier known as
Suliman Pasha. In other respects the
success of these French instructors was
limited by the fact that they lacked the
authority necessary to compel the native
Egyptian officials to give effect to their in-
structions. If we except the Suez Canal—
from which, as we shall see, Egypt has derived
* The sides of the Canal were used as a road for Camel
traffic,
FRENCH INFLUENCE 39
no direct financial advantage—it cannot be
said that the French engineers were wholly
successful ; certainly they failed completely
in their schemes for the improvement of the
water supply of the Delta. Nor was the
work of the French teachers productive of
any permanent effects upon the national
character of the Egyptians. Nevertheless, in
spite of these failures to effect specific reforms
which have since been accomplished, the fact
remains that whatever of progress was
achieved in Egypt before the period of the
Goschen - Joubert report (1876) was almost
exclusively the work of Frenchmen. Two
significant features in the present situation bear
witness to the early predominance of France.
In the first place, French is the official
language of the Egyptian Government, and T
in the second the French code is the basis of
the civil and criminal law administered by *
the international and native tribunals. More
over, the work of the French explorers in the
field of antiquarian research must not be
forgotten. Here many Frenchmen—among
whom the name of Mariette is pre-eminent—-
laboured with equal devotion and success.
As already mentioned, Mohammed Ali died
in 1849. Abbas I., the new Pasha, was
reactionary in respect of western ideas. It
was, however, during the five years of his
rule (1849–1854) that the growing necessity
4o THE OVERLAND ROUTE
for more rapid communication between Eng-
land and India than that which was afforded
by the Cape, or long sea route, led to the con-
struction of railways in Lower Egypt, in order
that the mails and passengers of the newly-
established “overland route " might be
promptly conveyed from Alexandria to Suez.
It is worth noticing that this early railway
construction was promoted by England and
opposed by France—opposed in the fear lest it
should injuriously affect the great French
scheme of the Suez Canal. The rule of Abbas
I. was terminated by his assassination in 1854.
He was succeeded by his uncle Said, the fourth
son of Mohammed Ali. Said had been
educated in France, and was therefore well
disposed towards the introduction of European
ideas, and he was anxious in particular for the
co-operation of Frenchmen in the reforms
which he seriously endeavoured to carry out
during the nine years of his rule. From
the time of Said's accession the connection
between Egypt and Europe grew closer every
year. The establishment of the overland
route to India had made Egypt a station on
one of the great highways of oceanic traffic,
and as such the country was destined to
become more and more involved with Eng-
land, the leading maritime and commercial
power. With the growth of these closer ties
with Europe the necessity for regrganizing
THE FELLAHIN 4. I
Egypt upon European lines became gradually
more urgent. This work of reorganization
was first left to the native rulers of the
country, and it was not until these rulers
had proved hopelessly incompetent that the
Powers themselves stepped in to protect the
interests of European investors, and to Secure
the lives and property of the European resi-
dents. -
But in order that the brief narrative of the
events which led to this intervention may be
intelligible, I must put before the reader
some account of the Fellahin, who form the
great majority of the actual inhabitants of
Egypt. It is a fresh example of that change-
lessness which is so supremely characteristic
of the country, that I, after spending many
weeks and months in studying Egypt with
pen and pencil, can find no truer picture of
the tillers of the soil in the Nile Valley and
the Delta, than the naive description which
Amru gave to the Khalif Omar more than a
thousand years ago.
“O commander of the faithful, Egypt is a
compound of black earth and green plants,
between a pulverised mountain and a red
sand. The distance from Syene [Assuan] to
the sea is a month's journey for an horseman.
Along the valley descends a river on which
the blessing of the Most High reposes, both
in the evening and morning, and which rises
42 THE NILE FLOOD
and falls with the revolutions of the sun and
moon. When the annual dispensation of
providence unlocks the springs and fountains
that nourish the earth, the Nile rolls his
swelling and sounding waters through the
realm of Egypt. The fields are overspread by
the salutary flood, and the villages com-
municate with each other in their painted
barks. The retreat of the inundation
deposits a fertilizing mud for the reception
of the various seeds. The crowds of husband-
men who blacken the land may be compared
to a Swarm of industrious ants, and their
native indolence is quickened by the lash of
the task-master, and the promise of the
flowers and fruits of a plentiful increase.
Their hope is seldom deceived, but the
riches which they extract from the wheat,
the barley, and the rice, the legumes, the
fruit-trees, and the cattle, are unequally
shared between those who labour and those
who possess. According to the vicissitudes
of the seasons, the face of the country is
adorned with a silver wave, a verdant
emerald, and the deep yellow of a golden
harvest.” "
Such a country was obviously one which
would pay for the application of European
capital and enterprise. This and wise
government should have united to make the
*As quoted by Gibbon.
THE KHEDIVE ISMAIL 43
people and their ruler alike prosperous.
Under Said's rule there was a brief prospect
Tof success. The construction of canals and
"ratſways in the Delta was advanced, and
a commission was granted in 1854 to
Ferdinand de Lesseps authorizing him to
form a company for the construction of the
Suez Canal. At the same time an attempt
was made to protect the Fellahin from the
greed of the Pashas, by the Land Law of
1858, which maintained the freehold rights
of the tillers of the soil. The promise of
Said's administration was checked by the
accession of Ismail, Ibrahim's second son, in
1863. It is impossible to relate here the
details of a reign which Sir Alfred Milner
has called “a carnival of extravagance and
oppression.” Of this period as a whole
(1863–1879), it must suffice to say that the
natural wealth of Egypt, and the consequent
facility with which Ismail could command
European capital, became the snare which
worked his ruin, and that of the people he
governed. The extravagance of Ismail and
the governing classes was swollen by the
expectation of gains from industrial enterprises,
which was doomed to failure by the mingled
knavery and incapacity of the native officials;
and the appetite of the Coptic traders and
Greek money-lenders for exorbitant profits was
commensurately increased. In the end, the

gº
=
44 ISMAIL’S EXTRAVAGANCE
country was saddled with a load of debt
greater than either the soil or the people
could support, and Egypt was rescued from
bankruptcy by the intervention of the
Powers. " `
A few figures will give precision to these
statements. In 1863, the date of Ismail's
accession, we find that the debt of Egypt
amounted to rather more than £ 3,000,000
sterling ; while at the end of 1876, when the
Powers stepped in, it had reached the
enormous total of £89,000,000. Enormous,
not only because it had grown to this amount
within the short space of thirteen years, but
beeause so large a debt was entirely out of
proportion to the resources of a country with
only six million of inhabitants, and five million
acres of land under cultivation. At the same
time the taxation upon this cultivated area
had been increased by one-half; that is to
say, the proportion of the cost of govern-
ment borne by the agricultural class—the
indigenous population of Egypt, as against
the commercial classes, who were mainly
foreigners—had been increased by fifty per
cent. Apart from the incapacity of Ismail
and the corruption and incompetency of the
officials, this extraordinary financial result had
been obtained through two main causes. In
the first place, Egyptian credit was so bad
that only a part of the nominal value of the
THE SUEZ CANAL 45
successive loans was actually paid over to the
Egyptian government. To take an example,
of the 432,000,000 borrowed in 1873 only
A 20,700,000 was actually paid in to the
Egyptian treasury; while in the case of the
short loans, designated the “floating” debt, a
third or a quarter only of the nominal value
of the loans was received. And in the second
place, only a small proportion of the cash
actually received was expended upon the
objects for which it was intended. It has
been calculated", therefore, that of the eighty-
five millions nominally borrowed by Ismail
for the development of the country only ten
per cent. was actually expended in works of
permanent utility.
There is one memorable event in Ismail's
reign which must be related with some
fulness. This event was the openin €
Suez Canal in 1869. It is significant not
merely by reason of the far-reaching results
which it has produced upon the world at
large, but because it led, more than any other T
single circumstance, to the close relationship
between England and Egypt which exists
to-day. ' The construction of a ship canal to
unite the Mediterranean with the Red Sea,
was a natural outcome from the establishment
of the overland route to India; and just as
* By Sir Alfred Milner in England in Egypt. In this
calculation the Suez Canal is excepted.
46 THOMAS WAGHORN.
England was compelled to secure the long
sea route to India by occupying the Cape
Colony at the end of the eighteenth century,
SO to-day England has been compelled to
establish a stable government in Egypt, in
Order to prevent any interruption at a vital
point of what has now become the main line
of her communication with India and the
Australasian colonies. If, therefore, we re-
gard the piercing of the narrow isthmus
which alone separated the waters of the
Mediterranean from those of the Red Sea as
a natural Sequel to the establishment of the
overland route, we must recognize in the
indomitable energy of Thomas Waghorn, by
whose single-handed effort the diversion of
the Indian traffic from the Cape route was
accomplished, the originating impulse of
Ferdinand de Lesseps' great achievement.
And it is pleasant to remember that Wag-
horn’s merit and his connection with the
canal have been commemorated in the
generous words, ascribed to de Lesseps
himself, which are written beneath the bust
erected to his memory at the entrance of
the canal in I87O :— -
“In homage to the memory of the generous
though unfortunate man who alone, without
any help, by a long series of labours and
heroic efforts, practically demonstrated and
determined the adoption of the postal route
FERDINAND DE LESSEPS 47
through Egypt, and the communication
between the East and West of the world ;
and this was the originator and pioneer of
the great Egyptian maritime commerce
completed by the canal of the two seas.”
Not only was the establishment of the
overland route the work of an Englishman,
but the actual course afterwards adopted by
de Lesseps for his canal was surveyed by
General Chesney in 1830, on behalf of the
British Government, and it was the scheme
embodied in Chesney's report, and subse-
quently developed by a French engineer
—Linant de Bellefonds—in 1840, which was
matured by de Lesseps between the years
I849 and 1854. The successive steps by
which the scheme was realized were these.
In 1854 de Lesseps was authorized by Said
Pasha, under a concession signed at Cairo,
to constitute a company entitled the Compagnie
Onizerselle du Cana/ Maritime de Suez, and
in the following year an international com-
mission was formed, which held meetings
first in Egypt and then in Paris (June, 1856).
At this last meeting it was decided to adopt
the proposal of the French Engineers, which
was to excavate a channel and thus keep the
level of the canal equal” to that of the two
Seas, as against the proposal of the English
* It was ascertained by Waghorn that the levels of the
Mediterranean and Red Sea were almost identical.
48 THE SUEZ CANAL
engineers to construct the canal by embank-
ments and so raise the level of its waters
above that of the sea. The concession of
I854 being confirmed by a further and more
complete concession in 1856, de Lesseps pro-
ceeded to collect capital for the undertaking ;
and of the funds thus obtained in the follow-
ing two years one-half was raised on the
continent, mainly in France, and the balance
was provided by Said himself. The work of
excavation was commenced at the end of
I859, but Ismail, upon his accession in 1863,
refused to carry out the terms of Said's con-
cession, objecting in particular to the under-
taking to supply forced labour, and to the
excessive areas of land acquired by the
Company. The dispute was referred to
Napoleon III. for arbitration, and the sum of
£3,800,000 was awarded to the Company as
compensation for the failure of the Egyptian
Government to fulfil its obligations. In 1856
the status of the Company and the relation-
ship of the Canal to the Egyptian Government
were defined, and the financial questions at
issue were regulated, by a convention executed
between Ismail and the Company, and ratified
by the Sultan. Finally, the Canal was opened
for traffic in 1869 by the Empress Eugénie,
who with other distinguished European
guests had been invited to Egypt by Ismail
for the occasion.
r/
LORD PALMERSTON 49
The merit of this great engineering achieve-
ment belongs to Ferdinand de Lesseps, and to
the French nation, without whose support he
would have been unable to give effect to his
plans; and the magnitude of the services thus
performed is enhanced by the fact that lord
Palmerston, England’s great Foreign Minister,
adopted an attitude of reserved opposition
towards the undertaking. This opposition
was based upon the opinion that, under the
then existing conditions of maritime com-
merce, the industrial advantages promised by
the construction of the Canal would be more
than cotinter-balanced by the political com-
plications caused by the creation of a new
water-way within the limits of a political
system—the Turkish Empire—which was
already in process of disintegration ; when,
by the nature of things, the possession of
this water-way was bound to be a subject of
jealous regard to the Great Powers. In short,
Lord Palmerston feared that the Suez Canal
would intensify the difficulties of the Eastern
Question, without providing any adequate
commercial advantage either to England or to
the world at large. Subsequent events have K
shewn that this view was perfectly sound,
since the industrial changes which have
prevented the realization of Lord Palmerston's
forecast, being unforeseen at the time, did not
enter into the calculations of the promoters of
5
5o INDUSTRIAL CHANGES
the Canal. These industrial changes, by
means of which the positive value of the com-
mercial advantages afforded by the Canal was
enormously increased, were the work of
Englishmen, and so, by a curious irony of
fate, it was England's sea-borne trade that
first saved the Canal from failure, and then
forced England to find a remedy for the
political dangers which had arisen from a
situation in the creation of which she had
studiously refused to take part.
The industrial development of the Austra-
lasian Colonies under the stimulus of the gold
discoveries in the early fifties, and the rapid
extension of British rule and British trade in
India consequent upon the administrative
changes which followed the Mutiny, were
unforeseen, and, moreover, these movements
would not in themselves have secured the
financial success of the Canal. What
de Lesseps relied upon for the diversion of
the maritime traffic from the Cape route
to the Suez Canal, was the fact that the
distance to India was reduced by one-
third." He was aware that this traffic was
conducted in Sailing ships, and that the
length of the voyage and the consequent
consumption of coal precluded the employ-
ment of steam-driven ships in the Indian
trade. “It is not your steamers that I am
* f.e. from II,379 to 7,628 miles.
THE SUEZ CANAL 5 I
wooing,” he said in endeavouring to enlist
the support of English capitalists, “but your
fleet of sailing ships now going round the
Cape.” This support was refused, because
English professional opinion held that the
reduction in mileage afforded by the new
route was more than counter-balanced by the
narrowness of the Red Sea, which, together
with the direction of the prevailing winds,
causes a sailing ship even to-day to waste
nearly a month in “beating up ’’ from Aden
to Suez. Had the Suez Canal depended upon
the calculations of de Lesseps, it would have
proved a failure, but before the Canal was
opened the application of the compound
engine to steamships had reduced the quantity
of coal formerly consumed by one-half, and the
development of eastward commerce brought
the rapid substitution of steam power for
sails in the mercantile marine of England.t
For these steamships the reduction of mileage
was almost a clear gain, and the Suez Canal
route was naturally adopted by them. Even
so, with the Support of the rapidly increasing
steam-driven mercantile marine of England,
the Company narrowly escaped financial
disaster. The market value of the shares had
* As quoted by Cameron in Egypt in the AWineteenth
Century.
i I say England, because English ships provide two-
thirds of its earnings. !
52 ENGLAND'S PURCHASE OF SHARES
fallen in 1871-72 from £20 to £7; nor could
the Directors declare a dividend until the
Powers, at the Constantinople Conference, had
sanctioned, on the representation of England,
an increase of 40 per cent. On the Canal dues.
Since this time the prosperity of the Canal
has grown with the development of the sea-
borne commerce of England and of the other
European Powers.
In 1875 England secured a voice in the
administration of the Canal by the purchase
of I76,602 shares from the Egyptian Govern-
ment for the sum of £ 4,076,622*, and these
shares, for the possession of which England is
indebted to the foresight of Lord Beaconsfield,
have since risen in value to 4 20,000,000. By
this sale — a crowning example of the
criminal extravagance of Ismail–Egypt was
deprived of any right to participate in the
profits of the Company, and thus the Egyptian
Government to-day draws no revenue from a
commercial undertaking in the construction
of which it has been estimatedt that Egypt
sank A 16,075,000, including the sum paid
under the award of Napoleon III.
It will be convenient here to anticipate the
progress of events in so far as is necessary to
enable us to complete this account of the
Suez Canal.
* This sum includes the commission.
# Cave's Report of 1876.
NEUTRALIZATION OF CANAL 53
At the time of the British occupation
(1882) the Canal was used by England as a
base of operations, in spite of the attitude of
hostility adopted by de Lesseps and the
officials of the Company towards England,
and in view of these circumstances the British
Government considered it to be desirable that
the position of the Canal should be defined in
case of the like circumstances arising in the
future. The necessity for such an under-
standing, which was expressed by the circular
which Lord Granville addressed to the
Powers on January 3rd, 1883, led ultimately
to the Convention of October 29th, 1888,
under which the great Powers + declared their
adhesion to the principle of the neutralization
of the Suez Canal in time of war. As, how-
ever, this adhesion is accompanied by certain
reservations on the part of individual Powers,
and in particular is limited by the declara-
tion f of the British Government that it will
*The signatory Powers are England, Germany, Russia,
France, Austria-Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, and
Turkey. Article I. of the Convention runs in the
English translation : The Suez Maritime Canal shall
always be free and open, in time of war as in time of
peace, to every vessel of commerce or of war, without
distinction of flag. Consequently the high contracting
parties agree not in any way to interfere with the free
use of the Canal, in time of war as in time of peace.
The Canal shall never be subjected to the exercise of the
right of blockade.
f See Egypt, No. I9 (1885).
54 TITLE OF KHEDIVE
not be bound by the provisions of the Con-
vention during the occupation of Egypt by
the British forces, the observance of the
Convention cannot be relied upon in the
event of the outbreak of hostilities in which
the signatory Powers (or any one of them)
are involved.
At the present time the local management
of the Canal remains in the hands of the
French administration, and the chief officials
reside at Ismailia ; but the Governments of
England, Germany, Holland, and Belgium, as
well as that of France, are represented upon
the Board of Directors, who hold their meet-
ings at the head-quarters of the Company in
Paris.
The final act in the financial tragedy
of Ismail's reign will be narrated in the
chapter, following ; but it remains to note a
change’ which was effected in the status of
the hereditary ruler of Egypt before the
intervention of the Powers took place. By
the Firman of May 27th, 1866, the succession
was altered from the descent to the eldest
heir in Turkish law, to a descent from father
to son in primo-geniture. And in the follow-
ing year the title of Khedive of Egypt” was
similarly conferred by the Sultan upon Ismail
and his descendants.
* Khidewi-Misr. An Arabic title meaning Viceroy,
which replaced the title of Vali, of similar import.
CHAPTER IV
INTERNATIONAL CONTROL
Is the year 1875 it became evident that
the financial burden which the mingled
extravagance and incompetency of Ismail's
administration had laid upon Egypt was
becoming greater than the resources of the
country could support. Had Egypt been an
independent State, or had the European
interests involved been less considerable in
amount or in effect, the desperate remedy of
repudiation might have been adopted. As
it was, it remained for the Powers most
concerned to devise a means whereby the .
administration of Egypt might be so con-
ducted as to enable the country to meet its”
obligations to the foreign creditors. This
intervention was rendered the more easy by
the fact that the Powers already possessed a
certain definite status in the country through
56 THE CAPITULATIONS
the Capitulations. The treaties, or rather
concessions, so named, and dating back in
some cases to the fifteenth century, regulated
the conditions under which foreigners were
allowed to reside within the Ottoman empire,
and their original object was to protect
Christian merchants and other settlers from
the fanatical hatred of the Moslem popu-
lations. To secure this purpose, three main
privileges were conferred upon the subjects
of the Powers concerned : immunity from
taxation, inviolability of domicile, and freedom
from the jurisdiction of the local courts. As
already stated, Egypt became a part of the
Ottoman empire in the year 1517, and the
authority exercised by Mohammed Ali and his
successors as rulers of Egypt was derived
from the Sultan, as the head of that Empire.
The sovereignty, therefore, which was exer-
cised by the Khedive Ismail was subject to
the rights already acquired by the European
nations, and by Brazil and the United States,
for their respective subjects under the
Capitulations.
When the breakdown of Ismail's Govern-
ment became obvious, it was by virtue of the
status already possessed through the Capitula-
tions that the authority of Europe was first
effectively exercised in Egypt. The judicial
authority secured by the Capitulations, and
exercised by the Consular Courts of the
THE CAISSE DE LA DETTE 57
individual Powers, was after years of negotia-
tion concentrated in the International Courts,
styled the Mixed Tribunals,” which were
established by Khedivial decree of January 1st,
1876. The establishment of the Mixed
Tribunals was followed by the constitution of
the Caisse de la Dette, or Public Debt Office,
by Khedivial decree of May 2, 1876. The
presentation of Mr. Cave's Report of March,
I876, had provided sufficient evidence of the
unsatisfactory character of the Egyptian
finances to justify this further exercise of
international control. In its original form,
the Caisse was a committee of Bondholders,
composed of three members, representing the
respective interests of France, Austria and
Italy, and authorized to receive on behalf of
the foreign creditors in general the revenues
which had been assigned by the Khedive,
under pressure from the Powers, for the
payment of the interest of the Debt. In the
following year, an English Commissioner was
appointed ; and in 1885, Germany and Russia
were similarly represented. The powers and
functions of the six Commissioners, who now
constitute the Caisse, have been gradually
extended since the year 1876, until they
have come to represent the common financial
* These Courts have Jurisdiction in civil cases between
foreigners, or between a foreigner and a native. The
Criminal Jurisdiction possessed by the Powers over their
own subjects is still exercised by the Consular Courts.
58 GOSCHEN-JOUBERT SETTLEMENT
interests of Europe, and in this capacity they
have, as we shall see, acquired a general
control over the financial administration of
the country. For the moment, however, the
establishment of the Caisse was significant
from the fact that the Commissioners, as the
representatives of the European creditors,
could sue the Egyptian Government in the
newly-constituted Mixed Tribunals; and thus,
by the combined action of the Caisse and the
Mixed Tribunals, the Powers were provided
with a legitimate and effective means of
interference in the Government of Egypt.
At the same time, after a wholly unacceptable
proposal had been formulated by France
and rejected by England, Mr. Goschen and
M. Joubert were appointed Commissioners
to examine the financial position of the
Egyptian Government, and jointly to formu-
late a proposal for securing the payment of
the interest on the debt. This settlement,
which was made in November, 1876, proved
abortive. As a matter of fact, the data upon
which it was based, that is to say, the state-
ments of the resources of the Government,
and of the liabilities of Egypt, furnished by
Ismail's ministers, were wholly unreliable;
and the Commissioners had no power to
check these statements by independent in-
vestigations. *
After nearly two years had been consumed
DEPOSITION OF ISMAIL 59
in unsuccessful endeavours to persuade Ismail
to assent to the full examination by which
alone an effective settlement could be secured,
a Commission was appointed in April, 1878,
with authority to examine, not merely the
returns, but the system of administration
under which these returns were obtained.
The evidence thus disclosed proved that the
Egyptian Government must be relieved of
part of its annual burden, if it was not to
break down altogether. The proposal to
reduce the interest on the debt was obstinately
resisted by the Khedive Ismail in a final
struggle for independence ; but the grip
of the Powers had been tightened, and on
June 26th, 1879, Ismail was deposed, and his
eldest son, Tewfik, was raised to the position
of Khedive. In the same autumn, France and
England—the two Powers most concerned
in the financial stability of Egypt—jointly
assumed the task of controlling the Govern-
ment of the new Khedive, and Lord Cromer":
(then Major Baring) and M. de Blignières were a/.
appointed by their respective Governments
to the office of Controllers-General. These/mº.
*
two officials were instructed by their respective ww.'
Governments to inform the Khedive that the
* Lord Cromer was succeeded in 1880 by Sir
Auckland Colvin, as British Controller, upon his
appointment to the India Council. He returned to
Egypt on September II, 1883, as British Agent and
Consul-General. .
, a
W’


A.
6o LAW OF LIQUIDATION
political interference of any other Power
would not be permitted, and the DualControl
thus constituted lasted until the rebellion of
Arabi led to the military occupation of Egypt
by England, in 1882.
In the meantime the work of the financial
commission was completed, and effect was
given to its proposals by the Law of Liquida-
tion, which was promulgated by Khedivial
decree in July, 1880, after the six Powers—
England, France, Austria, Italy, Germany,
and Russia—had given their sanction to the
arrangement, and virtually guaranteed its
acceptance by the rest of the world. The
terms upon which Egypt was thus allowed to
compound with her creditors were, briefly,
these : The entire obligations of the Egyptian
Government, which had been increased by
nearly ten millions since the Goschen-Joubert
settlement, were consolidated into four debts,
amounting to a total of 498,685,930 ; and
the interest due upon the various loans thus
consolidated was reduced to an amount which
the resources of the State could reasonably be
expected to support. At the same time, in
return for this reduction in the interest, the
payment of the interest and ultimately of the
capital was secured by (I) assigning certain
definite sources of revenue to the service of
the Debt, and (2) by placing these sources of
revenue, directly or indirectly, under the
control of the Powers.
.*
CONSOLIDATED DEBT 6I
In consequence of this arrangement more
than one-half of the nine millions of the
estimated revenue of Egypt was absorbed in
the payment of the interest on the Consoli-
dated Debt, together with certain other fixed
annual charges, and less than one-half was
left for the ordinary expenses of Government.
Thus, in the year 1881, 4 E.4,235,921* was
paid on account of the Consolidated Debt,
and A.E.I., Io9,420 on account of the annual
Tributef due to the Sultan, and other public
obligations not included in the Consolidated
Debt.
The Consolidated Debt was composed of
the following items in 1881 :—
The Privileged Debt (£ 22,587,800), bearing
interest at 5 per cent. (4 E. I, I57,024).
The Unified Debt (£ 57,776,340), bearing
interest at 4 per cent. (4 E.2,253,265).
* The Egyptian pound (4 E.) is A. I. os. 6d. Owing to
the fact that the capital sums in the Consolidated Debt
are expressed in pounds sterling, while the interest is
expressed in pounds Egyptian, in the accounts of the
Finance Department, it is impossible to avoid using the
two standards of value. The figures in the text are
taken from the admirable 7 ableaux Statestigates r&r-97,
issued by Sir Elwin Palmer, the then Financial Adviser,
in 1898.
# Under the Firman of June 8th, 1873, in which the
Tribute was fixed at 150,000 purses. In 1881,
4.E.678,958 was paid on this account to the Sultan ;
and A. E.193,858 was paid to England as interest on the
Suez Canal shares. .
62 LAW OF LIQUIDATION
The Domains Loan (£8,499,620), bearing
interest at 5 per cent., and with provi-
sion for sinking fund (4 E.455,310).
The Daira Debt (£9,512,900), bearing
interest at 4 per cent. (4 E.370,322).
As the two last debts were secured upon
the estates So named — the Domains and
Daira Sanieh, that is, upon the Crown lands
of Egypt—the revenue was only required to
make good the difference between the profits
yielded by these estates and the amount of
the interest with which they were charged.
As a matter of fact, the proceeds of the estates
were not for many years sufficient to meet
payments due from them in respect of interest
and sinking fund.
Since in the same year the total receipts
from all sources amounted to 4 E.9,229,965,
the balance of 4 E.3,884,624 was all that
remained at the disposal of the Government
for defraying the ordinary expenses of ad-
ministration.
Two main results of the interference of
Europe, which culminated in the Law of
Liquidation, must be noted.
In the first place, the amount which was
appropriated to the service of the Consolid-
ated Debt on behalf of the Bondholders,
although the interest arranged was, roughly
speaking, one-third less than the rate fixed by
the Goschen-Joubert settlement, formed so
INTERNATIONAL BOARDS 63
large a proportion of the total revenue, that
the government was deprived of all power of
developing the resources of the country. In
the second place the rigorous international
control thus established over the finances of
Egypt resulted in the creation of certain
International Boards, known as the Mixed
Administrations; and in this way an inter-
national administrative authority came to be
established, the existence of which has become
to-day a source of grave inconvenience to the
Egyptian Government.
Among the sources of revenue which were
mortgaged to provide for the debt were the
four provinces of Ghabia, Menuſia, Behera,
and Siut, the railways, posts, and telegraphs,
the dues from the port of Alexandria, and the
proceeds of the Domains and Daira Estates.
In addition, therefore, to the International
Courts to which the majority of the com-
mercial classes resort for the settlement of
their differences, and the Public Debt Office,
in which the financial interests of the six
Great Powers of Europe are directly repre-
sented, we find three International Admini-
strations established in Egypt, and thus
transacting part of the business of admini-
stration in complete independence of the
Egyptian Government—the Railway Board
constituted in 1876, and the Daira and
64 THE DUAL CONTROL
Domains Commissions, constituted respec-
tively in 1877 and 1878.
After the deposition of Ismail, and the
consequent appointment of Lord Cromer and
M. de Blignières in the autumn of 1879 as
Controllers - General, the Government of
Egypt was carried on with moderate success
until the period of the Dual Control was
abruptly terminated by the revolt of Arabi in
1882. Under the rigorous checks exercised
by the Public Debt Office the conditions of
the arrangement embodied in the ILaw of
Liquidation were enforced ; the expenses of
the Government were cut down, and the total
of the debt was reduced by something like a
million pounds. The indiscriminate retrench-
ment by which this result was obtained was
partly responsible for the general feeling of
discontent in the country, which, directed by
Turkish influence, developed into a national
movement against European control. Not
only was the misgovernment and oppression of
Ismail's reign identified with the European
influence by which the Khedive's Govern-
ment was now guided, but the same wave of
Mohammedan fanaticism which caused the
rise of the Mahdi in the Sudan caused the
nationalist movement in Egypt to develope
into the “Holy War” which was proclaimed
by Arabi on July 24th, 1882.
It might have been supposed that the
ENGLAND ACTS ALONE 65
Powers which interfered to save Egypt from
bankruptcy would not have hesitated to save.
her from anarchy. When Europe had inter-
vened before, it was the money of the bond-
holders which was at stake. Now the lives
and property of the European residents and
of the Coptic Christians were threatened with
destruction by the fanatical soldiery of Arabi
the Egyptian. As a matter of fact, the six
Powers especially concerned contented them-
selves with calling upon the Sultan, the
Suzerain Power, to restore order in Egypt.
When the Suzerain Power and the European
Concert refused to act, England appealed to.
her partner in the Dual Control to share the
task of suppressing the rebellion. But the
French Government and the French nation
—for the proposal was rejected by a large
majority in the Chamber of Deputies—re-
coiled before the responsibilities of a military
occupation, and on July 31st the French fleet
was withdrawn from Alexandria. It was
under these circumstances that England
undertook single-handed the urgent duty of
rescuing Egypt from anarchy—a duty which
no other Power, nor any combination of
Powers, was willing to perform.
CHAPTER V
THE BRITISH Occupation
HE causes which led to the collapse of
the Khedive Tewfik's authority, are to
be found in the previous misgovernment of
the country, and the fanatical hatred of
European influence which was stimulated by
the Sultan, but the immediate instrument of
that collapse was the disaffected soldiery,
who rose against their master under the
leadership of Arabi. The Egyptian Army
had two grounds for the discontent which
manifested itself in the military riot of
September 9, 1881, when the Abdin Palace—
the Khedive's official residence in Cairo—was
surrounded by a mob of soldiery. In the
first place, the Fellahin soldiers, who formed
the mass of the troops, were ill-fed, ill-paid,
and harshly treated ; and in the second, the
native Egyptian officers, whom the Govern-
REVOLT OF ARABI. 67
ment had been compelled to dismiss in large
numbers owing to the rigorous economies of
the Dual Control, had been robbed of the
arrears of pay long owing, and deprived of
the pensions to which their previous service
entitled them.
In the January following (1882) Ahmed
Arabi became Under-Secretary for War in the
new Ministry of Mahmud Sahmi, and the
Nationalist party was further strengthened
by the revival of the Chamber of Deputies—
an institution which had been practically
extinct for sixteen years—and by the claim
put forward by that body to control the
taxation of the country. Mahmud Sahmi's
Ministry was thus brought into direct conflict
with the financial system of the Dual Control;
and, after a joint protest from the two
Controllers-General had proved ineffective,
M. de Blignières resigned in March. The
gravity of the crisis increased, until on
May 20th the French and English Squadrons
appeared off Alexandria, and five days later
the English and French Consuls-General
presented an ultimatum, demanding the
retirement of Arabi. This measure was met
by the retirement of the whole of Mahmud's
Ministry—a counter-stroke which compelled
the Khedive to consent to the immediate
re-instatement of Arabi. After this defiance,
the immediate danger of the situation was
68 TURKISH INTRIGUE
recognized, and the Europeans began to quit
Egypt. On June 8th, Dervish Pasha arrived
in Cairo at the head of a special mission from
the Sultan ; and the secret encouragement
which the agitators received from the Suzerain
Power was quickly revealed by the riots at
Alexandria, which broke out three days after
the arrival of the Envoys. An appeal was
then made by the Powers to the Sultan,
and a Conference of Ministers was held at
Constantinople on June 24th. The result
which this Conference produced was curious.
On June 28th, Arabi received a decoration
from the Suzerain Power, presumably as a
reward for his defiance of the Khedive—his
sovereign and the vassal of the Sultan.
From this point the course of events
moved rapidly forwards to the dénouement of
the British Occupation.
Early in July the Admirals of the French
and English Squadrons protested against
the measures which Arabi was taking to
strengthen the fortifications of Alexandria,
and on the 6th the British subjects in Egypt
were ordered to quit the country. On the
9th, Arabi was required to abandon his
preparations on pain of bombardment. On
the day following, the ships which were
entering the Suez Canal were warned that
hostilities were imminent ; and on the I Ith
Alexandria was bombarded by the British
ALEXANDRIA BOMBARDED 69
Fleet, under Admiral Sir Beauchamp Seymour
(Lord Alcester), from 7.5 a.m. until 5.30 p.m.,
and the forts were silenced. For two nights
and a day the Christian inhabitants of
Alexandria–European, Syrian, and Coptic-
were exposed to the fury of the Mohammedan
mob, and the European quarters of the town
were plundered and burnt; but on the 13th
a small force of marines was landed to rescue
the Christians and to bring them off to the
ships. Five days later the Ministers of the
six Powers presented an Identic Note to the
Porte, calling upon the Sultan to restore the
authority of the Khedive.
But the time had gone by for the measured
movement of the European Concert. If the
costly international fabric of the Suez Canal,
and the lives of the European residents and
the native Christians,—to say nothing of the
millions of capital recovered for the bond-
holders by the Dual Control—were to be
rescued from the fanatical violence of the
Mohammedan population, prompt action must
be taken. After an unsuccessful appeal to
France to join in the military occupation,
which could alone save the situation, the
British Government determined to act alone.
On July 22nd, Admiral Seymour wrote to the
Khedive to assure him that the British Fleet
under his command was operating with the
sole purpose of protecting His Highness and
7o THE SUEZ CANAL SEIZED
the people of Egypt against the rebels. At
the same time, the Khedive issued a proclama-
tion, in which he denounced Arabi as a rebel;
and Arabi thereupon replied by proclaiming
the jehad, or Holy War. On July 24th, the
British troops were landed at Alexandria, and
the town was effectively occupied. A week
later, the French fleet received orders to
withdraw, and England was left to fulfil
the task to which she was now definitely
committed.
The first object of the campaign which
followed,—a campaign as short as it was bril-
liant—was to rescue the Canal from the “tem-
porary destruction” which Arabi threatened.
On August 3rd, Suez, the southern entrance
to the Canal, was occupied by British Marines.
De Lesseps and the French officials made a
show of resistance—indeed, De Lesseps had
given Arabi a definite pledge” that the
English should be excluded from “his” Canal,
as he called it ; but by August 26th the
Canal and its approaches had been placed
under the guardianship and control of the
*When the Canal was threatened by the rebel forces,
he telegraphed to Arabi: “The English shall never enter
the Canal, never. Make no attempt to intercept my
Canal. I am there. Not a single English soldier shall
disembark without being accompanied by a French
soldier. I answer for everything !” Arabi replied:
“Sincere thanks. Assurances consolatory, but not
sufficient under the existing circumstances. The defence
of Egypt requires the temporary destruction of the
Canal,”—Cameron's Egypt in the AWineteenth Century.
TEL-EL-KEBIR 71
British Fleet. In the meantime, troops had
been rapidly transported from England and
from India, and on August 20th there were
31,468 British troops of all ranks in Egypt.
Lord Wolseley (then Sir Garnet), the
Commander-in-Chief, who had meanwhile
landed at Alexandria, declared in his proclama-
tion of August 19th that these troops had
been despatched “with the sole object of
re-establishing the authority of the Khedive.”
That object was accomplished with surprising
celerity and efficiency. On August 28th, the
attack of the rebels upon the British camp at
Kassassin was repulsed with heavy loss; and a
fortnight later, on September 13th, Arabi's
army was broken behind its entrenchments
at Tel-el-Kebir, a point about 30 miles north-
east of Cairo, which commanded the railway
junction at Zagazig. On the following day,
two squadrons of British cavalry rode in
hot haste across the intervening stretch
of desert to the capital. When they
reached the open space beneath the walls
of Saladin's citadel, they were spent with
hunger and exhaustion ; nevertheless, so
great was the terror begotten of the splendid
charge in which the Guards had scattered the
Fellahin soldiery in the battle of yesterday,
that Arabi surrendered himself with Io,000
men that night, and on the morrow Sir
Garnet Wolseley and the British army occu-
**
!
72 END OF REVOLT.
pied the capital. A garrison of 12,000 men
was left in Egypt to maintain the Khedive's
Government, but the rest of the troops
returned to England; and on October 21st—
just five weeks after they had entered Cairo—
they were greeted with enthusiastic applause
as they marched through the streets of
London.
Four days later—as if to show the reality
of the danger from which Egypt had been
rescued—it was reported that the Mahdi was
master of the Sudan southward of Khartum.
The rank and file of the rebellious soldiery
laid down their arms, or fled in terror to their
homes; and a few months later, the prisoners
were released, and a general amnesty was
proclaimed. Arabi, the leader of the rebellion,
was arraigned before a specially-constituted
tribunal, and condemned to death. This
sentence was, however, commuted on December
3rd to one of banishment for life, and on
December 27th he was transported to Ceylon.”
As we have seen, the British Government
had declared that the sole purpose of the
occupation was to restore “the authority of
the Khedive.” This object being now accom-
plished, why did British troops still remain
in possession of the country P. The answer is
* Mahmud Sahmi and other rebel leaders were also
punished by banishment, and one,—Suleiman—who was
convicted of massacre and incendiarism at Alexandria,
was hanged.
2
BRITISH CONTROL 73
provided in the “circular despatch '' which
Lord Granville addressed to the Powers,
including the Sultan, the Suzerain of the
Khedive, on January 3rd, 1883. Immediately
after Lord Wolseley's successful campaign
had left Egypt in the hands of England, a
statesman expert, in the person of Lord
Dufferin, was despatched to report upon the
conditions of the country. Lord Dufferin
arrived at Cairo on November 7th, and with
his arrival the partnership of England and
France, or the Dual Control, came virtually
to an end, although it was not formally
terminated until the Khedivial Decree of the
following January 18th. The British Govern-
ment determined that while Lord Dufferin
was formulating his proposals for the future
administration of the country, a sufficient
body of troops must remain to keep order
and to enable these proposals to be carried
into effect. It was this decision that Lord
Granville communicated to the Powers by his
despatch of January 3rd, 1883, and the tutelary
authority which England thus claimed in
respect of Egypt was acknowledged by all the
great Powers, with the exception of France
and Turkey. “Although for the present,”
Lord Granville then wrote, “a British force
remains in Egypt for the preservation of
public tranquillity, Her Majesty's Government
are desirous of withdrawing it as soon as the
74 BRITISH POLICY
State of the country and the organization of
proper means for the maintenance of the
Khedive's authority will admit of it. In
the meantime, the position in which Her
Majesty's Government are placed towards His
Highness imposes upon them the duty of
giving advice with the object of securing that
the order of things to be established shall be
of a satisfactory character, and possess the
elements of stability and progress.”
England did not retire, because she con-
ceived that the task of restoring order
involved the creation of a new system of
Government in Egypt which should be at
once stable and progressive. To put down
the rebellion, and leave Egypt in the con-
dition in which she found her, afforded no
sufficient prospect of realizing this purpose.
The crisis of the rebellion had revealed the
inherent weakness of the Dual Control. The
chronic jealousy of France and England made
collective action on the part of their represen-
tatives practically impossible. Yet, without
the effective control of European officials,
neither the financial arrangement of the Law
of Liquidation, nor the administrative reforms
upon which that arrangement depended,
could be carried out, since the class from
which the Khedive's Government was re-
cruited was alike corrupt and incompetent.
*C,3462.
BRITISH POLICY 75
Moreover, the Dual Control had not merely
broken down in the actual crisis of the
rebellion, but the national discontent out of
which that rebellion had in part arisen had
shown that the financial burden imposed by
the Law of Liquidation was excessive. On
the one hand, the payment of the Debt to
Europe was exacted with too rigorous a
regard for the immediate interests of the
Bondholders, and, on the other, too little
provision was made for assisting the Govern-
ment in that economic development of the
resources of the country which was necessary
to enable Egypt ultimately to throw off the
burden of Ismail's reign.
In short, the British Government and the
British nation believed it to be their duty not
merely to reinstate the Khedive's Govern-
ment, not merely to put Egypt back into the
position into which she had been brought
under the Dual Control—still less to expose
her to the danger of a return to the reckless
and incompetent despotism by which her
people had been oppressed before the inter-
vention of the Powers—but to initiate and
direct the administrative and economic
reforms by which alone the future efficiency of
the Government, and the future progress of
the country, could be alike assured. It is by
such action that the British nation realizes
its imperial ideal of duty ; an ideal which

76 THE IMPERIAL IDEAL
has never been more definitely expressed
than it was when Lord Rosebery called the
British Empire “the greatest secular agency
for good known to the world.”* The right
of England to occupy Egypt is based upon
the facts which have here been briefly set out.
The right of England to remain in Egypt is
based upon the work of reform which she has
since accomplished. It is the record of this
work that constitutes for Englishmen the real
story of Egypt to-day, and this story has
now to be related.
*As similar phrases have been used by other public
men, it may be interesting to state that the words which
I quote here (and which I have elsewhere quoted) were
used by Lord Rosebery in my own hearing. The
occasion was the unveiling of the memorial to William
Bede Dalley—the Australian statesman and advocate of
ºrial Federation—in the Crypt of St. Paul's Cathe-
ral.
CHAPTER VI
THE BEGINNING OF
REFORMS
HE work accomplished by Lord Dufferin
during the six months of his Special
Mission (November, 1882—May, 1883) in-
cluded the establishment of certain represen-_
tative institutions, and the commencement of
administrative reforms. His “Report' on the
re-organization of Egypt was published on
March 20th; and the constitutional proposals
which it contained were embodied in the
Organic Law, which was signed by the Khedive
on April 30th, and promulgated by the decree
of May 1st. By this decree the Khedive esta-
blished four Councils, which are endowed with
widely different powers appropriate to their
several functions:— i
I. A Provincial Council, for each Mudiriyeh
or Province. * , ,
2. A Legislative Council.
3. A Legislative Assembly.
4. A Council of State.
s
78 THE ORGANIC LAW
The constitution thus outlined provides the
machinery for representative government, both
central and local ; but the exercise of any such
powers of self-government is strictly limited by
the actual terms of the Decree. Of the two
Central bodies—the Legislative Council and
the Legislative Assembly—the first, the Legis-
lative Council, consists of thirty members, of
whom sixteen only are delegates elected under
the provisions of the Electoral law promulgated
together with the Organic Law; while fourteen,
among whom the president is included, are
nominated by the Khedive on the recommend-
ation of the Council of State. These members
receive a salary calculated to cover the expenses
incurred in attending meetings of the Council,
of which six are held in each year. The special
function of the Legislative Council is to discuss
the financial and legislative proposals of the
Council of State, which together with the
Khedive constitutes the executive government;
but all questions affecting the international
obligations of Egypt under the Law of Liquida-
tion, and the duties owed by the Khedive to
his Suzerain, are expressly excepted from dis-
cussion. Its sole power of initiation consists in
the right to put forward legislative proposals for
the consideration of the government, which may
or may not put them into effect. On the other
hand, every law or decree promulgated by the
government, with the exception already noted,
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 79
must be first submitted to the Legislative
Council for discussion. Here, too, its power
is strictly confined to giving advice; but if this
advice is rejected, the government are bound
to furnish a written statement of the reasons
which led them to reject it.
The powers of the Legislative Council are,
therefore, merely consultative and advisory ;
but in spite of the narrow limits within which
its authority is confined, it is an institution
which fulfils a useful purpose. In the first
place it is a means of familiarizing the more
enlightened of the native population with the
forms of Parliamentary procedure, and in the
second, it serves to keep the Government and
its English advisers in touch with native
opinion. With this object in view the Khedive's
ministers, who have the right of appearing in
person, or by their official representative, at its
meetings, are careful that new measures should
be fully explained to its members, and the
recommendations or amendments which it
proposes are carefully considered, and º
possible adopted.
The first article of Section VI. of the Organic
Law (headed “of the General Assembly’’)
declares that “no new direct tax, predial or
personal, can be imposed in Egypt, unless it
has been discussed and approved by the
General Assembly.” But with this very im-
portant power of preventing the imposition of

p
|
8o GENERAL ASSEMBLY
new taxation—a power which is, however, suffi.
cient in itself to secure the Assembly from
political impotency—the authority of the
second Chamber begins and ends. Owing to
the fact that the efforts of the Khedive's
Government, under the English advisers, have
hitherto been directed towards the decreasing
of taxation, the Assembly has only once been
called upon to consent to the imposition of a
fresh tax ; and as this fresh tax was required to
enable the Government to abolish the corvée,”
or obligation to labour for the State without
payment, the proposal was willingly approved.
The assembly is composed of (I) the Khedive's
Ministers, (2) the President, Vice-Presidents,
and members of the Legislative Council, and
(3) forty-six notables elected by popular vote.
These latter must satisfy an educational test
and possess certain qualifications of property
and terms of residence. The Assembly has a
right to be consulted upon every new proposal
of the Government which affects the taxation of
the State, the construction of canals and rail-
ways, and the classification of lands for the
assessment of the land tax ; and it must be
summoned at least once in every five years.
Its members, like those of the Legislative
Council, are paid a small sum to cover the
* On December 17th, 1889, the Assembly, approved
by a unanimous vote of the proposal to raise 4E150,000
of additional revenue by a special tax on land per acre,
in order to effect the (practical) abolition of the corvée.
PROVINCIAL COUNCILS 8I
expenses incurred in attendance at its meetings.
The Provincial Councils established by the
Organic Law were fourteen in number, i.e., one
for each Province or Mudiriyeh. The matters
with which they are authorized to deal are the
construction and management of the public
buildings, roads, markets, &c., of the respective
Provinces. They are composed, like the Legis-l
lative Council, of both elected and official'
members, and the elected members must
possess qualifications which insure their being
men of intelligence and substance. It is in
these Provincial Councils, and in other bodies
possessing similar powers of local government
established since the date of the Organic Law,
that we must look for evidence of the develop-
ment of self-government in Egypt, and not as
yet in the two partly representative Chambers.
I shall, therefore, return to the subject of Pro-
vincial and Town Councils in a subsequent
chapter,” when we shall be able to discuss their
growth as part of the general progress achieved
by Egypt under the British Control.
There remains the Council of State. It
consists of the six Ministers of the Khedive,
who, together with him, constitute the ultimate
legislative and administrative authority of the
State. The power of the Egyptian executive
thus constituted is, however, limited by the
suzerain rights of Turkey, by the international
* Chapter XII.
82 COUNCIL OF STATE
obligations created by the Law of Liquidation,
and by the judicial and administrative authority
of the Powers, which is exercised through the
Mixed Tribunals and the Mixed Administra-
tions. Moreover, under the present system of
British Control, the Khedive's Ministers are
guided by British Advisers, and the depart-
ments which are severally placed under their
charge are more or less completely organized
and worked by British officials. -
In this way Egypt was provided with a consti-
tution in which the principle of representative
government was for the first time duly recognized.
But it is one thing to draw up a scheme of
representative institutions, and quite another to
endow a community with the knowledge and
self-restraint by which alone such institutions
can be vitalized. It was a wise thing no doubt
to place this ideal of representative government
before the Egyptian people thus early, but Lord
Dufferin did not neglect the more practical
aim of initiating the system of British control,
and thereby laying the foundation for the
effective reforms of the several Departments,
upon the efficiency of which the immediate
prosperity of the country wholly depended;
and before he left Egypt a substantial
commencement of administrative reform under
British advice and direction had been made.
Upon the abolition of the Dual Control at
the end of 1882—a measure against which
BRITISH OFFICIALS 83
France protested, but one in which she sub-
sequently acquiesced — the duties hitherto
performed by the two Controllers-General were
entrusted to a single English official, styled the
Financial Adviser, and attached to the Ministry
of Finance ; and Sir Auckland Colvin, the
English Controller-General, was appointed to
this office. On September 11th, 1883, Lord
Cromer (then Sir Evelyn Baring) returned to
Egypt as British Agent and Consul-General.
This important position—for the British Agent
is the immediate representative * of the British
Government—had been held by Sir Edward
Malet during the three years preceding this
date, with the exception of the period of Lord
Dufferin's special mission. Apart from the
occupants of these offices, and the representa-
tives of England in the Caisse de la Dette and
the Mixed Administrations, Englishmen had
been appointed to responsible positions in the
Egyptian Civil Service before the Occupation :
notably the Director-General of Accounts (Sir
Gerald Fitzgerald), the Director - General of
Customs (Mr. Caillardt), and the Postmaster-
General (Mr. Hatton). But, under Lord
Dufferin's direction, the number was largely
* Lord Cromer is also “Minister Plenipotentiary.”
The other Powers are similarly represented by Consuls-
General at Cairo, but the position of the British repre-
sentative involves the responsibility which attaches to
the Minister of the Power which occupies and protects
Egypt.
f Who has just (1900) died.
84 REFORMS
increased. As we have seen, the material
prosperity of Egypt depends upon the supply of
water which is brought to the fields from the
Nile. The system of canals and water-courses
by which this was effected had become singu-
larly deficient, and in order to provide this
primary economic necessity, the Irrigation
Department was placed under the direction of
Sir Colin Scott Moncrieff and a staff of Anglo-
Indian engineers. The maintenance of internal
order was secured by placing the police under
General Baker, and by entrusting the reorgan-
ization of the Egyptian army to Sir Evelyn
Wood, who was appointed Sirdar, or Com-
mander-in-Chief, and twenty-six other British
officers. The rebel army which had fought for
Arabi had been disbanded by the Khedive on
December 20th, 1882, and Lord Dufferin pro-
posed that the new army, which was raised by
conscription from the Fellahin, should be
limited at first to 6,ooo men. Such rapid pro-
gress was made in the training and organization
of this new force that it was able to make a
creditable show on the occasion of the first
review, which was held as early as March 31st,
1883. The use of the Äurbash, the familiar
instrument of oppression wielded by the lower
officials over the unhappy Fellahin, was declared
illegal, and rigorous measures were taken to
enforce the prohibition. A system of law,
based upon the French Civil and Criminal
NATIVE TRIBUNALS 85
Codes, with such modifications as local circum-
stances required, was formulated, and the way
was thus prepared for the establishment in the
following year of the Native Tribunals, by
which an impartial administration of justice was
for the first time after many centuries attempted.
In connection with the inauguration of these
Courts, an Indian Judge, Sir Benson Maxwell,
was appointed to the office of Procureur-
Général,” or Attorney-General.
All of these measures were either initiated
by Lord Dufferin, or were the immediate
results of the proposals which he made during
the period of his special mission ; and although
the work of reform progressed but slowly—for
it was retarded by financial necessities and
material disasters—they represented together an
enlightened and successful effort to provide for
the most pressing administrative needs of
Egypt.
* The Parquet, a French institution which corresponds
roughly to a Department of Crown Prosecution, is
placed directly under the control of this official.
*T*... ...
CHAPTER VII
THE Loss of THE SUDAN
HE movement of Mohammedan fana-
ticism, which had been checked in
Egypt by the swift successes of the British
arms, had swollen in the Sudan into a
general revolt against the Egyptian Govern-
ment established there since the conquest
of the country by Mohammed Ali. In 1881
a Sheikh of Dongola, Mohammed Ahmed by
name, had proclaimed himself to be the
Mahdi (the “guided one”), the promised
prophet of the line of Ali for whose coming the
Shiites looked. As his first purpose was to
overthrow the existing government, his mission
proved acceptable enough to a population which
had been shamelessly oppressed by the excessive
taxation and personal despotism of the Turkish
and Egyptian officials; and as we have already
RISE OF THE MAHDI 87
noticed, the unwelcome news that the Mahdi
was master of the country south of Khartum
broke in upon the rejoicings called forth by the
return of the British forces from their brilliant
campaign in Egypt. And two days before the
return of Lord Cromer to Cairo, as British-
Agent, on September 11th, 1883, General Hicks
started from Khartum with a force of II, ooo
native troops to attack the Mahdi at El-Obeid,
in Kordofan, which was said to be the centre of
the rebellion. This ill-fated expedition was
despatched by the Khedive's ministers acting
independently of any British advice; for at first
the British Government, maintaining the illogical
position that though England was responsible
for the affairs of Egypt, she was not responsible
for the action of Egypt in the Sudan, had de-
clined to offer any advice on this subject to the
Khedive's government. But when the early
successes gained by the native troops under
General Hicks were followed by the annihilation
of his entire force early in November, the sº
British Government was compelled to interfere.
The despatches, which had passed through the
hands of Sir Edward Malet before they were
delivered to the Egyptian Government, showed
not only that the force which Hicks commanded
was miserably deficient in every quality necessary
for military success, but that the unhappy
General and his English officers set out with an
almost certain knowledge of the doom which
*Q.
88 LORD CROMER'S VIEW
awaited them. It was obvious that the task of
recovering the Sudan was beyond the resources
of Egypt in her present financial straits, and it
was obvious also that the Government which
directed Hicks to embark upon so desperate an
enterprise was incapable of dealing with a
question in which such grave interests were
involved. -
Lord Cromer, having these facts before him,
at once decided that the Sudan must be
abandoned; and the British Government, re-
tiring from their untenable position, determined
that the Egyptian Government must be controlled
in this, as in other matters, by English advice.
This decision led to a further step in the direc-
tion of British control. A year before the
British Government had assumed, in the face
of Europe, the duty of giving advice; it now
announced that this advice, when given, “must
be followed.”
“I hardly need point out,” Lord Granville
wrote to Lord Cromer on January 4th, 1884,
“that in important questions, where the
administration and safety of Egypt are at
stake, it is indispensable that Her Majesty's
Government should, so long as the provisional
occupation of the country by English troops
continues, be assured that the advice which,
after full consideration of the views of the
Egyptian Government, they may feel it their
duty to tender to the Khedive, should be
BRITISH POLICY 89
followed. It should be made clear to the
Egyptian ministers and governors of provinces
that the responsibility which for the time rests
on England obliges Her Majesty's Government
to insist on the adoption of the policy which
they recommend, and that it will be necessary
that those ministers and governors who do not
follow this course should cease to hold their
offices.” ”
The policy of abandoning the Sudan was
naturally unpopular in Egypt, and Sherif Pasha,
who had been Prime Minister since the restora-
tion of the Khedive's authority, resigned rather
than give effect to it. His place was taken by
Nubar Pasha; and the new Ministry pledged to
the abandonment of the Sudan took office on
January 8th, 1884.
The destruction of Hicks's force was followed
by further victories won by the Mahdi's fol-
lowers; and in view of these successes the
Egyptian garrisons of the interior were concen-
trated at Khartum, and gunboats were des-
patched by the British Government to hold
Suakin and the Red Sea ports against the
Dervishes. In December (1883) General
Baker was sent to take command at Suakin
with a military force drawn from the Egyptian
police, and the garrison at Khartum was rein-
forced. On the other hand, the cause of the
* C. 3844. -
f Dervish (“one in advance ’) = religious' enthusiast,
90 OSMAN DIGNA
Mahdi gained a notable acquisition in the
person of Osman Digna, a former slave dealer,
who became henceforth the most intrepid and
successful of the Dervish leaders, ultimately
surviving not only the Mahdi, but the Mahdi's
successor, the Khalifa, by his cunning and
resource. Early in February, 1884, General
Baker was defeated near Tokar with a force of
3,500 Egyptian troops; and on the 21st this
place was surrendered to the Dervishes.
In the meantime the British Government,
having assumed the direction of the Egyptian
policy in the Sudan, had found in General
Gordon an instrument by which they believed
that policy might be put into effect. The
services of Gordon were at this time being
solicited by the King of the Belgians, who had
offered him the post of Governor-General of
the Congo Free State ; and he was recalled
from Brussels by a telegram from the British
Government on January 17th (1884). Having
been released from his engagement by the
King of the Belgians, Gordon accepted the
dangerous mission proposed by the British
Government. His original instructions were to
go to Khartum and report upon the condition
of the Sudan; but when he reached Cairo, on
January 25th—having left London on January
18th—these instructions were enlarged, and he
was appointed Governor-General of the Sudan
by the Khedive. He conceived a more hopeful
GENERAL GORDON 9 I
view of the situation, and instead of proposing
to hold Khartum against the Mahdi until a
relief force could reach him and the Egyptian
garrisons here and elsewhere in the Sudan could
be withdrawn, he believed that it would be pos-
sible to maintain Egyptian authority in the
Sudan. For effecting his purpose he relied in
part upon the unrivalled personal influence
which he had gained over the Sudanese tribes
during the period he had formerly administered
the Sudan as Governor-General (1877-1880),
and the Equatorial Province as Governor (1874);
and upon the active co-operation of the Egyptian
Government—that is of the British Agent, Lord
Cromer—and ultimately upon the support of
the British Government. Why this co-opera-
tion and support was denied until it was too
late, is a question which cannot be discussed
within the limits of this book. It is sufficient
to note that the proposals which Gordon made
after he had reached Khartum by his adven-
turous journey across the desert on February
18th, and before the telegraph line was cut and
he was isolated from Cairo in the following
April, were not acceptable to Lord Cromer;
and that the British Government did not send
a relief force to rescue him until it was com-
elled re 9f public opinion, and that
this force, which was sent in the autumn, arrived
too late. On the other hand, the action which
Gordon took upon his arrival in the Sudan was

92 GORDON IN THE SUDAN
of such a character as to justify Lord Cromer
in maintaining that the co-operation which he
required was inconsistent with the financial
necessities by which the efforts of the Egyptian
Government were rigorously limited. Moreover,
it must be remembered that within a week of
the fall of Khartum, on January 26th, 1885, the
relieving force had received a message, dated
December 29th (1884), in which Gordon re-
ported that he “could hold out for a year.”
Gordon reached Berber on February 11th
(1883}; and he there issued a proclamation
appointing the Mahdi Sultan of Kordofan. At
the same time, in order to check the rebellion
from spreading further, he ordered one-half of
the taxes due to the Egyptian Government to
be remitted, and declared that the institution of
slavery would be henceforward recognized.
Upon the report of sº SUICCéSSCS
of the Dervishes, the first expedition of
British troops was despatched to Suakin,
and the defeat of the Egyptian troops under
General Baker was retrieved by the victory
gained at El Teb, on February 29th, 1884,
by the British force under General Graham ;
and on March 1st, Tokar was regained for
Egypt. These successes were followed by
the victory of Tamanieb, on March 13th,
and by the destruction of Osman Digna's
camp on the following day. But the British
expedition was unable to penetrate into the
SUDAN LOST 93
interior, and the British troops were withdrawn
in April.
Towards the end of March it was announced
that the Mahdi had rejected Gordon's offers,
and in April Khartum was invested by his
forces. The Egyptian troops thereupon joined
the Dervishes, and the whole of the Sudan, with
the exception of Khartum and the Red Sea
ports, was in the power of the Mahdi. So
complete was the rebellion that Assuan, where
Egypt ends and Nubia begins, was garrisoned
by Egyptian troops, and afterwards, on July
12th, by British troops in fear of a Dervish
attack upon Egypt itself.
In the face of this situation public opinion
was deeply moved in England, and pressure was
brought upon the Government to send an effect-
ive expedition without delay to relieve Khar-
tum and rescue Gordon from his impending
fate. The Government, however, acting under
the advice of the military authorities, decided
that nothing could be done until the autumn.
It was at first intended that the expedition for
the relief of Khartum should be placed under
the command of General Earle, and troops
were despatched, which began to arrive at
Wadi Halfa on August 23rd. On September
9th, however, Lord Wolseley arrived at Cairo
as Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in
Egypt and the Sudan. He decided to adopt
the Nile route, instead of the route from Suakin
94. NILE EXPEDITION
to Berber, adopted by the previous expedition;
and on October 5th he reached Wadi Halfa,
and proceeded to direct in person the opera-
tions of the “Nile Expedition.” As a military
effort this expedition is notable for the fact that
the British forces were assisted by Canadian
boatmen (voyageurs), and by a contingent of
volunteers from New South Wales. It was
therefore, the first occasion upon which the
colonies contributed to the military strength of
the mother country. The expedition reached
Dongola on November 3rd, and Korti, where
the Nile turns northwards in a backward
curve, on December 15th. At this point the
expedition was divided. General Earle fol-
lowed the course of the river with the main
force, while General Stewart pushed forward
across the Bayuda Desert to Metemmeh on the
Nile. At Abu Klea, some twenty miles north-
ward of Metemmeh, Stewart was attacked by
the Dervishes and defeated them in a brilliant
engagement on January 17th. He was, how-
ever, mortally wounded on the following day,
and the command of the column was then
assumed by Sir Charles Wilson. On January
19th the Nile was reached at Gubat, a point
northward of Metemmeh, and on the 24th Sir
Charles Wilson embarked with a small force
upon the two steamers which Gordon had sent
forward, and hurried up the Nile to Khartum,
which lay some hundred miles to the south.
FALL OF KPHARTUM 95
He reached Khartum on the 28th, only
to find it in possession of the victorious
Dervishes. Two days before the town
had been treacherously surrendered to the
Mahdi, and Gordon had been killed outside
his palace.
The expedition had failed to achieve its
object, and nothing remained to be done but
to retire from the inhospitable desert as speedily
as possible. The British troops which had been
engaged in a fruitless struggle with Osman Digna
around Suakin were also withdrawn, and the
construction of the military railway from Suakin
to Berber, which had been definitely ordered in
February, was subsequently countermanded.
On June 15th Dongola was evacuated, and thus
the whole of the Egyptian Sudan (with the
exception of the Equatorial Province, where
Emin Pasha maintained himself until he was
restored to Europe by the Stanley Expedition
of 1887–1890) was abandoned to the devas-
tating tyranny of Dervish rule. The Mahdi
died at the period (June, 1885) of his final
triumph. He was succeeded by Abdullah el
Taishi, who, assuming the title of Khalifa,
exercised what is probably the most baneful
and cruel despotism known to modern times,
until his power was destroyed at Omdurman in
1898.
The personal infamies of the Khalifa's rule
have been since revealed by the narratives of
96 THE KHALIFA’S RULE.
European prisoners” who survived captivity at
Omdurman. Its baneful influence is evidenced
by the condition of depopulation and devasta-
tion in which the Sudan was found, when it
was restored to civilisation by the joint force
of Egypt and England. -
* Sir Rudolph Slatin, or Slatin Pasha, succeeded in
effecting his escape; Charles Neumann was liberated by
General Kitchener after the fall of Omdurman. Khar-
tum, the Egyptian capital of the Sudan, is situated at the
junction of the White and Blue Niles. Omdurman, the
Khalifa’s capital, was built a little northward on the west
or opposite bank of the main stream of the Nile. Khar-
tum is now being rebuilt, and Gordon's Palace has been
restored.
CHAPTER VIII.
CONFLICTING AUTHORITIES.
HE abandonment of the Sudan reacted
with disastrous effect upon the situation
in Egypt. British prestige suffered; the finan-
cial resources of the Bgyptian Government, ... .
burdened by the additional expenditure of
the war, once more proved inadequate, and
the unavoidable friction between the English
and Egyptian officials reached its most acute
phase. The period extending from the return
of Lord Cromer in September, 1883, to the
summer of 1886, when Wadi Halfa was defi-
nitely fixed as the southward limit of the
Khedive's authority, was marked by the
gravest difficulties of the British control ;
and that these difficulties were successfully
surmounted is due to the combined patience
and strength which Lord Cromer succeeded
8
98 LORD CROMER
in infusing into the action of the British
Government. ” |
Lord Cromer, like every other great Imperial
administrator, suffered at first from a want Of
confidence on the part of his official superiors
and from the fitfulness of English public
opinion ; but as time went on and his recom-
mendations were seen to be justified by events,
his capacity was recognized and he succeeded
in eventually winning a measure of confidence
more ample probably than has been reposed in
any other public servant by the British nation.
And although he was assisted from time to
time by the most capable men whom England
could provide for the work of the several
departments of the administration, yet his
long period of uninterrupted service, and
the commanding influence exercised by his
personality on the general conduct of affairs,
entitle him to be regarded as the chief author
of the regeneration of Egypt. If there is
one quality to which more than another the
success of Lord Cromer's direction must be
attributed, it is the quality of waiting and
watching embodied in the German proverb
Ohne Hast, ohne Rast,” which underlies his
policy. -
In the present instance—that is to say in
view of the difficulties by which the British
control was at first environed—Lord Cromer
* Without haste, without rest.
LORD CROMER 99
was of opinion that the programme of reforms
initiated by Lord Dufferin, although these
reforms were desirable and necessary in
themselves, was too wide to be successfully
undertaken with the resources at present
available. Under these circumstances, there-
fore, he determined to select that part of the
work of reform which was of most immediate
necessity, and to concentrate the forces at his
disposal upon them, leaving the less necessary
reforms until circumstances had become more
favourable. -
The three objects of primary importance
upon the attainment of which Lord Cromer
concentrated his efforts were the modification
of the Law of Liquidation, the improvement
of the irrigation system, and the defence of
the southern frontier against Dervish inroads.
The first of these was all-important ; for the
experience of the English Financial Adviser
confirmed the evidence of the Dual Control,
and showed that the settlement effected by
the Law of Liquidation had withdrawn so
large a proportion of the annual revenue for
the service of the Debt, that the remaining
revenue was insufficient to meet the cost of
Government. Until this object, therefore,
was obtained, and an adequate proportion of
the total revenue was placed at the disposal
of the Administration, neither the recommend-
ations of the Anglo-Indian engineers for
Ioo PROGRESS OF REFORMS
improving the water supply of the Delta could
be put into effect, nor could the training and
equipment of the fellahin soldiers, by whom the
duty of defending Egypt was to be performed,
be successfully carried out under the British
officers who had been appointed to create the
new Egyptian army.
Before relating, however, the several steps
by which the consent of the Powers was
obtained to a more equitable distribution of
the revenue between the Caisse de la Dette
and the Government, it is necessary to say
a few words in respect of the general progress
of reforms during this period of difficulty.
In the autumn of 1883—the autumn in
which Lord Cromer returned to Egypt—the
first financial adviser, Sir Auckland Colvin,
was succeeded by Sir Edgar Vincent, and Mr.
Clifford Lloyd was appointed first Director-
General of Reforms, and subsequently, in the
following January, Under-Secretary in the
Ministry of the Interior. The appointment
of Sir Colin Scott-Moncrieff, as Inspector-
General of Irrigation, has been already
mentioned. He arrived in May, 1883, and
six months later he was entrusted with the
wide responsibilities belonging to the Under-
Secretaryship in the Ministry of Public
Works, while Colonel Ross, another Anglo-
Indian official, was appointed to succeed him
at the head of the Irrigation Department.
THE FINANCIAL ADVISER IoI
The efforts of these men, and of the group of
Anglo-Indian engineers whom they gathered
round them, were destined ultimately to
provide the entire areas of the Delta
and the Nile Valley with an efficient system
of irrigation and an abundant and reliable
supply of water. The details of this
achievement — forming perhaps the most
solid of the administrative achievements of
the British Control—will be related in a
subsequent chapter ; but even at this early
period their efforts were so far successful that
the temporary measures which they adopted
for the improvement of the water supply of
the Delta caused the Egyptian cotton crop
of 1884 to be the heaviest on record.
The position of Financial Adviser under the
British Control is only second in importance
to that of the British Agent. Technically,
he is not a member of the Executive; for,
although he is permitted to attend the
meetings of the Council of Ministers, he has
no right of voting; but on the other hand, he
is entitled to receive full information upon all
measures proposed by the several Ministers, and
the principle that “no financial decision should
be taken without his consent,” early formulated
by the British and accepted by the Egyptian
Government, gave him practically a right of
veto over every significant act of the Adminis-
tration. During the five and a half years that
... • *-*.
I O2 MR. CLIFFORD LLOYD
Sir Edgar Vincent remained Financial Adviser
(1883—1889), he exercised this control with
equal firmness and sagacity. At first his
efforts were confined to compelling the
v Egyptian Government to subordinate every
other consideration to the paramount necessity
of reducing its expenditure within the limits
of the available revenue; but he was subse-
quently enabled to adjust the taxation to the
social and economic conditions of the country,
and he thereby laid the foundations of the
fiscal prosperity which has been subsequently
developed by his successors.
Mr. Clifford Lloyd's efforts proved unsuccess-
ful. They were directed towards the reform
of the local officials—a reform which involved
the delicate subject of the relations of the
Mudirs” to the Police. This was a task which,
however needful, would probably have proved
too difficult in any hands under the then
existing conditions of Egypt, and at a time
when the British Control was in its infancy.
As it was, Mr. Clifford Lloyd increased the
natural difficulties of the work by a hot
dispute with another English official—Sir
Benson Maxwell—who, as Procureur-Général,f
held a scarcely less important position in the
*The Mudir, literally the man who “turns” every-
thing round, is the Governor of a Mudiriyeh or Province.
He is the administrative and judicial representative of the
Executive in each Province.
f See page 85.
FINANCIAL CRISIS Io.3
same department—the Ministry of the Interior.
Weakened by this dispute, he was overborne
by the opposition of the Egyptian Govern-
ment, and when, in April, 1884, Nubar Pasha
threatened to resign the Premiership unless
he were withdrawn, the British Government
(Lord Cromer was in England at the time)
yielded. Sir Benson Maxwell shared the
same fate, and the work of reform in this
particular department of the Administration
had to be postponed to a more favourable
SC2SOIl. -
But the main necessity of the period was to
obtain easier terms for the payment of the
debt than those which the Law of Liquidation
permitted. Upon this object Lord Cromer
concentrated his efforts, and he was ultimately
successful; but not until the financial crisis of
1884 had culminated in an open viºlation of
the terms of the settlement by the temporary
suspension of the sinking fund, and in a direct
conflict between the Egyptian Government
and the International Authority established
in Egypt.
In the summer of 1884, the representatives
of the Powers met in London for the purpose
of arranging the nature of the financial relief
which could be awarded to Egypt. The
requirements of the Egyptian Government
were two-fold. A new loan was necessary
to enable the Egyptian Treasury to meet
ro4 THE LONDON CONFERENCE
the extraordinary demands caused by the
Alexandria * indemnities, and the expenses of
the war in the Sudan ; and besides this
immediate relief, the permanent relief was
needed which could only be obtained by a
modification of the Law of Liquidation.
For both of these objects the consent of the
six great Powers was necessary, and for the
first—the new loan—the permission of the
suzerain Power had also to be obtained.
Two proposals for modifying the Law of
Liquidation were brought forward at the
London Conference—an English proposal
formulated by Lord Cromer upon the advice
of English financial experts, and a French
proposal drafted by M. de Blignières, in which
the interests of the bondholders were preferred
to the welfare of Egypt. As the representa-
tives of the Powers were unable to come to
any agreement, the Conference broke up
without effecting its object.
The Egyptian Government were now
thrown back upon their own resources, and in
view of the gravity of the situation, Lord
Northbrook was despatched by the British
Government to examine the finances on the
spot. As we have seen, the financial crisis
arose simultaneously with the rebellion in the
*The Egyptian Government was rightly held responsi-
ble for the destruction of property which resulted from
the Arabi riots, and the subsequent bombardment of
Alexandria.
LORD NORTHBROOK Io 5
Sudan, and Lord Northbrook arrived at Cairo,
as High Commissioner, on September 9th
(1884), in company with Lord Wolseley, as
Commander-in-Chief of the British forces
in Egypt and the Sudan. With Lord
Northbrook's approval, the Egyptian Govern-
ment determined to violate the settlement of
the Law of Liquidation, by ordering the
Mudirs of the Provinces assigned to the
service of the Debt to pay in their revenues
to the Egyptian Treasury instead of the
Caisse de la Dette.
The reasons upon which this action was
based were set out in the letter which the
Minister of Finance addressed to the Caisse
de la Dette on September 28th. (I) The
funds already received by the Caisse were
sufficient to pay the interest on the Debt, and,
therefore, the intercepted revenues would only
have been placed to the credit of the sinking
fund; (2) The necessity for suspending the
sinking fund had been admitted in principle,
although no agreement as to the precise
method to be employed for this purpose had
been reached by the London Conference;
(3) Short of stopping the machinery of the
Administration, the only alternative course
which the Egyptian Government could have
taken, was to have refused payment of the
tribute due to Turkey—a step which would
have entitled the Sultan to revoke the firmans
106 SINKING FUND SUSPENDED
from which the authority of the Khedive,
and of the Khedive's Government, was
derived.
Nevertheless, the step constituted a direct
violation of the terms of the existing settle-
ment, and by this action the Egyptian
Government was brought into direct conflict
with the international authority; and this
authority, as we have seen, had been rendered
effective by the establishment of the Caisse
de la Dette and the Mixed Tribunals. On
October 4th, at the instance of the Caisse,
the Prime Minister and the Minister of
Finance were summoned to appear before the
Mixed Tribunals, and on December 18th the
action of the Egyptian Government was
pronounced to be illegal by the International
Court. The Powers, moreover, made a formal
protest by an Identic Note—in the terms of
which all except Italy concurred—addressed
to the Egyptian Government, against the
suspension of the sinking fund, and the
representations which were made by the
British Government in favour of the Egyptian
Government failed to induce them to retire
from the position which they had taken up.
Under these circumstances, it only remained
for the Egyptian Government to admit that
it was legally in error, but that of two evils it
had chosen the lesser. The real justification
for their action lay in the fact that the
THE LONDON CONVENTION 107
Powers who had admitted in principle the
necessity for the suspension of the sink-
ing fund had yet refused to give Egypt
the relief to which she was entitled,
and which, as they knew, she required
immediately.
This, however, constituted a moral but not
a legal defence; and the Egyptian Govern-
ment wisely contented themselves with
resuming the payment of the assigned
revenues in full to the Caisse, and looked
to the British Government to extricate
them from the conflict with the Powers,
in which they had been involved through
following British advice. As the atten-
tion of the Powers had now been effectively
drawn to the financial conditions of Egypt,
they were the more ready to listen to
the proposals of the British Government.
The plans for modifying the Law of
Liquidation, which had been laid before
the abortive Conference, served, together
with the additional proposals now put
forward by Lord Northbrook, to form
a basis for the negociations conducted
by England with the other Powers
during the winter of 1884–1885; and
the results of these negociations were
embodied in the London Convention of
March 18th, 1885. Under this instru-
ment, which was signed by the six
Io8 THE LONDON CONVENTION
great Powers and Turkey, Egypt gained
the following advantages:—
(I) The distribution of the total revenue between the
Caisse and the Government was modified.
(2) The interest on the debt was reduced for a period of
two years.
(3) The Government was permitted to borrow £9,000,000
for immediate necessities, and this loan was guaran-
teed by the Powers.
These substantial advantages would not
have been obtained for Egypt—in the face of
the opposition of France—had it not been
possible to modify the opposition of France,
and to secure the support of Germany and
Russia, by certain inducements. France was
especially interested in the payment of the
Alexandria indemnities; and she was, therefore,
sensibly affected by the fact that a prompt
settlement of the claims of French subjects
could only be secured by allowing the
Egyptian Government to raise the proposed
loan. Russia and Germany had been hitherto
unrepresented in the Caisse; two new Com-
missioners, respectively representing these
Powers, were added to the Board.”
As the payment of the debt has been
henceforth regulated by the London Con-
vention, it is necessary to state the terms of
the new financial settlement with some
accuracy.
* See page 57.
DISTRIBUTION OF REVENUE Io9
Under the old settlement embodied in the
Law of Liquidation, the total revenue was
distributed in almost equal parts between the
Caisse and the Government; and as a result
of this distribution the Caisse had an annual
surplus, and the Government an annual
deficit, although the revenue as a whole was
sufficient both for the service of the Debt
and for the cost of administering the
Government. Under the present settlement
it was arranged that the Government should
be authorized to spend on a certain scale fixed
by reference to the general conditions of
Egypt; and that, further, the deficit incurred
on the part of the Government in respect of
this authorized expenditure should be paid
back to the Egyptian Exchequer out of
the surplus of the Caisse. That is to say,
the deficit shown by the Government, or
non-assigned, revenues was to be met by the
Surplus of the Caisse or assigned revenues.
Also one half only of the surplus which
remained from the assigned revenues, after
the deficit of the non-assigned revenues had
been paid off, was to be kept by the Caisse,
and the other half was to be placed at the
disposal of the Egyptian Government. By
this system a new and more equitable
distribution of the total revenue between the
Caisse and the Government was effected,
while at the same time the Caisse, as the
I IO FINANCIAL SYSTEM
instrument of the Powers, was still enabled
to control the employment of the revenues
which had been assigned as security for the
payment of the Debt, both interest and
capital, by the original settlement.
A concrete example will serve to show how
this system works in practice. In the year
I888, the assigned revenues produced
4 E4,845,305, and the non-assigned revenues,
4 E4,816, I31. The amount paid on account
of the interest and sinking fund of the Debt
was 4 E4,251,478, and the Caisse had therefore
a Surplus of Some £600,000. On the other
hand, the authorized expenditure of the
Government exceeded the non-assigned
revenues by 4 E296,076. This sum was
first returned to the Government by the
Caisse; and the surplus, as reduced by this
payment and by other authorized charges,
was then equally divided between the Caisse
and the Government, 4 E93,027 being placed
by the Caisse to the credit of the General
Reserve Fund—appropriated to the repayment
of the Debt—and 4 E93,027 being placed to
the credit of the Government. As, however,
the Government had exceeded the authorized
expenditure by 4 E1,171, this amount had to
be taken off their share of the surplus before
the balance (4 E91,856) was paid in to the
Special Reserve Fund—a fund formed to
provide for necessary but unauthorized
THE GUARANTEED LOAN III
expenditure, and entirely controlled by the
Egyptian Government. It should be added
that the amount of the excess of the actual
expenditure over the authorized expenditure
for this year (4 E1,171) is unusually small.
The returns of the period 1887-1897 show an
average excess of some 4 EI50,000 ; and, as a
matter of fact, although it was now possible
for the Egyptian Government to provide for
the bare cost of administration, the work of
industrial development has been seriously
retarded by the short-sighted and ungenerous
policy pursued by the Caisse in their dealings
with the Ministry of Finance.”
Fortunately, the guaranteed loan of
£9,000,ooo left the sum of one million
pounds at the disposal of the Egyptian
Government, after the deficits of the years
1882-5 had been made up, and the Alexandria
indemnities had been paid off. This sum was
appropriated to irrigation; and the “irrigation
million,” as it was called, enabled Sir Colin
Scott-Moncrieff and his Anglo-Indian assis-
tants to give effect to their plans for the
permanent improvement of the water supply
of the Delta. The improvement in the cotton
crop which was thus produced justified this
expenditure, even from a fiscal point of view,
*Items of extraordinary revenue and extraordinary
expenditure are omitted in the above statement. The
figures given are taken from Sir Elwin Palmer's
Żableaux Statistiques.
II 2 IMPROVED CREDIT
by the increasing revenue returns. The terms
upon which this loan was obtained were
eminently satisfactory, and the transaction
affords a sharp contrast with the previous
loans effected under the régime of the Khedive
Ismail. In the first place the loan was floated
almost at par, that is to say, £9,424,000
was to be paid in return for the £9,000,000
advanced in cash,_and in the second place the
interest paid was only at the rate of three
per cent. -
As the result of the London Convention
it was henceforward difficult but no longer
impossible for the Egyptian Government to
the financial position gradually improved, and
the work of administrative reform proceeded
without interruption.
In the year 1886, when the situation was
thus clearing, and the Egyptian Government
_- under British control was giving evident
signs of its capacity to restore the industrial
prosperity of the country, England was
formally called upon to give effect to the
promises which she had made on occupying
the country. In answer to the request of
the Suzerain Power, that the British Govern-
ment would fix a date for the evacuation
of Egypt, Lord Salisbury replied in effect
that England was prepared to make good her
professions of disinterested action with such
QUESTION OF EVACUATION 113
modifications only as the future welfare of
Egypt, and the increased stake which the
efforts of the last four years had given the
British people in that welfare, seemed to
require. On January 15, 1887, he wrote to
Sir Henry Drummond Wolff, who was then
at Constantinople as British Plenipotentiary
for the purpose of these negociations:—
“The British Government must retain the
right to regard and uphold the condition of
things which will have been brought about
by the military action and large sacrifices of
this country. So long as the Government of
Egypt maintains its position, and no disorders
arise to interfere with the administration of
justice or the action of the executive power,
it is highly desirable that no soldier belonging
to any foreign nation should remain upon
the soil of Egypt, except when it may be
necessary to make use of the land-passage
from one sea to another. Her Majesty's
Government would willingly agree that such
a stipulation should, whenever the evacuation
had taken place, apply to English as much
as to other troops; but it will be necessary
to restrict this provision, as far as England is
concerned, to periods of tranquillity. England,
if she spontaneously and willingly evacuates
the country, must retain a treaty-right of
intervention, if at any time either internal
peace or external security should be seriously
9
|
II4 ABORTIVE AGREEMENT
threatened. There is no danger that a
privilege so costly in its character will be
used unless the circumstances imperatively
demand it.”*
The negociations between England and
Turkey were carried to a successful issue,
and an agreement founded upon the principle
enunciated by Lord Salisbury was signed
by the respective representatives of the two
Powers. Under this arrangement it was
agreed that the British troops should be with-
drawn in three years, and that the Egyptian
army should remain for two years longer
uñder the control of British officers. On the
other hand, the British Government was to
retain the right of re-occupying the country,
if its internal peace or external security was
threatened, and a protocol further stipulated
that a proposal for the abolition of the
Capitulations, and for replacing the inter-
national authority by a local and uniform
jurisdiction and legislature, should be jointly
addressed to the great Powers by Turkey and
England.
At the last moment the Sultan refused to
ratify the Convention, to which his repre-
sentative had set his hand. His opposition
was due to the representations of France,
supported by those of Russia; and thus the
fulfilment of this arrangement for the evacua-
* C. 5050
OPPOSITION OF FRANCE 115
tion of Egypt was prevented by the Power
whose pride was most deeply injured by the
continued presence of England in Egypt.
Since this date England's right to occupy
T Egypt has not been seriously questioned,
and the work of the British officials since
accomplished has justified the refusal of the
British Government to leave Egypt prema-
turely, and secured the acquiescence if not
the gratitude of Europe.
CHAPTER IX
IRRIGATION
P to this point it has been possible to
follow the chronological sequence of
events with tolerable consistency. In speaking
of the progress achieved by Egypt during the
next ten years, it will be more convenient to
consider each branch of reform separately, and
then once more to return to the general
narrative and take stock of the results thus
obtained. -
First, in point both of time and importance,
is the reform of the Irrigation Service. We
have already noted that Egypt is watered not
by her own sky but by the Nile, and how all-
important to its inhabitants is the harvesting of
the water thus supplied, and the economic
distribution of this supply over the whole
cultivated area. From the time when the
IRRIGATION SYSTEM 117
ancient Nile reservoir, known as Lake Moeris,
was allowed to fall into disuse, and ultimately
to be converted into the fertile district of the
Fayum,” down to the epoch of Mohammed
Ali, the cultivated area of Egypt was watered
by the overflowing of the Nile. That is to say,
the surplus waters of the stream in the season
of flood were spread by means of mili or “flood”
canals during the winter season only; but in the
summer, when the stream was low, the Supply
ceased and the fields were left fallow, because
there was no reserve of water from which the
emptying channels could be replenished. When,
however, Mohammed Ali began to introduce
the cultivation of cotton and sugar, it was
necessary once more to provide a reserve from
which the canals could be filled in the summer
as well as in the winter; and a system of
continuous irrigation was again established in
the Delta. But while a system of perennial
irrigation was thus applied to the fields of Lower
Egypt, those of Upper Egypt, with slight
exceptions, continued to be served by the natural
system of basini irrigation and flood canals,
until the present time. When, however, the
* i.e., Lake-land.
+ Each field is converted into a “basin” by means of
mud banks, and the crops are entirely submerged. There
were two reasons why this system was insufficient for the
cultivation of sugar and cotton. (I) These crops could
not be submerged, and (2) They required irrigation in the
Summer as well as in the winter. -
II.8 THE BARRAGE
great engineering works which, as we shall see,
are now being constructed at Assuan and Assiut,
have been completed, the whole of Egypt will
be watered by a system of perennial irrigation,
and the fields of Upper Egypt will yield crops
in the summer as well as the winter.
When the introduction of cotton cultivation
made it thus necessary to provide a system of
perennial irrigation for the Delta, it was seen at
once that the erection of a weir, at the point
where the stream of the Nile divides into the
Rosetta and Damietta branches, was the natural
means of securing the necessary reserve of
water. This necessary work was designed by a
French engineer, Mougel Bey, and was
commenced in 1843. In 1861, the structure—
henceforward known by its French name, as
the Barrage—was completed at a cost of
24, 1,800,ooo, “besides the unpaid labour
of uncounted annual corvées, and of whole
battalions of soldiers.” It consisted of two
weirs, of which the first, which measured
585 metres, and was furnished with 71 arches,
crossed the Damietta branch of the Nile; while
the second, which measured 465 metres, and
had 61 arches, crossed the Rosetta branch.
Thus the entire length of the Barrage, or more
correctly the Barrages—since there were two
weirs—was 1,095 yards. It was estimated that
in the season of low Nile, when the sluices were
closed, the up-stream level would be raised
COTTON CULTURE I 19
14ft. 9in, and three main canals were constructed
to distribute this reserve of water throughout
the Delta. Two years later, in 1863, the
Rosetta, or western, Barrage was put into
operation. It was then found that this vast and
costly structure was almost entirely useless for
the purposes for which it had been designed and
constructed. Directly the sluices were closed,3
the masonry began to crack under the strain of
the water held up, and in 1867 a serious
settlement was found to threaten the safety of
the entire structure. From this time onwards,
to the arrival of Sir Colin Scott-Moncrieff in
1883, the Barrage was practically abandoned as
useless, and the Delta obtained a scanty and
precarious supply of water for the summer
canals by means of steam pumps and other costly
expedients. In the meantime, the cultivation
of cotton had gone on ; but the condition
of the land had steadily deteriorated, since no –
proper rotation of crops was observed, and the
irrigation canals were becoming choked and
useless. At the same time, while the old land
was deteriorating, it was impossible to bring fresh
land under cultivation without an effective
Supply of water. When we remember that the
export of cotton forms three-fourths of the total
exports of Egypt, it will be seen that the success
or failure of the Barrage was a matter which
Supremely affected the prosperity of the country.
It was in view of this grave situation, that
***~~
I2O SCOTT-MONCRIEFF
Sir Colin Scott-Moncrieff was summoned from
India to organize an Irrigation Service for
Egypt. Under his direction, first as Inspector-
General of Irrigation, and afterwards as
Under-Secretary in the Ministry of Public Works,
the whole cultivated area of Egypt was divided
into five “circles,” two in Upper and three in
Lower Egypt. An Inspector was appointed
to each “circle,” and in these officials an entire
control was vested over the irrigation works.
within their respective “circles”; and by means
of their strenuous exertions, seconded by the
experience which they had gained in India, the
canals were gradually cleared and improved, the
Nile banks were repaired, new canals were added,
and ultimately a complete and effective system
of drainage was introduced.
But the task with which Sir Colin Scott-
Moncrieff was immediately confronted was
to provide a water supply for the cotton
industry of the Delta. “When I came to
Egypt in May, 1883,” he writes in his
official note,” “I was warned by all, English
as well as foreign engineers, to have nothing
to say to so unsound a work.
“I found the Public Works Ministry had
then just concluded a contract, to last until
1915, with a private company, to supply
irrigation to the Western Delta (Behera
Province), at a cost of £50,000 per annum ;
*Egypt No, 2 (1890).
REPAIR OF THE BARRAGE 1.21
and the first thing that I had to do on arrival
at Cairo was to pronounce on a proposal to
continue this system of irrigation by means
of pumps to the whole of Lower Egypt, at an
initial cost of £700,000, and an annual outlay
of 4 248,550.”
This proposal seemed so extravagant to
Sir Colin, that he determined before accepting
it “to see what the Barrage was really
worth.” The costly structure had been
absolutely abandoned as useless. “The
work had been so long neglected,” he writes,
“that timbers were rotten, iron was rusted,
there were no appliances or tools, and attached
to it there was a large establishment of
Superannuated and incompetent men, who,
for years, had done little besides drawing
their pay.” In spite of its unpromising
appearance, Sir Colin and Mr. Willcocks
decided to test its value by temporary repairs.
In the spring of 1884, the Barrage was
“patched up” and worked at a cost of 4 25,611,
and 7 feet 2 inches of water was held up.
The result was striking. “This flushed the
canals, and gave an unwonted impulse to
the irrigation. Fortune so far attended us,
that the cotton crop of 1884 was the best on
record, and the General Produce Association
of Alexandria did us the honour of publicly
thanking us for our efforts.” In the following
year the experiment was repeated with still
I 22 THE BARRAGE
better results, and at the same time, the
balance of the £9,000,000 loan, which the
Egyptian Government was enabled to raise
under the London Convention, provided the
necessary funds for the permanent and
effective restoration of the whole structure.
Under these circumstances, the repair of the
Barrage, on which hung the irrigation of
Lower Egypt, was undertaken. The cause of
its failure to bear the strain to which it was
subjected is clearly set out by Sir Colin
Scott-Moncrieff.
“The Barrage,” he writes in his note, “is
built on nothing more solid than alternate
beds of fine river sand and alluvial mud.
This is not a very favourable foundation for
an ordinary bridge, and during the flood
season, the Barrage is not only exposed to
the risks of an ordinary bridge, but during
low Nile it is exposed to much more. The
water on one side, in June, 1885, was
I5'74 feet deep, on the other side only 5'90
feet, a difference of nearly Io feet; hence a
constant tendency of the water to percolate
under the foundations, and establish a uniform
level. Had the Barrage been built in a bed
of loose boulders, this percolation would have
deprived us of all the water intended to fill
the canals, but it would not have hurt the
work itself. Not so with a foundation of
mud and sand. The water passing through
THE REMEDY I 23
these is likely to carry the particles along
with it, and by degrees undermine the
whole. Evidently some such action had
caused the alarming cracks in 1867.”
The remedy was one provided by Anglo-
Indian experience. It consisted in placing
an “impermeable bar ’’ across the bed of the
river, which would either prevent the water
from reaching the foundations of the river at
all, or would check its velocity to such a degree
that the current, instead of washing out the
sand and mud beneath the piers, would leave
its deposit behind in the sub-stratum, which
would become denser every year “like an old
filter.” And, at the same time, the solidity
of the original fabric of the Barrage was to be
secured by placing a solid bed of Portland
cement concrete, 4 feet thick, cased where
necessary with stone masonry, over the old
flooring. --
The execution oftherepairs thus designed was
entrusted to Lieutenant - Colonel Western,
R.E., and Mr. A. G. W. Reid, two Anglo-Indian
engineers. The work was one of special
difficulty, owing to the fact that any inter-
ference with the ordinary service of the
Barrage would have robbed the cotton
plantations of their Summer supply of water.
In Sir Colin's own words, “ it was like
mending a watch and never stopping the
works.” Moreover, the working Season, z.e.
_2^ -
I 24 REPAIR OF BARRAGE
the period when the Nile was lowest, lasted
only from March Ist to the end of June.
These difficulties were, nevertheless, overcome
by repairing the foundations in sections, and,
in due course, the west half of the Rosetta
Barrage was repaired in the season of 1886-7 ;
the east half of the Damietta Barrage in
I887-8; the east half of the Rosetta Barrage,
I888-9 ; and the west half of the Damietta
Barrage in 1889-90. In this last operation,
the number of arches in the Damietta Barrage
was reduced from 71 to 61, and to-day the
Barrage thus consists of two branches, which
each alike have 61 arches. -
The following account, which Sir Colin gives
of the repair of the western half of the Rosetta
branch of the Barrage in 1886-7, will serve to
give some idea of the difficulties which had to
be overcome, and of the methods pursued by
the engineers.
“On the 2nd December, 1886, the coffer
dams were begun. It was not until the 24th
March, 1887, that the first stone of the new
work was laid. From that day work continued
day and night, the night-work being done by
the light of electric lamps. Nine powerful
steam-pumps kept the water down all the time.
On the afternoon of the 1st July, the last piece
of machinery was removed from the completed
floor. Before the next morning the rising flood
had covered all that had been done. Every
A DIFFICULT TASK I 25
day fresh and unlooked-for difficulties arose.
It was found that the massive outer wall of the
eastern lock rested on foundations, the bottom
of which was 8 feet higher than the bridge
flooring. To dry the latter, then, we had to
work below the lock foundations, and it was
with difficulty prevented from falling over
bodily. The flooring, as well as the arch of
one opening, was cracked across diagonally,
showing a complete fracture of the work, the
fissure being 4 inches wide. Strong springs
burst out daily in fresh places, and had to be
staunched at an immense expense of material.
Daily Mr. Reid had to face some new trouble,
and to invent some new expedient, and he never
failed.”
In 1890 the work of repair was practically
accomplished, and the Barrage had been
rendered stable and efficient. The 24.420,000
which was thus expended, produced results
both direct and indirect of the highest impor-
tance to Egypt. In the first place the increase
in the water supply of the Delta caused a great
expansion in the cotton crop, and in other less
valuable produce grown in the Delta. “Next
year and in future,” Sir Colin writes under date
June 24th, 1890, “if the Nile supply is sufficient,
we shall not hesitate to hold up 4 metres, or
13 feet, at the Barrage. Hitherto, we have
limited ourselves to 3 metres, or 9 feet Io inches.
During the five years previous to 1885 the market
126 IMPROVED COTTON CROPS
price of cotton was considerably higher than it
has been since. The ravages of the cotton
worm have been chiefly in the latter five years.
Nevertheless, the mean cotton exports for the
five years, 1880—84, amounted to 2,750,171
kantars" per annum, while for the five years
ending 1889 they amounted to 3,084,064kantars.
Here is a mean annual difference of 333,893
kantars, which, at the moderate price of
P.E.f 250 per kantar, comes to 24, E834,732
annual benefit to the country, which I think
we may fairly claim to the credit of the Barrage
while as yet incomplete. I say nothing of the
increase in cotton-seed, rice, or bersim.”
Since this date the increase in cotton pro-
duction has been maintained until in the season
1896-7 the crop yielded 5,879,479 kantars, or
more than double that of 1881-2, which was
2,792, 184 kantars. The average value of the
cotton which Egypt is thus enabled to supply
to England, to France, and to other European
countries and to the United States of America,
is 4 9,000,000, forming as we have noticed
three-fourths of the £12,000,ooo worth of
produce annually exported from Egypt. This
continued increase has become the more
necessary in view of the fact that the market
price of cotton has fallen in recent years.
“The value of the exports [of Egypt] in
* Kantar = 98% lbs. f Piastre = 2%d
EGYPTIAN COTTON 127
1898,” says”. Lord Cromer, was “A EI 1,805,000,
as compared to 4 EI2,321,000 in 1897. The
decrease, amounting to 4 E516,000, was
almost wholly due to the fall in the price
of cotton. The quantity of cotton exported
in 1898 was 270,000 kantars greater than in
the previous year, but this was accompanied
by a diminution in the value to the extent of
4 E464,000.” Two circumstances, however,
give the cotton industry in Egypt an advan-
tage over its competitors. In the first place
the yield of the acre under cotton in Egypt
is twice as much as that of the acre in
Annerica, and in the second the quality of
Egyptian cotton is superior to that of any
other cotton - producing country.f Cotton
cultivation would, therefore, become unpro-
fitable in the United States of America—the
seat of the world's chief supply of raw cotton
—sooner than in Egypt.
The indirect effects of the repair of the
Barrage were equally significant. It was
seen that a judicious expenditure on public
works was justified from a financial as well as
an industrial point of view ; and the Caisse
de la Dette, as the representative of the
Bondholders, was induced by the improve-
ment thus effected in Egyptian credit to
* Egypt No. 3 (1899).
+ With the exception, I believe, of a little grown in
the South Sea Islands.
I 28 REPAIR OF BARRAGE
permit the employment of a further sum of
26E910,000, obtained by the conversion of
the Privileged Debt from 5 per cent. to
3% per cent, in the repair and extension of
irrigation works in Upper Egypt. Moreover,
the principle was gradually established that
the General Reserve Fund" might be legiti-
mately drawn upon to provide funds for such
reproductive works as directly contributed to
the finances of Egypt.
Eight years after the restoration of the
Barrage still further steps were taken to
strengthen the original structure, and to
increase its efficiency by subsidiary works.
It was found by experiments made upon
the Rosetta Barrage in January, 1897, that
cavities existed in the piers and foundations.
Upon this discovery it was determined to
consolidate the masonry by an ingenious
device. Four holes were driven through the
masonry of each pier right down through
the foundations to the sandy bed of the river,
and then pure cement-grout, of the consis-
tency of thick cream, was poured into the
holes and the cavities in the masonry, which
were thus reached. In this way both the
interior of the piers were filled up by sound
material, and the foundation of the whole
structure was “tightened up " by the cement
thus introduced under pressure of the weight
* See p. IIo.
ADDITIONAL works I29
of its own column, which was estimated to
vary from 19 to 26 tons per square metre.
The masonry of the Rosetta Barrage was
thus strengthened in 1897, and that of the
Damietta Barrage in the following year. The
necessity for the operation, and the reality
of the consolidation so effected, will be under-
stood from the fact that each pier took on an
average 25 barrels of cement, while one pier
alone in the Rosetta Barrage required 439
barrels of cement to fill up its cavities.”
These additional works are still under con-
struction, and are not expected to be completed
before the end of 1901. They consist of two
subsidiary weirs “ of rough rubble masonry
laid in cement,” built a few hundred yards
down stream across each branch of the river.
These weirs will be submerged when the Nile
is in flood, but when the flood waters have
sunk again, they will hold up the river
immediately below the Barrage, and thus
relieve the strain upon the parent structure
by lessening the difference in the water level
* above and below it. They will also increase
the efficiency of the Barrage by enabling it
to hold up as much as 50 feet of water, while
at the same time the difference between the
up-stream and the down-stream level will not
exceed eight feet. It remains to add that the
Caisse de la Dette has furnished a sum of
* Egypt. No. 1 (1898), and No. 3 (1899).
- IO
130 IRRIGATION OF UPPER EGYPT
A E530,000 for the construction of these
subsidiary weirs, and that this important
work, as well as the consolidation of the
Barrage, is being executed under the direction
of Major Hambury Brown, Inspector-General
of Irrigation for Lower Egypt, and Mr. Allan
Joseph, Director of the Barrage.
In the meanwhile the Egyptian Govern-
ment was preparing to extend the advantages
of perennial irrigation to Upper Egypt. For
– this purpose it was necessary to create a
reservoir, where the surplus waters of the
Nile flood could be stored, and a supply of
water be provided sufficient to fill the irriga-
tion canals in the season of low Nile. After
various proposals had been considered, it was
decided to accomplish this object by throwing
a dam across the Nile at the first cataract,
a few miles above Assuan, and by building an
~ open weir similar to the Barrage, at Assiut.
The purpose of the former is to supply the
Nile Valley from Assiut southwards to Assuan,
~ and that of the latter is to fill the Ibrahimiyeh
Canal, which leaves the Nile above Assiut
and carries its waters through the fields on
the Libyan bank to the important agricultural
district of the Fayum. The contract for the
erection of these two central constructions,
and of certain subsidiary works necessary for
the distribution of the increased supplies of
water thus secured, was signed on February 20,
MESSRS. AIRD'S CONTRACT 131
1898. Under the terms of this contract
Messrs. Aird and Company undertook to
complete the works within a period of five
years, running from July 1, 1898, and the
Egyptian Government bound itself to pay
the sum of 4 I 57,226 annually, for a period
of 30 years from July 1, 1903, onwards, in
half-yearly instalments. It will be observed
that under this arrangement the contractors
provide the capital for the entire cost of
the works—a cost which is estimated at
£2,000,000 ; while on the other hand the
Egyptian Government will eventually pay
some four and three-quarter millions, or more
than twice the actual cost. The reason why
the Egyptian Government were compelled to
make an arrangement for deferred payment,
which is naturally less advantageous than a
ready-money transaction, is a very simple one. _^
Under the present system of International
Control exercised over the finances of Egypt,
the Egyptian Government is unable to use the
funds accumulated through its own prudent
and skilful administration, without the con-
sent of the Great Powers. In the present
instance this consent was not forthcoming,
although a fund” was actually in existence at
* The value of the Egyptian Stocks, in which the
successive economies resulting from the conversion of
the Privileged Debt in 1890 had been invested, amounted
to £E2,767,oco, on December 31st, 1897. See also
Chap. XIV. on this subject.
I 32 THE NILE RESERVOIR
the time when the contract was signed, which
might most suitably have been appropriated
to the construction of Public Works, alike
essential to the prosperity of the country and
certain to produce an increase in the revenue
proportionate to the expenditure of capital.
These are the terms upon which Egypt is
once more, after an interval of many centuries,
to be provided with a Nile Reservoir.
The design of the engineers is as simple as
it is vast. A mighty bar of masonry is to be
thrown from bank to bank of the Nile, and
the Nubian Valley converted into a lake.
“The actual dimensions of the dam are
appropriate to the magnitude of the task
which it will perform. The bar of masonry
will measure in length 2,156 yards, or about
a mile and a quarter, a length which is about
double that of the barrage below Cairo. The
masonry at its crest will be 26.4 feet wide,
and the base where it is laid deepest will.
spread over 82.5 feet; and from this depth it
will rise 92.4 feet. This bar will be pierced
by 180 under-sluices, fitted with gates; and
when these gates are closed, the water accu-
mulated in the Nubian Valley will be held
up to a point Ioé metres above mean sea-
level, and 20 metres above the low-water
level of the river itself. The volume of water
which will be thus stored is estimated at
1,065,000,000 cubic metres. When the gates
THE NILE RESERVOIR I 33
are open, the surplus water will pass through
the bar of masonry, or the supplies of water
will flow from the reservoir to fill the summer
canals of Upper and Middle Egypt. The dam
itself will be furnished with three locks, and
on the west bank of the Nile an artificial
navigation channel, with a double lock, will
be constructed, through which the Nile boats
will pass up and down the river.”
The gain which Egypt is expected to reap
from the construction of these great works
has been carefully estimated by Sir Williºn
Garstin, the Under-Secretary in the Ministry
of Public Works, in a Memorandum enclosed
in Lord Cromer's Report for 1898. With the
details of his calculations it is not necessary
to concern Ourselves; the main results, which
are sufficiently significant, are these. (I) A
continuous supply of water will be provided
for an area of 774,000 acres in Upper Egypt,
which is at present served only by flood canals.
(2) The annual wealth of the country will
be increased by this extension of perennial
irrigation, together with other benefits arising
from a more ample supply of water, by
4 E2,608,000. And (3) the annual revenue of
the Egyptian Government will be benefited
* For a full description of the Barrage, and of the
construction of the Irrigation works in Upper Egypt,
the reader is referred to Chapters XI. and XV. in the
author's Aedemption of Egypt, from which the above
passage is taken.
_^
I 34 GAIN TO EGYPT
through this increase in the national resources
to the extent of 4 E378,400, and in addition
the State will gain 4 E1,020,000 from the
sale of lands which the increased water supply
will cause to be reclaimed from the desert.
To complete this brief record of the achieve-
ments of the Irrigation Service in Egypt, a
word must be added. In order to utilize the
increased water supply to be provided by the
Nile Reservoir an effective system of drainage
is gradually being applied to the whole culti-
vated area of the Delta and the Nile Valley.
The funds for the construction of the new
drains, and for the improvement of the existing
drains, have been provided Inainly by the
Caisse de la Dette; and thus by the time that
the Nile Reservoir and the Assiut Weir are
completed, the fellahin and the planters alike
will be able to spread the fertilizing waters
over their lands without risk of soaking and
deteriorating the soil.
CHAPTER X
JUSTICE
CCORDING to the most recent census—
that of 1897—the present population
of Egypt consists of 9,622,000 “Egyptians,”
and 112,000 foreigners. Among the Egyptians
so-called are 608,000 members of the Coptic
Church.* With this exception, the native
population of Egypt consists, for all practical
purposes, of the 9,000,000 Moslems in whom
the Arab blood and character is predominant.
As we have already seen, the foreigners
resident in Egypt are exempted by reason of
the Capitulations from any allegiance to the
Native Egyptian Courts; and in consequence
of the inconveniences arising from this
circumstance, the Egyptian Government was
* See page 18.
I36 JUDICIAL SYSTEMS
compelled to acquiesce in the establishment of
the International, or Mixed, Tribunals in 1876.
As the result of this action, which was part
of the intervention of the Powers in the
affairs of Egypt, there are two distinct and
independent judicial authorities in Egypt
to-day: the Mixed Tribunals, deriving their
authority from the joint action of the
fourteen Powers who concurred in their
establishment; and the Native Tribunals,
deriving their authority from the Egyptian
Government. Moreover, neither the juris-
diction of the Mixed Tribunals, nor that of
the Native Courts, is complete. Criminal
jurisdiction is exercised over foreigners by the
various Consular Courts of the respective
Powers; and the Religious Courts (Mekhemeh
Sheraieh), which administer the Moham-
medan Sacred Law, exercise somewhat the
same jurisdiction over the Egyptians as
the old Court of Chancery possessed in
England. These latter are presided over by
the Kadis, the Mohammedan Judges with
whom the pages of the “Arabian Nights”
have made us familiar; and in addition to
deciding questions of marriage, divorce, and
succession, they perform the same function
as depositories for title deeds and contracts
as our own Somerset House. It will be
remembered that when in 1886 the British
Government was called upon to Hame
f
**.
* jurisdiction and legislature.” In other words,
',
EXEMPTION OF FOREIGNERS 137
a date for the evacuation of Egypt, Lord
Salisbury agreed to do so upon certain
conditions. One of these conditions was, in
effect, that measures should first be taken to
obtain the consent of the Powers to the
abolition of the Capitulations, and the
establishment of a “local and uniform
it was felt that before Egypt could be left
alone, she must be set free from the judicial
authority of the Powers exercised by means
of the Consular Courts and the Mixed
Tribunals. That proposal—and the agreement
for the provisional evacuation of Egypt—was
defeated by the opposition of France; but the
Egyptian Government, directed by its English
advisers, has steadily held before itself the
attainment of this object, by so improving
the Native Tribunals that foreigners might
have as little excuse for refusing to submit to
the jurisdiction of the local Courts in Egypt,
as they would have to refuse to submit to the
local Courts of France, or any other civilized
country.
It is only reasonable to expect, therefore,
that before many years hence, the Powers
will recognize that the Consular Courts and
the Mixed Tribunals are no longer necessary.
But in the meantime, as both these institutious
are in existence, and as the latter—the Mixed
Tribunals—play a very important part in the
\,
138 THE MIXED TRIBUNALS
commercial life and even in the administration
of Egypt, it is necessary to speak of them
before we consider the Native Courts, with
the reform of which we are especially con-
cerned, since it is by means of these Native
Courts that justice is to be given to the great
mass of the population.
The Mixed Tribunals were established in
1876 for a period of five years; and the
agreement between the Egyptian Government
and the fourteen, Powers, embodied in the
Charter of Organization, has since been
renewed for successive periods of one or five
years. It will be seen, therefore, that the
Mixed Tribunals cannot be regarded as a per-
manent institution, although the right of
the Egyptian Government to denounce the
Conventions upon which the existence of
these Courts depends has been called in
question. The Mixed Courts are empowered
under Article 9 of the Charter of Organization
to decide disputes between natives and
foreigners, and between foreigners of different
nationalities; and since the most important of
the commercial interests of Egypt are in the
hands of the Greek, Italian, English, French,
German, American, and other foreign mer-
chants, it follows that, by virtue of this
jurisdiction, the great majority of the legal
disputes of the commercial community are
brought before these Courts.
THE MIXED TRIBUNALS 139
The primary defect in the Mixed Tribunals,
regarded as an institution, is one which is
inseparable from their origin. It lies in the
fact that no reforms in the constitution of the
courts, nor in the law administered, can be
effected without the consent of all the
Powers concerned. Nevertheless, before their
authority was renewed for a further period of
five years from February, 1900, measures had
been taken by means of direct negociations
with the Powers and by an International
Commission, which had resulted in the removal
or abatement of some of the most important
of the evils of which the Egyptian Government
complained. The most serious of these evils
was the tendency of the Mixed Tribunals,
manifested especially during the infancy of
the Native Tribunals, to extend their jurisdic-
tion beyond the limits contemplated at the
time of their establishment. The nature of
this encroachment was twofold. The judges
by giving an extended interpretation to
certain articles in the charter of organization
had both trenched upon the administrative
freedom of the Egyptian Government and
invaded the sphere of the Native Tribunals. -
A grave instance of what seemed an
unwarranted interference in administrative
concerns occurred in December, 1897, and
caused the Egyptian Government to enter
into the negociations with the Powers which,
esºstºs-
**
14o DISPUTE WITH GOVERNMENT
as already mentioned, have proved partially,
though not entirely, successful in removing
the most flagrant of the evils complained of.
This example is not only important histori-
cally, but it serves to illustrate how the
machinery of the international authority can
be used to further the political purposes of
one or more of the Powers. In the present
instance the representatives of France and
Russia in the Caisse de la Dette prevented
an application of the funds of Egypt to a
purpose which was approved by the represen-
tatives of England, Austria, Germany, and
Italy. I, therefore, give an extract from
Lord Cromer's last report,” which sets out
the facts of the original dispute, and the
method in which it is hoped that the
recurrence of such a dispute in the future
has been made impossible.
“It will be borne in mind that the grant of
4 500,ooo, made with the consent of a majority
of the Commissioners of the Debt, to enable
the Egyptian Government to conduct the
Sudan campaign of 1896, gave rise to a law-
suit, with the result that, under a judgment
delivered by the Court of Appeal in December,
1897, the money was repaid to the Commis-
sioners. The court held that in applying the
money of the Reserve Fund to military
expenditure in the Sudan the commissioners
* Egypt No. 1 (1900).
SUDAN EXPENDITURE 141
had acted ultra wires. The question of how
far a majority of the commissioners can over-
rule the opinions of a dissentient minority
was not, as is sometimes supposed, decided
by the Court of Appeal. The incident,
however, naturally gave rise to a discussion
on this point. It has now been settled by a
Khedivial decree, issued with the consent of
the Powers who signed the London Conven-
tion of the 7th March, 1885. This decree
provides that all matters submitted to the
‘Caisse de la Dette’ can be decided by a
majority, save those which relate to military
expenditure. ... ----
“This decision may, I venture to think, be
regarded as a satisfactory solution of a some-
what difficult question. It is, of course,
conceivable that the views of the majority of
the Caisse may not be in accordance with
those of the Egyptian Government and its
British advisers, and, should this happen, the
latter, it may be thought, will lose whatever
advantage might have accrued from main-
taining the rights of the minority.
“On the other hand, apart from the fact
that the conciliatory spirit shown by the
‘Caisse de la Dette' renders it generally
possible to arrive at some compromise when
any difference of opinion occurs, it is to be
observed that, in the course of the recent
negociations, the main interest of the Egyptian
I42 DISPUTE SETTLED
Government lay in the direction of obtaining
a definite decision, which would be unques-
tionably valid in law, in respect to any
proposal which they might submit to the
‘Caisse de la Dette.' It is obviously far
more easy to attain this end if a majority
decision is legalized than would have been
the case if, as heretofore, doubts were allowed
to exist as to the extent to which any one or
more members of the Caisse might exercise a
liberum veto on any proposal laid before the
whole body of Commissioners.
“As regards the exception made in the case
of military expenditure, it is to be observed
that the settlement now made does not in any
way impugn the grounds on which the
judgment of the Court of Appeal was based.
Neither does it denote assent to those
grounds. It merely recognizes the fact, of
which there can be no doubt whatever, that
the decision of the Court of Appeal was legally
valid, and therefore has to be respected.
“For the rest, all I need say is, that for
various reasons the reserve made as regards
military expenditure is not likely to cause
much practical inconvenience in the future.”
The International Commission has also
agreed to certain changes in the law govern-
ing the jurisdiction of the Mixed Tribunals,
which will prevent the encroachment of the
international courts upba the sphere of the
THE MIXED TRIBUNALS 43
native Egyptian courts. It is impossible to
mention these changes in detail, and it must
suffice, therefore, to say that they are intended
to prevent persons who are properly subject
to the jurisdiction of the Native Courts from
employing various legal devices to bring their
disputes before the international courts. In
addition to the settlement of these questions,
measures have been taken to remove certain
obvious defects in the procedure of these
courts. The commercial community have long
desired that the judges of the Mixed Tribunals.
should have power to punish fraudulent
bankrupts effectively. In view of the fact
that some 95 per cent. of the failures were-
fraudulent, the penal jurisdiction has now
been extended, and the judges have power to
inflict sentences of imprisonment of from two
to five years upon fraudulent bankrupts, and
of from one month to two years upon
bankrupts convicted of reckless extravagance,
omission to keep books, and the like minor
pffences. Moreover, an attempt has been J

made to lessen the practical inconveniences
due to the exclusion of the English language
from the international courts. In spite of
the importance of English and American
commercial interests, the only languages
recognized at present are French, Italian, and
Arabic. Although common sense and justice
would seem to require that English should be
144 CHANGES IN PROCEDURE
put on an equality with these other languages,
such a course is for the present impossible,
owing to the necessity of first obtaining the
unanimous consent of all the Powers to the
change. Failing this reform, Lord Cromer
placed himself in communication with M.
Bellet, the President of the Appeal Court,
who expressed his willingness to remedy the
evil as far as possible. “The result,” says
Lord Cromer,” “was the issue of a circular
to the various tribunals, requesting them
to dispense with translations whenever the
adoption of such a course was possible. I
am, moreover, given to understand that an
endeavour will be made to appoint registrars
(greffiers) who speak English to the courts
where that language is most used.
“I do not say that this solution is altogether
satisfactory, but it is the best-of which, for
the present, the circumstances of the case
admit.” -
The Native Tribunals—the national courts
of Egypt — were established by Khedivial
Decree of June 14th, 1883. As we have
already seen, the work of the first English
officials in the Ministry of Justice, Mr Clifford
Lloyd and Sir Benson Maxwell, was
unsuccessful; and although another English
official, Sir Raymond West, held the office of
Procureur-Général for a short period in 1885,
Egypt No. 3 (1899),
NATIVE TRIBUNALS I45
the work of judicial reform had to be
postponed until progress had been made in
other departments of the administration and
the influence of the British advisers as a whole
had been strengthened. Owing to the special
difficulties of the early years of the British
Control and the natural difficulty of the task,
no decided advance was achieved in the
department of judicial reform until Mr. (now
Sir John) Scott, a judge of the High Court of
Bombay, was summoned from India in 1890
to examine and report upon the system of
native jurisprudence and the procedure of N
the courts. Following the recommendations
embodied in his report, which was completed
before the end of this year (1890), measures
were taken in 1891 to increase the administra-
tive efficiency of the Native Tribunals, and to N.
improve the personnel of the Egyptian bench.
The first of these objects was secured by the
establishment of Courts of Summary Jurisdic- S
tion, with power to decide civil disputes in
which the amount at issue did not exceed
A IOO in value; and the second by the
creation of a Committee of Surveillance, or of
Judicial Control, in the Ministry of Justice, to
assist the judges of the lower courts with advice
and direction ; and by fixing a minimum
standard of legal knowledge as a necessary
qualification for appointment to the bench.
The Summary Tribunals thus established
II
I 46 SUMMARY COURTS
served two useful purposes. They relieved -
the superior courts from an undue pressure
of work, and they enabled the rural popula--
tion to obtain a more ready and a more
economical settlement of their disputes. The
reduction in the volume of work thus secured
made it possible to decrease the number of
judges required to serve the superior tribunals
—a circumstance which materially contributed
to the improvement of the general character
of the judges of the native courts. As origin-
ally constituted in 1884, the native bench was
absurdly numerous. The minimum of judges
necessary for the Appeal Court was fixed at
eight, and the minimum in the Courts of First
Instance (of which five were established for
Lower and three for Upper Egypt) at five
judges; and in practice some twelve judges
were attached to each Court of First Instance,
and about twice that number to the Court of
Appeal. So large a staff was not only
expensive, but owing to the extreme difficulty
of finding properly qualified men it was
deficient in capacity. It has been calculated
that only one in four judges of the original
bench was possessed of any legal qualification,
however slight ; and it was not until 1892
that the possession of a law degree, or of a
diploma from the Law School at Cairo, was
made a necessary condition in a candidate for
any judicial appointment. -
THE NATIVE BENCH I47
It is scarcely possible for anyone accustomed
to western standards of professional efficiency
to realize either the difficulty of obtaining
men in any way suited for the office of judge,
or the relative incapacity of the men who
constituted the original bench of the native
courts. In the chapter following we shall
find that when the teachers in the Mosque
Schools were themselves examined in the
subjects which they professed to teach, they
failed to show a knowledge of the veriest
rudiments of learning, such as reading,
writing, and arithmetic. Had these first
judges been treated in the same manner,
they would probably have displayed an equal
ignorance of the principles of jurisprudence.
Nevertheless, since the date of Sir John Scott's
report steady progress has been made both in
the organization of the Ministry of Justice,
and in the improvement of the native bench. N
The efficiency of the courts has been
increased by a further extension of
summary jurisdiction. The relief afforded
to the Courts of First Instance by the
establishment of the Courts of Summary
Jurisdiction was found to be so beneficial, that
these summary courts have been themselves
relieved of a great mass of trifling cases by
conferring a jurisdiction (limited to cases in
which personal property of the value of not
more than 4 EI is involved) upon the Omdehs,
148 INCREASED EFFICIENCY
or village headmen. And in 1897 a new
judicial tariff was introduced under which
the cost of legal proceedings was considerably
lessened. The returns show that most of the
Egyptians are able to appreciate the advan-
tages of a cheap and prompt administration
of justice. The number of cases brought
before the summary tribunals is found to
increase, in spite of the fact that a large
number of trifling suits are now taken by the
Omdehs; and in spite of the reduction of costs
effected by the new tariff, the total receipts
from the Native Tribunals have expanded.
At the same time the all-important task of
improving the personnel of the native bench
has been steadily-carried on. The improve-
ment has been effected mainly by the action
of the Committee of Judicial Control in
conjunction with a process of weeding out
the most inefficient of the members of the
native bench. The first of these—the Com-
mittee of Judicial Control—is described by
Mr. McIlraith, Sir John Scott's successor
as Judicial Adviser, as having a “markedly
educational influence on the native judiciary
in stimulating their efforts generally, and
preventing the recurrence of particular errors
of law.” The process of weeding out unsuit-
able judges, both native and European, has
been accompanied by the gradual introductions
of qualified European judges, and in particular
CODES OF LAW I49
of a small number of carefully selected English
barristers.
In addition to these improvements in the
machinery of the courts and the personnel
of the judges, certain useful amendments have
already been effected in the codes of law
administered by the Native Tribunals, and in
particular the Penal and Criminal Procedure
Codes are in process of revision at the present
time. It should be mentioned in this connec-
tion that the civil and criminal codes of the
Native Tribunals are modelled upon those of
the Mixed Tribunals, which were themselves
based upon the corresponding French codes.
The revision of the penal code now in progress
is explained" by Mr. McIlraith as being
“rather one of simplifying and rendering
clear the provisions of the Code, and
of incorporating the result of modern
tendencies, than of effecting any radical
change in the principles on which the Code is
based.” At the same time one amendment of
very considerable importance was previously
effected in 1898. Under article 32 of the
Code as it was originally formulated, it was
impossible to inflict the penalty of death for
murder unless the accused confessed his guilt,
or two eye-witnesses of the crime could be
produced in evidence. The practical effect of
this provision was found to be disastrous in two
* In Lord Cromer's last report (1900).
{{ { --~~,
15o PENAL CODE REVISION
respects. In order to secure the necessary
confession the use of torture was encouraged,
and circumstantial evidence, however strong,
was insufficient to obtain a conviction, although
it is especially desirable in Egypt, where perjury
is prevalent, that due weight should be given to
this class of evidence. The law was, therefore,
amended, and a prisoner can now be convicted
of murder under the rules of evidence
applicable to any other crime. The effect of
this amendment was shewn by the fact that
whereas only four capital sentences for murder
were pronounced in 1896 and five in 1897, ten
convictions were secured in 1898 under the
Amended Article of the Code. The general
efficiency of the Native Courts, regarded as the
instrument of justice, and the chief means of
protecting society by the punishment of crime,
has also been increased by certain changes,
which have resulted in an improvement in the
mutual relations of the Mudirs and the Parquet,
or prosecuting counsel. In 1895, when Nubar
Pasha was Minister of the Interior, the police
were removed from the control of the British
police officers, from whom they had hitherto
received their orders, and placed under the
Mudirs; and at the same time police inspectors
were appointed to exercise a general supervision
over the police without interfering with the
authority of the Mudir as the representative of
the executive in the province. In 1878 an
THE POLICE I5 I
Englishman, Mr. E. H. Corbet, was once more
appointed to the office of Procureur-Général;
and since Mr. Corbet's appointment the duties
of the Parquet as Government prosecutors and
those of the police whose business it is, under
the direction of the Mudir, to obtain the
evidence necessary for the detection and
conviction of criminals, have been performed
with increasing efficiency. It is satisfactory to
note that while the increased convenience and
economy of the civil courts has encouraged the -
native Egyptians to bring their disputes for ,”
settlement, the increasing certainty of punish- fiséſ J.
ment which has resulted from the same process |
of judicial reform has produced a decrease of 4 i.
crime. .
In reference to this subject of the punishment
of crime, it remains to add a word upon the long-
deferred reform of the Egyptian prisons, which
is now being effected under the direction of the
present Inspector-General of Prisons, Coles
Pasha. The two cardinal defects of the
Egyptian prisons were (1) the insufficiency of ~~
the accommodation afforded, and (2) the system º.
of making the prisoners dependent for food
upon the supplies furnished by their friends and
relations. Both of these defects tended to
destroy the efficiency of prison discipline, and
the latter, involving as it did continual
intercourse between the prisoner and his friends
2 during the term of imprisonment, almost entirely
152 REFORM OF PRISONS
deprived the punishment of its deterrent effect.
Nevertheless, the Egyptian Government were
compelled to tolerate both evils, so long as a
rigid economy was necessary to enable them to
keep the necessary expenditure within the
limits of the revenue. Now, however, it has
been found possible to provide grants for the
construction of prison buildings, and Coles
Pasha has commenced the organization of
prison labour with the intention of defraying
the cost of the prisoners' food by the proceeds
of their labour thus organized.
CHAPTER XI
EDUCATION
N the middle age, as we have already
noted, the craftsmen of Cairo were
perhaps the most skilful in the world ; and
for many centuries the great Mohammedan
University seated in the Mosque El Azhar
(the Blooming) was able to supply teachers
in certain branches of knowledge to the
western world. Moreover, when the Portu-
guese navigators of the fifteenth century
were engaged in the difficult enterprise of
establishing direct maritime communication
between Western Europe and the East
Indies, it was to Cairo and to Aden that
they resorted for geographical information
154 NATIVE IGNORANCE
and scientific knowledge. The unsatisfactory
position of education in Egypt to-day may be
gauged from the fact that according to the
last census 91.2 per cent. of the males, and
99.4 per cent. of the females, were able
neither to read nor to write. Or, if we exclude
the half-migratory Beduin population and
children under seven years of age, we find
that only 12 per cent. of the population thus
limited can read and write. In short, the
national Mohammedan system of which the
university was the crown and the Mosque
Schools, or Kuttabs, the foundation, has
fallen into decay, or rather sunk into absolute
lifelessness.
With the remembrance of the past before
us there is a special significance in the effort
which is now being made to introduce western
civilization into Egypt, and to teach western
knowledge to the children of the Egyptians.
In a sense Europe is but paying back the
debt which she owed to the Arabian scholars
and men of science in the middle age. This
view has been ingeniously put forward as an
argument for overcoming Mohammedan
prejudice against western teachers by one of
the native school inspectors in the service of
the Government. “After all,” said this
enlightened graduate of the El Azhar
University to a meeting of his fellow
countrymen, “we are only receiving back
EUROPEAN EDUCATION I55
to-day the knowledge which our own teachers
helped to give to Europe yesterday.” More-
over, it must not be forgotten that, although
the machinery for education, strictly so called,
which is at the disposal of the Government, is
at present too small in itself and too limited
in its scope to have any effect upon the mass
of the population, the work of familiarizing
the Egyptians with the results of western
civilization is being accomplished by other
agencies. The introduction of railways and
telegraphs, the construction of the great
irrigation works upon the Nile, the paving,
lighting, and watering of the Streets in the
towns, the employment of European methods
and machinery in the cotton and sugar
industries, and especially the European towns
which are growing up alongside the great
native centres of population, each and all
afford object lessons the significance of which
is understood alike by the Coptic tradesman
and the Arab donkey-boy. The efforts of the
English advisers in purifying and rendering
efficient the several departments of the
administration are educative in this broad
sense; and every act of fiscal reform, every
removal of a social or political abuse, and
indeed every impartial verdict pronounced in
the courts, assists the down-trodden popula-
tion of Egypt to regain the self-respect
which centuries of Servitude have almost
crushed out of their nature.
/
156 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION
The work of education strictly so called,
that is of teaching the young, is at present
confined within very narrow limits. The
primary aim of the Ministry of Education is
to provide a supply of young men qualified
to take part in the administration of the
country; and in addition to this primary
aim, which may now be said to have been
practically realized, the first steps have been
taken towards the establishment of a national
system of education by a well-devised scheme
for the gradual reform of the Mosque schools,
and the consequent adaptation of the existing,
but effete, Mohammedan system to the require-
ments of to-day. Knowing what we do of the
inefficiency of the original members of the
native bench, it is not surprising that with
this exception—the réform of the Kuttabs—
the resources at the disposal of the Govern-
ment should have been concentrated upon
the one paramount object of providing men
of sufficient intelligence and education to fill
the necessary posts in the administration. The
system of providing officials by western educa-
tion was commenced by Mohammed Ali; and
a fresh start was made by Ismail in 1867.
Neither of these efforts produced any permanent
results, and no definite advance in the direction
of establishing a permanent system of European
education in Egypt was achieved until the
period of the Dual Control. Since that time
GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS 157
(1879), and especially since the date of
the English Occupation, continuous progress
has been made, with the result that
to-day a complete system of Government
schools has been organized, crowned by a
group of professional colleges, which serve
to train officials for the several departments
of the administration. -
Omitting the small group of Kuttabs, of
which I shall speak subsequently, the educa-
tional machinery controlled by the Ministry of
Public Instruction consists of three classes of
schools, (1) the Primary Schools established in
Cairo, Alexandria, and all the most important
provincial towns, (2) the Secondary Schools, of
which there are at present two in Cairo,
and one in Alexandria ; and (3) the Special
Schools, or professional colleges, which are
established in Cairo or in the immediate
neighbourhood of the capital.
Taking these three classes separately, we find
that in 1898 there were forty - one Primary
Schools, showing an average attendance of
I40, and a total attendance of 5,740 pupils.
The head masters of these schools are
Egyptians who have been trained by European
teachers ; and the subjects of instruction
include the Arabian language with one
European language, practically either English
or French ; arithmetic, and the elements of
geometry, geography, and history. As there are
I58 PRIMARY SCHOOLS
no Arabian text books in which the ordinary
school subjects can be taught, the familiar
English text books, or corresponding French
manuals, are used for this purpose, and the one
European language selected is made the
medium by which instruction in geography,
history, and arithmetic is given to the pupils.
The standard of work in these schools is fixed
by an examination, partly oral and partly
written, in which a certificate is awarded to
the successful candidates. The possession of
this certificate completes a boy's career in these
schools, and entitles him to enter the lower
grades of the Egyptian Government service, or
to continue his education in a Secondary School,
or to enter the Technical School at Bulak and
the School of Agriculture. Of the 1,381
candidates sent up for examination by the
Primary Schools in the year 1898, 427 (i.e.,
3oo Mohammedans and 127 Copts) obtained
the certificate. -
Of the three Secondary Schools, the Khedivieh
and the Tewfikieh, which are both at Cairo,
had in 1898 respectively 273 and I70 pupils,
while the Alexandria Secondary School had only
72. All of these three schools are managed
directly by the Ministry of Education, and the
bulk of the teachers are French or English.
The head master of the Khedivieh school is
an Englishman, while those of the Tewfikieh
and the School of Ras-el-Tin at Alexandria are
SECONDARY SCHOOLS I 59
respectively French and Egyptian. The subjects
of instruction in these schools include the
Arabian language ; a European language ;
caligraphy, both Arabian and European ;
mathematics, including arithmetic, geometry,
and algebra ; geography and map drawing; and
science, that is physics, natural history, and the
laws of health. The work of the pupils in tº:
schools is tested by an examination, in which
a higher certificate, the Secondary Certificate, is
awarded. This certificate, which was obtained
by 98 candidates for examination in 1898,
entitles its possessor to enter any of the Special
Schools, or to be admitted to the higher grades
of the civil service.
The third class, called Special Schools,
includes, besides the Technical School and the
School of Agriculture already mentioned, three
training schools for teachers under Government
and the schools of law, medicine, and engineer-
ing. In addition to these there are also two
institutions of the same grade which are outside
the department of Education—the Military
School at Abbasiyeh, which is controlled by the
Ministry of War, and the French School of Law,
which is supported by the French Government.
The course of instruction in these Special
Schools extends over four years, with the
exception of the Training Colleges, where, as in
England, an attendance of two years only is
required.
S
I6o SPECIAL SCHOOLS
The particular objects of these schools or
colleges are almost sufficiently indicated by
their respective titles; but it may be added
that the Technical School at Bulak, near Cairo,
and the School of Engineering, afford the
training necessary for the young men who are
to be employed under the Ministry of Public
Works. The former, which is in a very
flourishing condition, is the nursery which
provides the native employés for the Govern-
ment railways, the telegraph and postal services,
and for the tramways. In the Military School
the native officers of the Egyptian army are
trained ; and the Law School provides a
diploma which qualifies for an appointment to
the Parquet. This school, and the School of
Medicine, in addition to preparing students
for the Government service, provide a small
but increasing class of native professional men
—men, that is, who intend to live by the private
exercise of these professions.
The number of pupils attending the Govern-
ment schools in 1898 were returned as 7,735 in
all. If we compare this number—say 8, ooo-
with the population of Egypt—say Io, ooo, ooo,
—it is obvious that this small group of Schools,
however efficient they may be, can in no sense
be regarded as a national system of education.
Nor is any such claim put forward by the
Egyptian Government and its English advisers.
In reviewing the progress of the Government
2
#
AIMS OF GOVERNMENT I.6I
schools during the last ten years, Lord Cromer
wrote in 1899, “But the point which perhaps
more than any other deserves notice is, that
evidence is forthcoming of the capability of the
Egyptian schools and Colleges to turn out a
number of young men who will be able to take
an useful and honourable, albeit sometimes
humble, part in the administration of their own
country. It would be unduly optimistic to
suppose that for many years to come the
educational system can attain any higher ideal
than this.”
As a matter of fact, out of this total of 8,000
young men thus being trained in the Govern-
ment schools, probably fully two-thirds of those
who complete their education will be absorbed
by the various departments of the administration,
and the remaining third will become lawyers
and doctors, or enter the offices of merchants.
As to the cost of educating these young men,
it is only natural that in the present transition
phase of Egyptian Society the larger share
should be borne by the Government. In 1887
the total cost of public instruction was
24, EI 59,397, of which the Government itself
provided A. E.g3,778. On the other hand, the
fact that the Egyptian parent is prepared to
make some sacrifice to secure the advantages of
a western education for his sons—whether
merely as a stepping stone to Government
employment or not—is proved by the statement
| . - I 2
I62 ENGLISH LANGUAGE
made by Lord Cromer that the proportion
of paying pupils in the Government schools has
risen from 5 per cent, in 1879 to 86 per cent.
in 1898. There remains a point of special
interest to Englishmen in connection with this
subject of the Government schools, which must
be briefly touched upon. I refer to the pro-
portion of pupils who respectively select
French or English as the European language
which is to be learnt as the medium of
instruction in western knowledge. France, as
we have seen, took the lead in introducing
western civilization into the Egypt of the
nineteenth century; and French influence, with
the French language, was predominant up to
the time of the English Occupation. At the
date of this event French was almost universally
learnt as the medium of instruction in the
Government schools, and it remains to this
day the official language of the Egyptian
Government. Since the Occupation, however,
British influence has naturally increased, and
with the growth of British prestige there arose
a desire to acquire the language of the tutelary
Power. Under these circumstances a less wise
or far-sighted man than Lord Cromer might
have been inclined to force on the teaching of
English in the Government schools by artificial
means. But the policy which was in fact pursued
is one which he himself describes as “linguistic
free-trade.” “No attempt,” he writes,” “has been
* Egypt No. 3 (1899).
LINGUISTIC FREETRADE 163
made to discourage instruction in French.
The number both of French teachers and of
Egyptian employed to teach the French
language in the Government schools has been
more than doubled since 1881. For many
years, although the proportion of pupils learning
French, respectively to those learning English,
was gradually undergoing a change, no
diminution in the aggregate attendance at the
French classes occurred. On the other hand,
English has been placed on the same footing as
French. Equal facilities have been provided
in both cases. Every parent has been requested
to state in writing whether he wished his son to
learn French or English. He has been left
entirely free to decide this question for himself.
As time went on, and the demand for teaching
in English grew, the facilities for instruction in
that language were naturally increased.”
The result of this policy, as shown by a
comparison of the returns for 1889 and 1898,
certainly justifies the satisfaction expressed by
Lord Cromer. In all three grades of schools
the percentage of pupils taking English has
risen very considerably, and in this latter year
(1898) out of a total of 5,740” pupils receiving
instruction in French or English, 3,859 had
selected English and 1,811 French. These
figures, which indicate a complete reversal of
* The pupils in the Primary Schools are not taught a
European language in the lower classes.
I64 other schools
the relative popularity of French and English in
1881, speak for themselves.
Before we approach the reform of the Kuttabs,
it should be noted that these Government
schools are not the only institutions for giving
an education on European lines existing in
Egypt. In the large towns, especially at Cairo
and Alexandria, there are private schools, which,
— though intended mainly for the children of
European residents, are used by a small number
of the highest class of the native inhabitants of
Egypt. And in addition to these private
schools, some of which are visited by the
Government Inspector, there are missionary
schools, promoted by the various religious
bodies at work in Egypt, where instruction is
given to native children, and especially to the
children of the Copts.
The Kuttab is the characteristic school of the
Mohammedan East. Like the Mosque, to
which it is usually though not exclusively
attached, it is to be found in every town and
village, and sometimes in the smallest hamlets.
The schoolmaster (fikih) and his assistant (arif)
are ignorant of the merest elements of learning,
and the schoolroom has neither seats nor school
furniture of any description, besides being
insanitary and unsuitable in all respects. The
instruction is limited to recitations from the
– Koran. Here is a description of a Kuttab in
one of the larger towns of the Delta,
º MOSQUE SCHOOLS I65
“In the dim light the schoolmaster was
descried sitting cross-legged upon a mat, with
two rows of tiny children ranged sideways in
front of him, in the same attitude on the ground.
The master himself was weaving a mat, and the
boys and girls were plaiting straw, an occupa-
tion which both parties were able to combine
with the business of education. This consisted,
so far as the children were concerned, in the
recital of passages from the Koran, in which
they were repeatedly prompted by the master,
accompanied by a more or less energetic
swaying of their bodies from the hips backwards
and forwards.””
It is calculated that there are some 9,500 of
these schools in Egypt, with 180,000 children
attending them. Here, at least, so far as
numbers are concerned, is an educational
machine covering an area sufficiently wide to
promise results of national importance, if only
it could be reformed and rendered efficient.
The idea of utilizing the Kuttabs as the basis of
a genuinely national system of education was
first entertained in 1890. In that year sixty-
nine Kuttabs, formerly controlled by the
administration of the Wakfs (i.e. religious and
charitable foundations and trusts), were handed
over to the Ministry of Education. Of these
sixty-nine Kuttabs, four were already defunct,
and the school buildings of nineteen others had
* The Redemption of Egypt. —1.
ſ
166 IGNORANCE OF TEACHERS
to be condemned as useless on sanitary and
other grounds. The Ministry of Education
then proceeded to test the efficiency of the
forty-six Kuttabs remaining at work. For this
purpose the teachers were “subjected to an
examination of the very simplest character in
the subjects of writing and arithmetic. The
result of this examination was very significant.
Out of fifty-seven fikihs and arifs, eighteen
failed to put in an appearance. Of the thirty-
nine who took the examination, only five
satisfied the examiners in arithmetic, while no
single teacher passed in writing. Of the thirty-
four who failed, twenty-seven received no marks
at all in arithmetic, and twenty-nine received no
marks in writing. In the face of these results
the department decided to give the unsuccessful
teachers a further opportunity of qualifying
themselves. For this purpose it was decided
to hold the same examination after a year's
interval; while those who were still unsuccessful
were to be allowed a second year, as the final
period within which they must qualify themselves
on pain of dismissal. At the same time it was
arranged that the five teachers who had passed
in arithmetic should receive an additional salary
of ten P.T.” a month, while this subject should
be taught by competent masters in the remaining
schools; and that writing should be taught by
* ...e. ten piastres. The Egyptian piastre is one
hundredth part of the Egyptian pound (ÁI os. 6d.)
REFORM OF KUTTABS 167
these supplementary masters in all the schools.
In 1892, the period of grace expired; but in
the meantime none of the unsuccessful fikihs
or arifs had presented themselves for a second
examination.”
In 1894 special inspectors were appointed to
visit the Kuttabs, and on the recommendation
of these inspectors certain improvements were
effected in the school buildings, and a modest
supply of school furniture in the shape of black
boards and forms was provided. At the same
time the more competent teachers were encour-
aged to make fresh efforts by extra remuneration.
The beneficial result of these improvements
appeared in the fact that the number of pupils
in attendance rose from 1,839 in 1894 to 2,307
in 1895. Two years later—in 1897—a further
advance was made. In this year it was found
possible to establish the principle that no
teachers should be employed unless they were
able to pass an elementary examination in the
subjects which they taught. Under this regula-
tion twenty of the most incompetent teachers
were dismissed; and at the same time
arrangements were made to supply books to
those teachers who desired to increase their
efficiency by private study, and these Kuttabs
were placed under the instruction of the health
officers of the Education Department. Moreover,
in this year ten Government schools which had
* Ibid.
I68 ASSISTED KUTTABS
been formerly classed as “Lower Primary” were
added to the Kuttabs. These “new " Kuttabs
were provided with a regular school equipment
and a staff of Government teachers, and as such
formed a valuable addition to the list of
Kuttabs. -
At the close of the same year (1897) a still
more significant effort was made. It was then
decided to attempt to improve the standard of
the whole body of Kuttabs by introducing a
system of “grants in aid.” With this object
in view the Ministry of Education announced
that they would be prepared to assist any
“private” Kuttabs which could show evidence
of maintaining a certain minimum standard of
efficiency in respect of their buildings and
teachers. Out of the 9,500 private Kuttabs,
some. 3oo applied for the Government grant
under these conditions; and when these 3oo
had been inspected, it was decided that I Io
were deserving of the promised assistance.
These assisted Kuttabs had a total attendance
of 3,950 pupils. In the code of regulations
prepared for the management of the assisted
Kuttabs the Ministry of Education has wisely
decided to give the preference, wherever
possible, to teachers who have been educated
in part at the El-Azhar University, or a corres-
ponding institution. Moreover, all instruction
is to be given in Arabic, and the teaching of
any foreign language is expressly forbidden.
EDUCATION OF GIRLS 169
In other words, the reformed Kuttabs are to
be genuinely national in character. A further
regulation which provides that the grant per
head is to be doubled in the case of girls, as
against boys, is important in view of the general
neglect of female education, which is noticeable
in Egypt as in other Mohammedan countries.
A small number of girls have already attended
the Kuttabs ; and if, therefore, the Kuttab can
be made the foundation of a national system of
education, the principle of an equal education
for girls and boys will be established on th
widest basis. -
CHAPTER XII
INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS
N a very interesting statement, contained in
the report on Egypt in 1897, Lord Cromer
traces in clear outline the circumstances which
have governed the fiscal policy pursued from the
commencement of the British Control to this
date. The circumstances under which he
thought fit to make this statement were these.
In December, 1897, the President of the
Legislative Council had addressed a letter to the
Minister of Finance, in which it was stated that
while the Council approved of the military
operations which were destined to end in the
recovery of the Sudan, and recognized that the
additional expenditure so incurred made any
{
FISCAL POLICY 171
reduction of taxation impossible for the present,
they trusted that the Government would afford
further fiscal relief in the future. And the
Legislative Assembly had also urged upon the
Government the desirability of reducing
taxation. In view of these expressions of
native opinion, Lord Cromer embodied in his
annual report an explanation of the attitude
of the Government on this question. The
fact that so important a pronouncement
should have been made for the information
of the members of the two representative
Chambers is interesting as showing that these
Chambers are fulfilling one at least of the
purposes for which they were created, namely,
to afford a medium of communication between
the Government and the more enlightened of
the Egyptian people.
“The finances of Egypt,” Lord Cromer
writes,” “have passed through at least three
distinct phases during the last fifteen years.
“During the first phase, which lasted from
1883 to about 1887, the whole efforts of the
Government had to be directed to the
maintenance of financial equilibrium. The
circumstances were such as to preclude the
possibility either of affording fiscal relief,
however necessary, or of incurring additional
expenditure, even for the most legitimate
objects.
* Egypt No. 1 (1898).
I72 FISCAL RELIEF
“By 1887 all danger of insolvency was over.
The efforts of the reformers, notably those of
the irrigation officers, began to bear fruit. The
period of surplus set in. It was then decided
that fiscal relief should take precedence over.
additional expenditure. The corvée, which9
was, in reality, a very heavy and objectionable
tax, was therefore abolished at a cost of
24, E4oo,ooo a year. The land. tax was
reduced by AE430,000. The professional tax
(AE180,000), the sheep and goat tax
(24, E40,000), the weighing tax (4 E28,000),
and Sundry small taxes (AE31,ooo) were
abolished. In all, a reduction of direct
taxation to the extent of 24, EI, Ioo,ooo was
accorded. At the same time, the salt tax was
reduced by 40 per cent, and the postal and
telegraph rates by 50 per cent. The octroi
duties were abolished in the smaller provincial
towns. The only increase was in the tobacco
duty, which was raised from P.T. 14 to P.T. 20
per kilogramme.
“The period of fiscal relief may be said to
have been brought to a close in 1894. It was
then thought both possible and desirable to pay
more attention than heretofore to the very
ments. Accordingly, money was devoted to
remunerative objects, such as drainage and
railway extension, and also to others—such as
the construction of hospitals, prisons, and other
legitimate demands of the spending depart- A
-, *,
%
FALL OF PRICES I 73
public buildings, the improvement of education,
etc.—which, although not directly remunerative,
are equally necessary to the well-being of the
“Turning more particularly to the question
of fiscal relief, I am well aware that agricultural
interests have suffered in Egypt, as elsewhere,
from the fall in the price of agricultural produce.
The recent fall in the price of cotton has more
especially told with severity on Egyptian land-
owners and cultivators. In connection with
this subject, I would incidentally invite the
members of the Legislative Council to ask
themselves what their position would now be
if they had been exposed to the present low
prices—which naturally depend on causes
lying outside the sphere of Government
control—without such assistance as they have
derived from improved irrigation, and, gener-
ally, from fifteen years of orderly government.
There cannot be a doubt that, under such
conditions, not only would the country have
been hopelessly insolvent, but also that the
agricultural distress would have been immeas-
urably greater than any which can now be
said to exist.”
The period of active industrial development
dates, therefore, from 1894. It is only natural
that in a country such as Egypt the most
important of these developments should have
been State enterprizes, and that others should
174 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT
have been achieved more or less directly by
Governmental initiative. The main lines of
the development thus obtained are :—
(1) The extension of what we may call the
industrial “plant” of the country; that is to
say the basis of material resources necessary
for active industrial and commercial opera-
tions. -
(2) Growth of industries.
(3) Measures for social and material
development, indirectly contributing to
industrial progress. . .
Under the first head are included the
construction of irrigation works, and gener-
ally the improvement of the condition of
the cultivated area by irrigation and drainage.
These works, which are intended to provide
the primary necessity for the industrial well-
being of Egypt—a regular and abundant
supply of water—have been already described
“. . in a separate chapter. Next in importance is
the construction and organization of the
railways, telegraphs, and the postal commu-
nication, All of these, with slight exceptions,
are worked by the Government, and the
annual returns show a rapid advance in the
extent of their operations. The attention of
the Government has been especially directed
during the last three years to the improve-
ment of the railways. The position of this
important service is peculiar. Under the
RAILWAYS I75
Law of Liquidation, and subsequent inter-
national agreements, the proceeds of the
railways were assigned for the payment of
the interest on the Privileged Debt. Under
the terms of this arrangement the Railway
Board, being one of the International
Administrations,” were compelled to pay
over an altogether disproportionate amount
of the gross receipts for the service of the
debt. Having no adequate funds at their
disposal for the maintenance and extension
of the rolling stock, the buildings, and even
the permanent way, the Railway Board
allowed all of these—constituting the
“plant” of the railway system—to deterio-
rate year by year, until in 1897 the
commercial community grew alarmed at an
evil which threatened seriously to impede
the industrial progress of the country.
The state of affairs at that time is thus
described by Mr. Robertson, then President
of the Railway Board. After remarking that
the statement that the “working expenses”
in 1897 amounted to 43 per cent. of the gross
receipts conveyed a false idea, he writes,f
“An examination of the amounts spent on
the purchase of rolling stock and rails during
the last ten years shows a deficit of 4 E218,000
from the sum necessary to maintain these
* See page 63.
f Egypt No. 1 (1898).
176 DEFICIENCY OF PLANT
items in good order, owing to the insufficiency
of the Budget for maintenance. The buildings
have also been neglected, and the running
repairs to engines are wofully in arrears
owing to the impossibility of laying by an
engine so long as it can move. These
engines have, many of them, done three
times the distance, without repairs, that
they should have run for economy. The
absolute quantity of the rolling stock is also
quite inadequate to meet present wants. It
was never abundant, and the increase during
the last ten years renders it ludicrously
insufficient.”
In plain-words, the railways had been
starved in order that every available piastre
of the gross earnings might be paid over to
the Caisse de la Dette. That the officials by
whom the railways had been managed were
in no way responsible for this unsatisfactory
state of affairs is shewn by the fact that the
gross receipts had risen 80 per cent. during
the fifteen years 1883–1898. This increase
in passenger and goods traffic was also in part
the natural result of the expanding prosperity
of the country. But notwithstanding the
skill and energy of the chief officials, the fact
remained that the ruinous economy imposed
by the system of International Administra-
tion had made the railways, instead of keeping
pace with the industrial expansion of the
FRESH EXPENDITURE I77
country, in Lord Cromer's words, to
“relatively stand still.”
Under these circumstances it was plain
that an immediate expenditure upon railway
material and plant could alone save the
situation. Lord Cromer realized from the
first that the most effective and the most
economic plan would be to expend a really
adequate sum—estimated at 4 E1,500,000—
without delay. So large a sum could only
be obtained by borrowing, and in 1898 this
was impossible. It remained, therefore, to
make the best arrangement possible, and it
was proposed to obtain annual grants from
the General Reserve Fund, amounting to a
total of 4 E1,330,000 during the five years
1897 to Igo3. Last year, however, negocia-
tions were carried on with the Powers, which
have happily resulted in permission being
accorded to the Egyptian Government to
raise the sum of 4 E1,700,ooo, and a Khedivial
Decree was issued on July 23rd, 1900,
authorizing a further issue of the Privileged
Debt to that amount, bearing interest at
3% per cent. We may hope, therefore, that
in the immediate future the Egyptian
railways will be placed in good working order,
and that when this has been done so
important a department of the State will not
be allowed again to fall behind the general
industrial advance. - -"
I 3
178 LIGHT RAILWAYS
In addition to the State railways, private
enterprize has, with the assistance of some
Government support, provided agricultural
or light railways in the Delta and the Fayum.
Since 1897 a total of 430 miles of such
railways has been constructed. In the Delta
two companies, the Delta Light Railway and
the Chemin de Fer Economique, have each
carried during the twelve months ending
respectively in September and November,
1899, over half a million of passengers in
addition to their goods traffic. The Fayum
Light Railway Company, which has been
established more recently, is interesting on
account of the fact that it is managed by a
board of native Egyptian capitalists and
landowners. The purpose of these railways,
which is identical with that of the like
enterprizes in England, is to supply
agricultural districts with the convenience of
railway communication and transport, when
the construction of railways of the ordinary
gauge would not be justified on financial
grounds. Writing of the Agricultural Rail-
ways in general, Lord Cromer" says in his
last report :—
“The rolling-stock of all these lines is as
yet quite inadequate to carry the cotton and
other goods brought to them. When this
defect has been remedied a proportionate
º Egypt No. 1 (1900).
MARKETS I 79
increase in their receipts may be expected.
There seems to be no likelihood whatever of
the Government being called upon to pay the
guaranteed rate of interest.
“There is as yet no indication that these
compete seriously with the State railways.
The earnings of these latter have not
diminished, as it was at one time thought
probable would be the case.”
Another industrial enterprize which may
be included under this head is the construction
of buildings for cattle markets, and markets
for general produce, undertaken by the
company styled the Egyptian Markets,
Limited. Under the terms of the concession
granted by the Government to this company
in 1898, sheds and other necessary buildings
have been constructed in one hundred and
twenty industrial centres in Egypt. The
company has the sole right of constructing
these buildings, and its revenues will be
derived from the tolls which it is authorized
to collect at rates fixed by the Government.
The tolls are estimated to yield gross
receipts of 4 IOO,Ooo per annum; but on the
other hand the Government receives a
considerable percentage of these annual
receipts, and at the end of the term of the
concession—thirty years—the market build- ~
ings become the property of the State. In .
the case of this company it is interesting to


\
I8o COTTON AND SUGAR
note that a considerable proportion of the
capital was subscribed by natives of all
classes. • . . * -
Under the second head—the growth of
industries—we have to include not only the
extension of the area of the cotton and sugar
plantations, directly due to the improvements
effected in the condition of the land by
irrigation and drainage, but also the increased
efficiency of the methods respectively em-
ployed in the preparation of raw cotton and
sugar for export. The production of raw
cotton has risen from 2,293,537 kantars" in
1883 to 5,879,479 kantars in 1896, and that
of sugar from 21,850,642 kilogrammest in
1883 to 72,918,250 kilogrammes in 1897.j:
I have already spoken of the importance of
cotton cultivation to Egypt, and in spite of
the fall in price it still provides three-fourths
of the annual value of the total exports—an
average of Some 4 9,000,ooo Out of 4 I2,OOO,Ooo.
The sugar industry is much less important.
In 1897 the value of the sugar export was
A E634,518; but the area of Sugar planting is
likely to be materially increased in the future,
when the completion of the Nile reservoir
has allowed the perennial system of irrigation
to be introduced into Upper Egypt. Here
* The kantar- 98% lbs.
# The kilogramme=rather more than 2 lbs.
| Tableaux Statistiques.
IMPROVED METHODS I8I
again Government initiative has been active.
Almost the entire sugar export is produced
by the lands and mills of the Daira Adminis-
tration, and a considerable proportion of the
cotton export is produced by the Domains
Administration. In both of these adminis-
trations continuous and successful efforts
have been made to increase the outputs of
the respective mills by the introduction of
improved methods and machinery. In the
case of the Daira the percentage of sugar
obtained from the canes was raised from 9:38
in 1890 to II'oz in 1897; and during the
same period the cost of production per
hundred kantars of sugar was reduced from
4 E42,003 to 4 E33,174.” And in the
Domains Administration the commissioners
are able to report that, whereas in the period
1879 to 1887 the feddan (acre) yielded 277
kantars of cotton, in the period 1888 to 1897
an average yield of 4:36 kantars was obtained.
At the same time increased returns of cotton
Seed and cotton wood were obtained, ; and
thus by improved methods of cultivation
combined with increased efficiency and
economy in the ginning, or Cotton-cleaning
mills, the total return per feddan on the
Domains plantations was raised in value
from an average of 4 E8-61 in the period
* Rapport presente par le Conseil de ZXirection de la
Daira Sanieh, etc. (Le Caire, 1898).
I82 SOCIAL IMPROVEMENTS
1879-1887 to 4 EIo'57 in the period 1888-
1897, in spite of the decrease in the market
price of raw cotton.*
Apart from the (practical) abolition of
the corvée, which was accomplished, as
already mentioned, in 1889, the most import-
ant and far-reaching of all the measures
which may be included under the third head,
as tending to the social improvement of the
people, is the work of the Ministry of
Education. This we have already considered
at some length. Second to this, as an agency
for the development of national character, is
the gradual establishment of a system of local
government, which has been effected in recent
years.
Cairo, Alexandria, Damietta, and the towns
on the Suez Canal, where the European
residents form an appreciable element in the
population, have been provided with municipal
institutions adapted to their special require-
ments. These towns, therefore, and the
districts of Suez and El-Arish, are placed
outside the general system of local govern-
ment constituted by the Provincial Councils
established in the fourteen Mudiriyehs or
Provinces, and the Town Councils established
in certain of the larger provincial towns. It
is in these provincial towns and Town
* Domaines de l’AEtat Egyptient . . . . Compte Générale
des Opérations, etc. Paris, 1898.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT 183
Councils, therefore, that we must look for
signs of progress on the part of the native
population in qualifying themselves for self-
government. Both of these are partly
representative and partly official bodies. In
the case of the Town Council the official
members are the Mudir, who presides, the
Public Works Inspector, and the Sanitary
Inspector; and the representative members,
who are elected by the townspeople, are four
in number. In the Provincial Council the
official members are the Mudir, the Inspector
of Public Works for the province, and the
Irrigation Inspector; here there are only two
representative members, who are elected by
Delegates chosen from each village in the
province. The matters which come before
the Town Council are the drainage, lighting,
and watering of the streets, and various
improvements, such as the providing of public
gardens, supplies of drinking water, &c., for
the benefit of the townspeople. The funds are
raised for these purposes not by local taxation,
but grants varying from 4 E400 to 4 E2,500
are made to the several Councils by the
Government; and the Council has no power
to put its proposals into effect until they have
been approved by the Ministry of the Interior.
The Provincial Council possesses the same
restricted functions in respect of the con-
struction of agricultural roads, irrigation
works, &c. -
\
.*
184 MUNICIPALITIES
A municipality with more complete powers
of local government has been recently created
at Mansura. In this case the Council consists
of eight representative members together with
the three officials. It has power to raise
funds by local taxation, in addition to the
grant received from the Government, and its
decisions do not require the approval of the
Ministry of the Interior before they can be
put into effect. It must be noted, however,
that the existence of the Capitulations is a
serious hindrance to the extension of any
effective system of local self-government. In
the case of Mansura, the difficulty presented by
the exemption of the European residents from
direct taxation was overcome by the voluntary
submission of the Europeans in this town to the
imposition of the required taxes. But, as Lord
Cromer has repeatedly pointed out in his
reports, “no considerable extension of muni-
cipal government is possible until some system
can be devised which will admit of local taxes
being imposed on Europeans and natives alike.”
Here, then, is another instance of the necessity
for removing as speedily as possible the constant
conflict of interests between the Egyptian
Government and the International Authority in
Egypt. At the same time, the beneficial result
of the establishment of these limited municipal
institutions is apparent from the improvements
which are already being effected in the towns
POVERTY OF FELLAHIN 185
where they exist. “The streets in towns where
municipalities exist,” writes Mr. Machell,” the
Adviser to the Ministry of the Interior, “are
well swept and watered ; some of the principal
thoroughfares are being macadamized, lighting
is general, and progress is continually being
made in the direction of gradually filling in and
reclaiming the most important of the large
pools in the immediate vicinity.”
It remains to mention a very useful effort
which is being made by the National Bank of
Egypt, in conjunction with the Government,
to supply the fellahin or peasant proprietors of
Egypt with small loans at moderate rates of
interest. The poverty of the fellah, the real
cultivator of the soil, is largely due to the fatal
habit of borrowing advances, on the security of
his crops or land, from the Greek or Coptic
money-lenders at exorbitant rates of interest.
The “indebtedness of the fellahin '' is a
recognized economic difficulty, and as such has
repeatedly been made the subject of enquiries
and reports. The essential features of the
present scheme, which is due to Sir Elwin
Palmer, the late Financial Adviser and the
present Governor of the National Bank of
Egypt, and to Mr. Rowlatt, a Sub-Governor of
the Bank, consists in the appointment of agents
in rural districts, who are authorized to recom-
mend, after due enquiries, deserving applicants
* Egypt No. 1 (1900).
ty
186 SCHEME OF RELIEF
to the authorities of the Bank at Cairo, and
in the collection of the moderate interest, and
eventually the capital sum advanced, by the
Government tax collectors on behalf of the
Bank. The special advantage of this arrange-
ment lies in the fact that the prestige of the
Government, and its machinery for collection,
are placed at the disposal of the Bank—an
arrangement which materially lessens both the
risk of loss and the disproportionate expense
which would otherwise be incurred in the
collection of these small sums. The scheme
is at present in an experimental stage, but
the results already obtained are sufficiently
promising to justify the hope of its ultimate
success from a financial, as well as a philan-
thropic, point of view. In any case the
promotion of such a measure demonstrates the
earnestness with which the present Egyptian
administration is applying itself to the difficult
task of raising the hitherto downtrodden and
oppressed fellah in the scale of civilization.
The general advance achieved by Egypt
during the period of the British control is
admirably summed up by Sir Elwin Palmer in
the Note which he published in 1898 to
introduce his Tableaux Statisfigues, Z88 r—
z897. It is written, of course, in French, the
official language of the Egyptian Government ;
but I give it here in the form in which it
appears in Lord Cromer's Report on Egypt in
GENERAL PROGRESS 187
1897. It should be remembered, however, that
this summary extends only to 1897, and that
since that date the great Nile reservoir and
the railway reforms have been planned and
partially executed, and the reconquest of the
Sudan has been accomplished.
“The population of Egypt has increased in
fifteen years by 2,920,486, i.e., 43 per cent.
“Notwithstanding the increase of about
13 per cent, i.e., 614,195 feddans [acres] in the
cultivated area paying taxes, the Land Tax is
now less by 24, E85,691 than in 1881. The
average tax per feddan in 1881 was 24, EI 2s.,
it is now 18s 3d. The annual tax on land has,
since 1891, been reduced by 24, E507,600, other
direct taxes having been reduced by 24, E223,000,
and indirect taxes amounting to 24, E186, ooo
tax having been raised, and the smuggling
stopped, it now produces over _4. Isooo,ooo,
whereas in 1881 the revenue derived from
tobacco only amounted to 24, E97,168.
“Scarcely any arrears of land tax now exist,
whereas in past years the amounts were very
large. The expropriations and sales of crops
for arrears have been reduced more than 50 per
cent., and are now quite insignificant.
“Since 1890, the policy has been to diminish
the direct taxes, covering the loss of revenue
by an increase in the indirect taxes, and causing
a more even distribution of taxes and an
I88 GENERAL PROGRESS
increase in the number of taxpayers. The only
indirect tax, however, that has been raised
is the Tobacco Tax, while others have been
reduced or even abolished entirely.
“The taxation per head of population in
I88I was 4 I 2s. 2d.; in 1897 it was I 7s. 9d.,
a reduction of 20 per cent.
“Two hundred and twelve miles of new
railway have been opened. There has been
an enormous development of the railway and
telegraph traffic : Second-class passengers
having increased from 415,000 to I, I 53,000 ;
third-class passengers from 3, IOO,Ooo to
9,412,Ooo ; and merchandize from 1,275,000
to 2,796,000 tons, while the number of
telegrams have increased from 688,000 to
2,498,000, half the number being on account
of railway service. -
“A similar development in the Post Office
has taken place; letters, newspapers, money
Orders, etc., having very largely increased in
number. - “.... ........ --- ****
“The expenditure on public instruction
has been increased by over 37 per cent. The
number of schools has risen from 29 to 51, and
the number of pupils from 5,366 to II,3O4.
“The increase in the judicial receipts shows
that the people have learnt to take advantage
of the courts, especially as regards registration
of deeds.
“Large sums of money have been expended
GENERAL PROGRESS 189
of late years on irrigation, i.e. on reproductive
works. 1,700 kiloms. of agricultural roads,
2,512 kiloms. of drains, 3,054 kiloms. Of Canals,
and 575 kiloms. of basin bank have been
constructed in the provinces.
“The number of men called out on corvée
has been reduced from 28I,ooo to II, ooo-men.
‘‘Imports have increased by over
A E2,600,ooo, while, notwithstanding the
enormous fall in the price of cotton and
Sugar, there has only been a slight falling-
off in the value of exports.
“The quantity of salt sold has doubled,
while the price has been reduced by close
on 4o per cent.
“The tonnage of the Port of Alexandria
has increased from 1,250,000 to 2,270,000.
“The amount of Bonds outstanding on the
market in 1881 was £98,376,660, in 1897 it was
£98,035,78o, notwithstanding 4 13,219,000
of fresh debt raised to cover extraordinary
expenditure, and 43,400,000 increase of
capital due to conversion. The interest
charge in 1881 was 4 E4,235,921, in 1897
it was 4 E3,908,684.
“The market price of the 5 per cent.
Privileged Debt in 1881 was £96 10s. ; in
1897 the market price of the same debt,
converted into 3% per cent., was 4 Io2.
“The 4 per cent. Unified Debt was at
4 7 I I5s. in 1881, and at 4 Ioë Ios. in 1897.
I90 GENERAL PROGRESS
“The amount of debt per head of popula-
tion was in 1881 4 I4 8s. 9d., it is to-day
4 Io os. 2d.”
CHAPTER XIII
THE RECOVERY OF
THE SUDAN
URING the period that the Egyptian
Government under the direction of
British advisers was devoting itself to the
internal reforms which have been described
in the preceding chapters, the work of
re-organizing the Army had not been
neglected. It was felt from the first that the
claims of civilization, no less than the
prestige of the English and Egyptian arms,
required the destruction of the barbarous
power which was desolating a part of the
Khedive's dominions with fire and sword.
Moreover, so long as the Sudan was in the
possession of the enemies of Egypt, the
I 92 ARMY RE-ORGANIZED
annual water supply—a matter of vital im-
portance—was endangered, and at the same
time the onerous duty of protecting the
southern frontier from Dervish inroads was
thrust upon the Government. There was
never, therefore, any question as to the
ultimate necessity for recovering the lost
provinces of Egypt; but many years passed
before either the military or the financial
resources of the Government warranted them
in undertaking so difficult and dangerous an
enterprize with any sufficient' prospect of
Sll CCCSS.
The military events between the final
abandonment of the Sudan in 1886, and the
battle of Omdurman (September 2nd, 1898),
fall naturally into two periods. During the
first of these periods, lasting from 1886 to
1895, the Egyptian army was gradually re-
organized under successive Sirdars, and the
efforts of the Government were confined to
the defence of the southern frontier and of
the district of Suakin. For this purpose the
Egyptian Frontier Force was organized in
1885 under General Grenfell, and up to 1888
a British garrison was maintained at Assuan
to render support if necessary. In this year
the British garrison at Assuan was with-
drawn, in view of the increasing efficiency of
the Egyptian army, and from this date the
defence of Egypt was successfully maintained
DEFEAT OF DERVISHES 193
by the Egyptian and Sudanese troops. By
this time the efforts of the British officers had
borne fruit; and the discipline and training
of the fellahin soldiers had been so greatly
improved, that the invasion of Egypt by the
forces of the Khalifa under Wad-el-N'jumi
was successfully repelled, and the gallant
Dervish leader and his followers were
destroyed at Toski, some seventy miles
south of Wadi Halfa, on August 3rd, 1889,
by the Egyptian troops under General
Grenfell and Colonel Wodehouse. After
this signal success an advanced post was
pushed forward to Sarras, and the southern
frontier, thus covered, was relieved from any
immediate danger of Dervish attacks. A
successful advance upon Tokar, in which
Osman Digna was defeated with heavy loss at
Affaft, cleared the neighbourhood of Suakin
of Dervish raiders in 1891, and relieved the
garrison from the danger of continuous
assaults.
In 1892 Sir Herbert Kitchener, now Lord
Kitchener of Khartum, succeeded Sir Francis
Grenfell as Sirdar or Commander-in-Chief of
the Egyptian Army. After four years of
strenuous but unobtrusive preparation the
forward movement commenced. In March,
I896, England and Egypt were startled by
the announcement that an advance upon
Dongola was contemplated. On June 7th
- I4
194 ADVANCE COMMENCED
the Dervishes were defeated at Ferkeh, and
in the following September, Dongola was
occupied. Thus far the advance had followed
the course of the Nile. In the following
year it was decided to throw a railroad
across the Nubian desert encircled by
the wide western sweep of the Nile,
and strike the river highway of the Sudan
at Abu-Hamed, where the Nile bent south-
wards once more to Khartum. When the
railway had reached the neighbourhood of
Abu-Hamed, an Egyptian force under General
Hunter advanced rapidly on the line of the
Nile and wrested the post from the Dervish
garrison. The blow was so sudden and well
directed, and the loss incurred by the victors—
some Too killed and wounded—was so small,
that the Dervishes abandoned Berber, a town
150 miles to the south, near the confluence to
the Atbara and the Nile. By strenuous efforts
the central position thus abandoned was
securely occupied, and before the end of the
year the railway had been again carried forward,
so that troops and supplies could be sent direct
from Wadi Halfa to the new base of operations.
In the same year also Kassala was taken over
from the Italian Government, under an old,
agreement; and garrisoned by Egyptian troops.
The advance up to this point was accom-
plished solely by the Egyptian and Sudanese
egiments; but it was thought desirable to
OMDURMAN I95
“stiffen’’ the Egyptian forces with certain
picked regiments from the British army for the
final effort. In the brilliant campaign of 1898
the joint British and Egyptian force commanded
by Lord Kitchener inflicted two decisive defeats
upon the Dervish forces by which the Khalifa
strove to oppose the advance upon Khartum.
On April 7th, 16,ooo Dervishes, who were
advancing upon Berber under the Emir
Mahmud and Osman Digna, were driven with a
loss of 3,000 men from the zariba in which
they lay entrenched at the junction of the
Atbara and the Nile; and on September 2nd
the fanatical host which the Khalifa had rallied
for the defence of his capital was crushed on the
plains of Omdurman. At the Atbara the
Anglo-Egyptian force had numbered 12,000
men ; at Omdurman the Sirdar put 22, ooo men
in the field. The number of the Dervishes was
estimated at 40,000 ; and of this total fully
one-half were killed or wounded by the deadly
fire of artillery and rifles. The Anglo-Egyptian
loss was slight — some 4oo men killed and
wounded—but the heavy loss inflicted upon the
21st Lancers, who charged in error through an
unbroken body of Dervish Infantry concealed
in a deep nullah, shewed that this comparative
immunity was due to no want of courage on the
part of the enemy, but solely to the discipline
and training of the British and Egyptian
regiments, which enabled them to avail them-
196. OCCUPATION OF KHARTUM
selves to the full of the superiority of the modern
weapons with which they were equipped. The
Khalifa Abdullah-el-Taishi and Osman Digna
escaped with a small following from the “stricken
field” of Omdurman ; but with this exception
the remnants of the Dervish forces were rapidly
pursued and broken up, and by the end of
the year a simple administration had been
established over the whole of the central and
eastern provinces of the Egyptian Sudan.
The Sirdar occupied Omdurman, the native
town which had replaced Khartum as the
capital of the Sudan under Dervish rule, on
the evening of the day of battle. Here he had
the satisfaction of restoring some European
captives to civilization, among them Charles
Neumann, who has since given an account of
his sufferings to the world. On the following
Sunday the British and Egyptian flags were raised
side by side over the ruined walls of Gordon's
Palace at Khartum, and a solemn service was
held in grateful commemoration of the devotion
which he had shown to England.
The occupation of Khartum was followed by
one of the most remarkable and significant
incidents of recent times. While the joint British
and Egyptian forces had been advancing up the
Nile to Khartum, a small French expedition,
under Captain Marchand, which had penetrated
eastwards from French territory, reached
Fashoda, a point on the Nile some 4oo miles
THE MARCHAND EXPEDITION 197
southward of Khartum. The projected expedi-
tion had been known to the British Government,
although the º made it improbable
that Marchand would be able with the slight
resources at his command to accomplish his
purpose ; and the French Government had
been definitely informed from the first that any
attempt to establish French posts within the
area of the Sudan claimed for Egypt would be
regarded as an “unfriendly act.” Notwithstand-
ing this declaration, the expedition had been
Gallowed to proceed, and when the successful
advance of the Anglo-Egyptian force from the
north had compelled the Khalifa to summon
his Dervish warriors to Omdurman, Captain
Marchand had advanced without encount-
ering resistance from the Bahr-el-Ghazal
down the main stream of the Nile to
Fashoda. When the Egyptian gunboats
brought back the news that the French flag
was flying on the Nile, the Sirdar despatched
a force to occupy Fashoda and warn off the
intruders. In the meantime Lord Salisbury
formally demanded the retirement of the
expedition, and for some weeks there seemed
an imminent risk of war between France
and England. The feeling of enthusiasm
evoked by Marchand's somewhat theatrical
Success was so strong in France, that the
Republican Government would probably
have been compelled by the Nationalists to
198 DEATH OF KHALIFA
refuse the just demand of England, if only
the French navy had been in a state of
greater efficiency. Fortunately the French
Government had no illusions on this vital
matter, and the expedition was ordered to
retire.
The Khalifa remained at large for more
than a year after the occupation of Khartum;
but at the end of November, 1899, he was
brought to bay by an Egyptian force under
Sir Reginald Wingate. He refused to sur-
render ; and, exposing himself with the
fanatical courage of his creed to the bullets
of the Egyptian soldiers, met his death calmly
seated upon his goatskin mantle. Osman
Digna escaped, but only to be captured alive
a few months later. On December 17th
El-Obeid was occupied by an Egyptian force
under Colonel Mahon, and the vast region of
Kordofan, which lies westward of Khartum,
was restored once more to civilization.
But, as we have seen, the barbarous rule of
the Khalifa was practically terminated by the
destruction of the Dervish forces at Omdur-
man; and early in the following year an
arrangement for the future government of
the Sudan was made by the British and
Egyptian Governments. Under the terms
of this Agreement, dated January I 9th, 1899,
and signed respectively by Lord Cromer and
Boutros Ghali Pasha on behalf of the British
SUDAN AGREEMENT I99
and Egyptian Governments, the adminis-
tration of the country was vested in the
Governor-General of the Sudan, and this
officer is to be appointed “by Khedivial
Decree on the recommendation of Her
Britannic Majesty's Government.” The first
Governor-General of the Sudan under the
joint dominion of England and Egypt was
the Sirdar, now raised to the peerage of
the United Kingdom as Lord Kitchener of
Khartum.
The country thus restored to civilization
by the military skill of Lord Kitchener and
the courage and endurance of the British and
Egyptian troops, was at all times a barren
and inhospitable region. Now fifteen years
of Dervish tyranny had devastated and
depopulated its most fertile provinces. Its
regular and peaceable inhabitants had
Scattered in terror to the remoter areas of
Central Africa, and large tracts in the richer
and more fertile districts had gone out of
cultivation. The first thing needful was to
Secure a return of these useful and peaceable
inhabitants, and for this purpose a simple
administration was quickly established, which
has since been extended throughout the
Egyptian Sudan. The nature of the
administration and the principles upon
which it is based will be best understood
from the following sentences, which formed
200 ADMINISTRATION OF SUDAN
part of a speech addressed by Lord Cromer
to a gathering of Sheikhs and Notables
assembled at Omdurman on January 5th,
1899. After remarking that for the future
they would be governed by the Queen of
England and the Khedive of Egypt, and
adding that the Queen ruled over a larger
number of Moslem subjects than any other
Sovereign in the world, and that their religion
and religious customs were strictly respected,
Lord Cromer continued:—
“You may feel sure that the same principle
will be adopted in the Sudan. There will be
no interference whatever in your religion.
“I am aware that many abuses occurred
under the old Egyptian régime in the Sudan.
No law courts worthy of the name existed,
taxes were heavy in amount, and illegal
exactions in excess of taxes were of frequent
occurrence. You need be under no fear that
these abuses will be repeated. You doubtless
have heard that the Egyptian Government
of the present day is animated by a very
different spirit from that existing in former
times. I trust before long it will be possible
for the Sirdar to institute some simple Law
Courts in which equal justice will be dis-
tributed to all, rich and poor alike. You will,
of course, have to pay taxes, but they will be
moderate in amount and fixed according to
ancient custom, which is very similar in all
SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT 2.01
Moslem countries. You may feel sure that,
when once you have paid the amounts legally
due, no further irregular exactions will be
made. A few English officers will be resident
in each district in order to ensure strict
compliance with these principles.”
In order to carry out this scheme of ad-
ministration a British officer was appointed
to act as Mudir or Governor in each province,
with the assistance of two British Inspectors.
The districts, into which the provinces are
divided, were entrusted to officials styled
Mamurs, who were in general native Egyptian
military or police officers. For the lesser
officers under the direction of the Mudirs
and Mamurs, natives are in all cases
employed, as it was wisely decided to enlist
the authority of the local Sheikhs and
Notables as much as possible in the work of
government.
The seat of the Sudan Administration was
established at Khartum, the old capital of the
Sudan, which is situated at the junction of
the White and Blue Niles five miles south-
ward of Omdurman. As the buildings of the
Original town had been completely wrecked
by the Dervishes, a new Khartum was laid
out with broad streets planted with trees,
and already in 1899 Some 430,000 had been
expended in the erection of the buildings
necessary for carrying on the work of the
2O2 KHARTUM REBUILT
Government. In addition to these Govern-
ment buildings, the Gordon College", for which
4 IOO,Ooo was readily subscribed in England
and in Egypt, is in course of construction ;
and the British Parliament has voted a like
Sum for the erection of the barracks in which
a small British garrison is to be permanently
housed. Together with the re-building of
the capital, the telegraph lines have been
rapidly extended, and the railway has been
carried forward to Khartum. During the last
year (1899) a thousand miles of telegraph
lines were constructed, and the chief towns of
the Sudan either are already, or will be
shortly, placed in telegraphic communication
with each other and with Khartum. The
advantage of the establishment of this rapid
means of communication is obvious ; and
Mr. Harman, the Financial Secretary of the
Government of the Sudan, states in a recent
Report that “the Government of the country
is practically conducted by the telegraph
wire.”f The Sudan railway, which now runs
from Wadi Halfa to Khartum, has brought
the remote capital of the Sudan into easy
communication with Cairo, since the entire
* The Gordon College is intended to rerpetuate the
memory of Gordon. The object is defined by Lord
Kitchener as being “to give the most practical, useful
education possible to the [native] boys for their future in
the Sudan.”
† Egypt No. I (1900).
THE SUDD 2O3
distance, with the exception of some 200
miles between Wadi Halfa and Shellal, which
is covered by a service of Nile steamboats,
can be traversed in the train. .
The interesting question of the prospect of
increasing the water supply of Egypt, which
has been raised by the re-occupation of the
Sudan, must be briefly mentioned. The
main stream of the Upper Nile flows from
the great central lakes of Africa to Lake No,
which lies some 6Io miles to the south of
Khartum. In this region it is joined by a
number of tributary streams, and the flow of
the main stream, known as the Bahr-el-Jebel,
and of these tributary streams, is here im-
peded by a mass of water weeds called the
“sudd.” In the opinion of Sir William
Garstin, who visited the Sudan in 1899
for the purpose of reporting upon this
important matter, the removal of the weed
barrier will not in itself increase the volume of
water discharged by the Nile at Assuan ; since
“it is the Sobat, the Blue Nile, and the Atbara
which form the ruling factors in the production
of the annual Nile flood,” and not the White
Nile, or, as it is known further southwards, the
Bahr-el-Jebel. But when the navigation of the
Upper Nile has been opened up by the removal
of the sudd, it will then be possible to commence
an operation which Sir William Garstin believes
will increase the summer supply of water in
204 CLEARING THE SUDD
Egypt by 50 per cent. Before it reaches Lake
No–and in the region of the Lake—the water
brought by the main stream of the Nile from
the great lakes is spread over a wide area of
marshes and Swamps, and is thus subjected to a
rapid evaporation which causes a loss of
I2, I 75,000,ooo cubic metres in each year.
“What is really required,” Sir William writes,” “if
an increase in the supply is to be obtained, is
that the lost river should be formed artificially
into a river again by regulating its section and
augmenting its velocity and its discharge. This
can only be done by preventing it from spilling
over into the different side - channels and
marshes, and confining its volume to one main
artery. If this be possible, the immense mass
of water annually lost by evaporation, &c., will
flow steadily to the north in a single stream, and
the summer supply of Egypt be increased by
the amount thus gained.”
After the date of Sir William Garstin's report,
a sum of AEIo, ooo was assigned to the Sudan
Government to enable the weed barrier by
which the channel of the Bahr-el-Jebel is
blocked to be removed between Lake No and
Shambeh. Of this work, which has now been
successfully accomplished, Sir William Garstin
has subsequently writtent as follows:
* Report on the Sudan (1899).
f As quoted in Lord Cromer's last report, Egypt No. 1
(1900), -
EFFECT ON THE NILE 2.05
“The primary object of this measure is to
open the Bahr-el-Jebel to navigation, and to
permit of an examination of the river and the
surrounding swamps. When this examination
has been made it will be possible to study the
feasibility of closing off all the spill-channels
which wander through the marshes, and, by
confining the river in one single stream, prevent
the present enormous waste of water. Such a
study must necessarily involve much time, and
the works, if ever carried out, may cost
considerable sums of money. The question of
increasing the summer supply of the Nile is,
however, of such vital interest to Egypt that
the present expenditure is fully justified.”
It remains to add that at the end of 1899
Lord Kitchener was summoned to serve his
country in the great South African war. He
was succeeded by Sir Reginald Wingate, the
present Governor-General of the Sudan.
CHAPTER XIV .
THE INTERNATIONAL
FACTOR
HE phrase “Egyptian hands and English
heads" embodies the principle which
underlies the successful accomplishment of
administrative reform and industrial develop-
ment in Egypt. With a record of the events
of the last twenty years before him it would
be idle for any English writer to pretend that
the credit of restoring Egypt to prosperity
can be assigned to any other body of men than
the comparatively small group of responsible
English officials—which even to-day does not
exceed one hundred in all—by whom the
action of the Khedive's Government has been
virtually directed since the date of the English
INFLUENCE OF FRANCE 2O7
Occupation. There is, however, a limit to
the application of this principle. England,
as we know, was not first in the field. Before
the British Government was compelled, mainly
by the growing importance of the Suez Canal,
to take an interest in the internal condition of
Egypt, France had been actively concerned
in the introduction of European education
and of European inventions; and the Powers
had intervened collectively to rescue Egypt
from bankruptcy before England entered into
a partnership with France and the Dual
Control was established. The separate autho-
rity of France terminated with the English
Occupation ; but the influence of France,
manifested by the presence of numerous
French officials, by the use of French as the
official language of the Government, and by
the adoption of French law and procedure as
the basis of the Egyptian Codes, remained
almost undiminished during the early years
of the British control. Moreover, the joint
authority of the Powers, as represented by
the International Administrations and Courts,
and by the general control exercised over the
financial policy and fiscal methods of the
Egyptian Government by virtue of the Law
of Liquidation and Subsequent International
Agreements—to say nothing of the body of
privileges enjoyed by European residents
under the Capitulations—remained, in theory
208 EGYPTIAN CIVIL SERVICE
at least, unaffected by the military occupation
of Egypt by one of the Powers in question.
In short, the authority of Great Britain,
being exercised by way of a control over the
Egyptian Government, is subject to the limit-
ations which it found already imposed upon
that Government by the previous action of
the Powers.
The analysis of the composition of the
Egyptian Civil Service, given by Lord
Cromer in his Report for 1898, affords a
practical demonstration of the part which is
played by the International Authority thus
established in the Administration' of Egypt.
From this analysis we find that it is only in
the departments of the Administration which
are actually subject to the Egyptian Govern-
ment that the English officials hold the most
responsible posts, and the great mass of
the remaining officials are native Egyptians.
In the International Administrations the
majority of the European officials are not
Englishmen, and in some among them the
number of Egyptians employed is insignifi-
cant. A few figures taken from the returns
will serve to give precision to this statement.
Excluding the War Office and the rank and
file of the police, II,870 officials of various
grades were employed in 1898. Of this total
Io,6oo were Egyptian, and I,270 European ;
and of these latter, 455 were British, 263 were
BRITISH OFFICIALS 209
French, and the remainder was made up of
Italians, Greeks, Germans, Austrians, and
others. Looking at the composition of
the three grades into which these officials
are divided, we find that of IoA Europeans of
the highest grade (i.e., receiving more than
24, E70 per month of pay) 47 were British and
19 French ; and that of 202 European officials
of the middle grade (i.e., receiving from 26 E30
to 24, E70 per month) 92 were British and 58
French. Again, if we look at the composition
of officials in the departments, we find that the
Department of Finance employs 37 Europeans
and 513 Egyptian officials, and that of the 37
Europeans 13 are British ; also that the
Department of the Interior, which includes the
officers of police, employs Io.2 European and
784 Egyptian officials, and that 62 of these
Europeans are British. Similarly in the Public
Works Department (exclusive of the Ghizeh
Museum) and in the Native Tribunals the
responsible posts are held by British officials,
while the mass of the officials generally are
Egyptian. In contrast to these departments
we find among the International Administra-
tions that the Mixed Tribunals (including the
judges) give employment to 242 Europeans and
IoI Egyptians, and that of these Europeans 17
only are British subjects. The staff of the
Caisse de la Dette is even more exclusively
“international.” It consists of 50 Europeans
I5
2 Io INTERNATIONAL BOARDS
and Io Egyptians, and of the Europeans only
two are British subjects. •
Two significant conclusions are to be draw
from these figures. (1) The International
Administrations constitute a lever, which can
be used by any Power or Powers adverse to
England, to impede or obstruct the work of .
reform which is being accomplished by the
British officials; and (2) owing to the pre-
ponderance of French officials, the machinery
of the International Authority is to a large extent
controlled by France. When we remember that
as a matter of fact this machinery has been
persistently employed by France to obstruct the
action of the Egyptian Government under
British advice, our admiration at the moral and
material advance in the condition of the country
already secured is increased, and our sense of
the merit of the British officials from Lord
Cromer downwards is deepened and intensified.
As it is, although the opposition of France in
general has been overcome by the ability and
foresight of Lord Cromer, with the prestige of
the military occupation at his back, many
necessary reforms have been delayed, and some
opportunities of obtaining financial relief have
been altogether lost, through the employment of
the International Authority by France to serve
her own political ends. -
In view of this situation it is obvious that
what is required is so to modify the agencies
THE MIXED TRIBUNALS 211
of the International Authority that the progress
of Egypt may be uninterrupted in the future.
Of these agencies the Mixed Tribunals and the
Financial Control have been used with most
sinister effect.
As regards the first of these, there is a
prospect that the object which Lord Cromer
has pursued for some years has at length been
obtained. That object was to make the Mixed
Tribunals non-political. As we have already
seen, modifications have already been intro-
duced by the International Commission
appointed to consider the reforms required by
the Egyptian Government, by which it is hoped
that the “invading spirit" of these Courts will be
checked, and that future conflicts between them
and the Egyptian Government will be prevented.
The present attitude of Lord Cromer towards
the Mixed Tribunals is explained in the
following statement, which appears in his last
report. It contains so important a declaration
of policy that I give it in full.
“However necessary discussions such as those
which have been going on for the last two years
about the Mixed Tribunals may be, they are
inevitably accompanied by some disadvantages.
They unsettle the minds of important sections
of the community. They arouse suspicions
that intentions exist to create a state of things
which will render the continued existence of the
institution impossible. In reality, there never
2 I 2 LORD CROMER'S ATTITUDE
was the least foundation for these suspicions.
In my Report for the year 1897 (Egypt No. 1
1898, p. 29) I stated: ‘Whatever may be the
defects of these Courts, there can be no doubt
that they have rendered great service to Egypt,
and that their sudden disappearance would
cause a serious dislocation of Egyptian affairs.
Their continued existence is, therefore, on
every ground to be desired. I hope and
believe that it may be insured by friendly
discussion of the issues now pending.’
“Now that the recent negociations have
been brought to a close, it is greatly to be
hoped that, for some time to come, no
occasion will arise for discussing any organic
changes in the constitution or jurisdiction of
the Mixed Tribunals. The Judges will thus
be able to perform their judicial functions
free from apprehension that the existence of
the institution to which they belong is
threatened, whilst the public will gain that
confidence in the stability of the Law Courts
which is essential to the Orderly conduct of
civil and commercial affairs. I see no reason
why irritating discussions of the nature to
which I have alluded above should not be
avoided, but the risk of raising them will be
greatly enhanced if two conditions are not
fulfilled. The first of these conditions is that
the judges should adhere strictly, not merely
to the text, but to the spirit of the law which
regulates their attributes. So long ago as
POLITICAL LAW SUITS 2 I 3
1880, Baron de Ring, who was then French
Consul-General in Egypt, said: ‘On ne
saurait, je crois, nier que la Cour se soit
montrée animée d'un esprit trop envahis-
sant,’ and it can scarcely be doubted that the
tendency to enlarge the sphere of action of
the Mixed Courts has been steadily on the
increase since these words were spoken. It
is natural that the Egyptian Government
should resent encroachments of this nature.
I trust that I shall not be wanting in respect
to the judges in alluding briefly and in no
unfriendly spirit to this point.
“The second condition is that everything
that is possible should be done to avoid
political law-suits. Looking to the constitu-
tion of the Courts, and to the somewhat
heated political atmosphere of Egypt, it is
obvious that the Mixed Tribunals are very
far from being a suitable body to decide a
question such as that which was brought
before them in 1896. These political law-
suits place the judges themselves in a very
difficult and invidious position. They are
asked to decide questions which are wholly
foreign to the issues usually submitted to a
court of justice. Whatever their decisions
may be, they can scarcely fail to excite
criticism of a nature calculated to impair that
authority which the most important tribunals
of the country should possess.”
* Egypt No. 1 (1900).
214 FINANCIAL CONTROL
Under the existing relationship of the
Egyptian Government to the Powers—a
relationship founded upon the Law of
Liquidation—the dissent of any one Power
is sufficient to prevent the adoption of a
financial proposal affecting the Debt to
which the remaining Powers may have
given their approval. The virtual right of
veto, thus constituted, has been persistently
exercised by the French Government, and it
is scarcely to be expected that the attitude of
France in this respect will be changed in the
future.
In order to understand the disastrous inter-
ference to which the Egyptian Government
is thus exposed, it is necessary to refer again
to the intricate system of Egyptian finance.
It will be remembered that under the Law
of Liquidation (1880) the revenues of Egypt
were practically divided into two portions, of
which one was “assigned ” to the Caisse de
la Dette for the service of the Debt, and the
other was left to the Egyptian Government
to defray the costs of the Administration.
This arrangement was modified by the Con-
vention of London (1885), under which the
Egyptian Government was in effect permitted
to utilize the surplus of the assigned revenues
for such administrative expenditure as was
“authorized " by the Commissioners of the
Debt. It was further arranged that the
RESERVE FUNDS 2 I 5
Egyptian Government should be entitled to
retain one-half of the nett administrative
surplus obtained in any year, the other half
being handed over to the Caisse. As the result
of these arrangements two Reserve Funds were
formed. One, the General Reserve Fund, consists
of the annual surpluses provided by the assigned
revenues after the interest and sinking fund of
the debt have been satisfied, and after the
authorized expenditure has been defrayed, with
the addition of one-half of any Government
surplus. These annual accumulations are
invested by the Commissioners of the Caisse,
and it is out of this fund that grants have been
made from time to time to the Egyptian
Government for specified expenditures of a
reproductive character beyond the annual
authorized expenditure permitted by the
Convention of London. The second fund, the
Special Reserve Fund, is formed of that portion
of the annual administrative surpluses which the
Egyptian Government was entitled to retain at
its disposal; and this fund has been used to
assist in the payment of the cost of the military
expenditure in the Sudan, among other objects.
In addition to these two reserve funds, a third,
styled the “Conversion Economies,” was formed
after the conversion of the Privileged Debt in
1890. In this year the Privileged Debt was
converted from 5 to 3% per cent, and the Daira
Sanieh Loan was reduced by a similar operation
216 ACCUMULATED SAVINGs
to the extent of 15 per cent. of its capital
amount. Two small loans, previously obtained,
were consolidated with the Privileged Debt, of
which the nominal amount was raised from
A 22,296,000 to 2629,400,ooo; but, notwith-
standing this increase in the capital sum, the
reduction in the interest effected an annual
saving of 24, E314, ooo.
This operation, as affecting the Debt,
required the consent of the Powers. France
opposed the proposal, but finally gave way on
condition that the annual savings thus effected
should be accumulated in the hands of the
Commissioners of the Debt, and that the fund
so accumulated should not be applied to
any purpose without the consent of the
Powers. Here then was another fund due to
the financial success of the Egyptian Govern-
ment, and to the increased prosperity of Egypt,
which has been even more rigorously locked
up than the surplus of the assigned revenues.
At the end of 1889, the General Reserve
Fund amounted to 4 E3,523,000, out of which
A E2, 182,000 was pledged for special expendi-
tures; the unpledged balance, AEI,341,000,
being 4 E541,000 in excess of the 4 E8oo, Ooo
fixed by international agreement as the
minimum unpledged balance of the fund.
The Egyptian Government has been allowed
to avail itself more freely in recent years of
the accumulations of the General Reserve
Fund. Nevertheless, the fact remains that
LORD CROMER'S PROTEST 217
both here and in the Conversion Economies
large sums of money are locked up, which
might be employed legitimately on repro-
ductive works and on fiscal relief that
would stimulate the industrial prosperity of
the country.
One significant example is presented by the
Nile Reservoir. In the case of this necessary
and beneficial work the Egyptian Govern-
ment was compelled, as we have seen, to
make an expensive arrangement for deferred
payment, merely because the Conversion
Economies could not be applied to this object
without the consent of the Powers.
Last year the Egyptian revenue reached a
higher figure than any previously recorded
since the date of the British Occupation. In
conjunction with this fact, Lord Cromer takes
the opportunity of making a weighty protest
against the continuance of a system of
international control which prevents the
Egyptian Government from reaping the fruits
of its own administrative success, and delays
the social and industrial progress of the
inhabitants of Egypt :—
“The accounts of 1899 show the following
results :- 4 E
“Revenue ... gy tº º ... I I, 4 IS, COO
“Expenditure... * @ e ... I I, O.I.3,OOO
Surplus ... 4O2,OOO
Tºº-
2 I 8 ARTIFICIAL FINANCE
“The revenue reached the highest figure yet
recorded since the British Occupation com-
menced. Customs, railways, stamps, the post
office—in fact, all the heads of revenue which
increase with the growing prosperity of the
country—show a satisfactory degree of expan-
sion and elasticity.
“Two large items are included on the
expenditure side of the account, viz.:-
“Conversion of the Debt Econo- 4 E
mies ... e Q ſº © o e 265,000
“Paid to the General Reserve
Fund • e e e tº e ... 759,000
Total ... 1,024,000
“On the other hand, a sum of 4 E216,000
figures on the revenue side of the account,
being the contribution which it was arranged
some while ago with the Commissioners of
the Debt should be paid from the General
Reserve Fund to make good the loss incurred
by reducing the land tax.
“It is perhaps desirable that I should
explain somewhat further the meaning of
these remarkable figures. They mean that
an artificial system of finance, which origin-
ated under circumstances long since obsolete,
obliged the Egyptian Government to take
from the pockets of the taxpayers in 1899 a
sum of no less than 4 EI, 2 Io,000–or, if the
EVILS OF THE SYSTEM 219
surplus really at the disposal of the Egyptian
Treasury be excluded, 4 E808,000—more than
was necessary to bear the total charge both of
interest on the debt and the cost of adminis-
tration.
“Many instances may be cited of govern-
ments whose finances are, or have been, in an
embarrassed condition. Egypt, so far as I
know, is an unique example of a country,
the financial position of which is extremely
prosperous, but which is debarred by Inter-
national Agreement from benefiting to the
full extent possible from its own prosperity.
Year by year, as the large sums now accumu-
lating in the hands of the Commissioners of
the Debt grow in amount, the anomalies—to
use no stronger term—of the present system
become more and more striking, and more
and more injurious to those in whose interests
it was, in the first instance, presumably created.
It is difficult to believe that such a system
will be allowed to continue for an indefinite
period.”
The task which lies before British statesman-
ship in Egypt is therefore to free the Egyptian
Government from the injurious system of
financial control at present exercised by the
Powers.
It may be hoped that in this work the
British Advisers will secure the co-operation
of the present Khedive, Abbas II., who
22O ABBAS HILMI
succeeded his father, the Khedive Tewfik, on
January 7th, 1892. The accession of Abbas
Hilmi was followed by a movement of revolt
against the British Control, and the early
days of the young Sovereign were marked by
some stormy controversies with Lord Cromer.
Since these early days, however, the relations
between the British authorities and Abbas II.
have improved. On the one hand the British
authorities have spared no pains to exhibit the
young Khedive to the people of Egypt as the
head of the State, and on the other the
Khedive has learnt to appreciate the value
of the services which England is performing
for Egypt, and to recognize that there is a
solid identity of interests between himself and
the representatives of the tutelary Power.
The visit which the Khedive paid to this
country in the summer of 1900—a visit from
which Abbas Hilmi is said to have carried
away pleasant impressions of England and the
English people—will no doubt tend to
strengthen the mutual good understanding
which should secure the continued prosperity
of Egypt.
IND E X
. NoTE. – Where a subject is treated in several flages con-
secutively, only the number of the ſºrst page is given.
A
Abbas I., 36, 39.
,, II., 219.
Abercromby, 32.
Abu Klea, 94.
Affafit, 193. -
Aird and Co., Messrs, I31.
Alexander, I5.
Alexandria, 16, 18, 25, 3I, 37.
9 y bombardment of,
68.
Alexandria (indemnities), Ioa.
Ali, 23.
Amru, 25.
Arabi, 66, 72.
Army, Egyptian, 66, 84, 192.
Assembly (General), 79.
Assuan, 3, I3O.
Atbara, battle of, IQ5.
Athanasius, I7.
B
Babylon, 25, 27.
Baker, General, 84, 89, 92.
Bankruptcy law, I43.
Barrage, the, II8, I2O, I28.
Beaconsfield, Lord, 52.
Bellefonds, Linant de, 47.
Berber, IQ4.
Blignières, M. de, 67, IoA.
British Advisers, 82.
,, Agent, 83.
,, Control, 73, II2, 208.
,, Occupation, 66.
,, Policy, 65, 69, 74, 88,
II2, I62, 2I7.
British Policy (fiscal), 170.
Byzantine (period), 17, 25.

C
Cairo, 28.
Cairo (Old), 28.
Caisse de la Dette, 57, Io9,
III, I27, I29, 134, I4o, I76.
Calendar, I4.
Capitulations, the, 56, II4,
cºsºe (E
Ulv11 Servl Ce ( lº tian), 208.
Cleopatra, 5. gyptian)
J3; Pasha, 151.
Colleges, see Schools (special).
Colvin, Sir Aukland, 59, 83.
Constantinople, 17.
Constitution (of Egypt), 56,
78, 82.
Consular (courts), 136.
Conversion Economies, 215,
See Debt, Privileged (con-
version of).
Copts, 18, 26.
Corbet, Mr. E. H., I51.
222
Corvée, 8o, 172.
Cotton, 37, II?, I25, 180.
Council, Legislative, 78.
of State, 81.
Councils º 81, 182.
y p town), 182.
Cromer, Lord, 83, 87, 91, 97,
IO4, I4O, I7I, I77, 2CO, 2II,
2I7.
Cyril, 18.
- D
Daira Sanieh, 62, 181.
Damascus, 24, 27.
Debt (of Egypt), 44, 55, 60,
I89, 2I5.
Debt, Consolidated, 61.
,, Daira, 62.
,, Domains, the, 62.
,, Privileged, the, 61, 189.
y y 3 y ! 2 (conver-
sion of), I28, 131, 215.
Debt, Unified, the, 61, 189.
Delta, the, 7, III, I2O, I78.
Dervish (Pasha), 68.
Dervishes, 89, 194.
Domains, Administration, 62,
I8I.
Dongola, 94, 193.
Drainage, I34.
Dual Control, 59, 64, 67, 73.
Dufferin, Lord, 73, 77.
E
Earle, General, 93.
Eastern Question, 49.
Education, I53, 188.
3 y (cost of), 16I.
Egypt (ancient), I.
, (physical), 7, 41.
,, names of, 7.
El-Obeid, 87, 198.
El-Teb, 92.
Emin Pasha, 95.
England (and Egypt), 32, 36,
40, 49, 52, 58. See also
British Policy, Control, etc.
English (language), I43, 162.
Eudoxus, I4.
Evacuation of Egypt, II2.
INDEX
Expenditure (authorized), Io9.
Exports (of Egypt), 126.
JR
Fashoda, 197.
Fatima, 24.
Fatimite (Khalifs), 24, 28.
Fayum, the, II?, 130, 178.
Fellahin, 41. -
2 y (indebtedness of),
I85.
Fellahin (soldiers), 71, 193.
Financial Adviser, 83, IoI.
J. J. System, Io9, 131,
2I4, 218.
Foreigners (in Egypt), see
Capitulations.
Fostat, 27.
France (and Egypt), 38, 48,
58, 207.
France (opposition of), IoS,
II.4, 2IO, 2I4.
G
Gama, Vasco da, 30.
Garstin, Sir William, 133, 203.
Germanicus, I.
Girls (education of), 169.
Gordon, General, 90, 95, 196.
p > College, 202. v.--
Goschen, Mr., 58.
Graham, General, 92.
Granville, Lord, 73.
Greeks (and Egypt), 4, II, 15.
Grenfell, General, 192.
Guaranteed Loan, IoS, III.
H
Hegira, 21.
Heliopolis, 14.
Herodotus, 4.
Hicks, General, 87.
Hunter, General, 194.
Hyksos, Io,
I
Ibrahim, Pasha, 36.
Industries, 180.
Industrial development, 174,
International Administrations.
See Mixed Administrations.
INDEX
International Control, 57, 206.
$ 2 $ 3 (evils
of), 2IO, 216.
International (Courts). See
Mixed Tribunals.
Irrigation, III, II6.
y 9 basin, II?.
y J. (perennial), II7,
I3O.
Irrigation Service, II6, I2O.
Islam, 2I.
Ismail (first Khedive), 43, 54,
59 J
Jehad (Holy War), 22, 70.
Jews, the (and Egypt), 5, II.
Joubert, M., 58.
Judges (Native), I45. g
Judicial Control (Committee
of), 145, I48.
Judicial Systems, 136.
Justice, I35.
K
Kassala, 195.
Kassassin, 71.
Khalif, 22.
Khalifa, the,
I98. r
Khartum, 35, 89, 95, 96, 196,
95, 193, 196,
2OI.
Khedive (title of), 54.
Kitchener (Lord), 193, 199,
2O5.
Koran, 20.
Kordofan, 87, 92, 198.
Kurbash, 84.
Kuttab, I64.
L
Labyrinth, 12.
Law, System of, 84, I49.
Lesseps, Ferdinand de, 46, 70.
Light Railways, 178.
Liquidation, Law of, 60, 75,
99, IO3:.
Lloyd, Clifford, Ioo, Io2.
Local Government, 182.
London Conference, IO4.
,, Convention of, Io'7.
223
M
Machell, Mr., 185.
McIlwraith, Mr., 148.
Mahdi (the), 72, 86.
Malet (Sir Edward), 83, 87.
Mamluks, the, 29, 34.
Manetho, 9.
Marchand, Captain, 196.
Markets (construction of), 179.
Maxwell, Sir Benson, 85, IO2.
Mecca, 19.
Medina, 2I.
Mekhemeh Sheraieh, 136.
Memphis, Io, 25, 29."
Mixed Administration, 63,
I75, 2IO.
Mixed Tribunals, 57, 136, 138,
2II.
Moeris (Lake), 3, 12, II?.
Mohammed, 19.
Mohammedan (Conquest), 19.
Mohammed Ali, 33, 37.
Moncrieff, Sir Colin Scott, 84,
IOO, III, I2O.
Monuments, 6.
Moses, 4.
Moslem, 21.
Mosque Schools. See Kuttab.
Mudir, the, IO2, 150, 183.
Mudiriyeh, 81, 182.
Municipality, 184.
N
Napoleon, 31, 32.
y 9 ., 48.
National Bank of Egypt, 185.
Native Tribunals, 136, 139,
I44. -
Navarino, Battle of, 35.
Neko (Pharaoh), 13.
Neumann, Charles, 96, 196.
Nile, the, 7, 203.
, , (Battle of), 32.
, , (Expedition), 93.
,, (Reservoir), 3, 130, 217.
Northbrook, Lord, IOA.
Nubar, Pasha, 89, Io9, I50.
224
O
Officials, British, 83, 206.
Omar, 24.
Omdurman, 96.
3 y Battle of, 195.
Organic Law, 77.
Osman Digna, 90, 193, 195,
I98.
Ottoman Empire, 56.
Overland route, 40, 46.
P
Palmer, Sir Elwin, 185, 186.
Palmerston, Lord, 49.
Papyrus, 9.
Parquet, 85, 150, 160.
Penal Code, I49.
Persia (and Egypt), II, 15.
Pharaohs, Io, 31.
Phoenicians, 4, 13.
Plato, 4, 14.
Police, 84, 15o.
Population (of Egypt), 135,
Powers, the (and Egypt), 55,
59, 60, 65, 68, 73, Io9, 2I4.
Prices (fall of), 173.
Priests, Egyptian, 14.
Prisons, 151.
Procureur-Général, 85, I51.
Progress, general (of Egypt),
I8
7.
Ptolemy, I6.
Ptolemies, 16.
R
Railway Board, 175.
Railways, Egyptian, 174, 178,
I88.
Railways, Sudan, 202.
Ramses (II., III.), II.
Reforms, 77.
Representative Government
(in Egypt), 82, 17I.
Reserve Fund, General, IIo,
I28, I77, 2I5.
Reserve Fund, Special, IIo,
2I5.
Revenue (of Egypt), 61, Io9,
- 2I7.
INDEX
Rome and Egypt, 16.
Rosebery, Lord, 76.
Rowlatt, Mr., I85.
S
Sahmi, Mahmud, 67, 72.
Said, Pasha, 40.
Saladin, 29.
Salisbury, Lord, II2, 197.
Saracens, 23.
y y (architecture), 30.
Schools (Government), 157.
,, Primary, 157.
,, Secondary, I58.
, Special, I59.
,, Mosque. See Kut-
tab.
Scott, Sir John, 145.
Seymour, Sir Beauchamp
Lord Alcester), 69.
Sherif, Pasha, 89.
Shiites, 24.
Sinking Fund (Suspension of)
IO3, IOS.
Slatin, Sir Rudolph, 96.
Stewart, General, 94.
Strabo, 4.
Suakin, 89, 193.
Sudan, 35, 37.
,, Administration of, 199
,, Agreement, 198.
,, Governor-General of,
T99,
Sudan, Loss of, 86.
,, Recovery of, 191.
Sudd, the, 203.
Suez Canal, 43, 45.
9 (neutralization of),
53.
Suez Canal (and Arabi), 70.
Sugar, II7, 180.
Sultan, the (of Turkey), 33,
54, 65. * * * . *
Summary Jurisdiction, 145.
Sunnites, 24.
Suzerain (power), 56, 65, 68,
II2,
Syene, 3.
INDEx
T
Tamanieb, 92.
Taxation, 79, 187.
. . ; relief of), 172.
Tel-el-Kebir, 71.
Tewfik (Khedive), 59, 66, 220.
Thebes, 2, Io.
Theodosius, 18.
Tokar, 92.
Toski (Battle of), 193,
lun, 28.
Turkey, Sultan of, 33, 56.
Turks, 29.
University (El Azhar), 30,
I53.
*::, … ', ,” .
}}- # *
* . . . . .
ſ
225
V
Venice, 30.
Vincent, Sir Edgar, Ioo, Ioz.
W
Waghorn, Thomas, 46.
West, Sir Raymond, 144.
Wilson, Sir Charles, 94.
Wingate, Sir Reginald, 198,
2O S.
Wolseley, Lord, 71, 93.
Wood, Sir Evelyn, 84.
Wolff, Sir Drummond, 113.
- vº.
16
By the same Author.
“THE REDEMPTION
OF EGYPT.”
352 pp. extra feap. 4to, with 4 Illustra-
tions in Colour, 20 Full-page and 7o Text
Illustrations from sketches by the Author.
“As a manual and guide-book of Egypt and
its “redemption' by this country, Mr. Worsfold’s
book, which is in every respect a delight to the
eye, is without a rival.”—The Spectator.
PRINTED BY
R. O. HEARSON, LTD., 15 & 17, CREECHURCH LANE, LONDON, E.C.
miſſil
tº a six "-wicz
JAN 3 1939
t] ºv. C. § 33 tº ri.
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