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 TWO YEARS 
 
 OF 
 
 BRITISH INTERVENTION 
 IN EGYPT. 
 
 A LETTEE 
 
 TO 
 
 THE MARQUIS OF SALISBURY, KG. 
 
 BY 
 
 W. T. MARRIOTT, Q.C., M.P. 
 
 ftontton : 
 SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON, 
 
 CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET. 
 
 1884. 
 
 [All rights reserved.] 
 
 Price Sixpence.
 
 LONDON : 
 
 feinted by gilbert and kivington, limited, 
 st. john's squaee.
 
 TWO YEARS OF BRITISH INTERVENTION 
 
 IN EGYPT. 
 
 Dear Lord Salisbury, 
 
 While many members of the Legislature have been 
 devoting the short parliamentary recess to " demon- 
 strating" about a new Reform Bill, concerning the 
 main principle of which there is no dispute, and which 
 would quickly become law if her Majesty's present 
 advisers would act up to the professions they made 
 prior to 1880, I have been spending some of the time 
 in Egypt with the view of finding out from personal 
 observation the effect of English intervention in that 
 country. Important as a new Suffrage Bill must 
 necessarily be, and beneficial as would be any complete 
 measure extending household suffrage to the counties, 
 and so arranging the distribution of seats as to give a 
 fair proportion of political power to the labourers in 
 the country and the artisans in the towns, yet at this 
 particular juncture I feel certain that the Egyptian 
 question is of far more importance, affecting as it does, 
 not merely the happiness and well-being of the five-and- 
 a-half millions of inhabitants of Lower Egypt and the 
 eleven millions of Upper Egypt, but to a greater degree 
 the vital interests of all classes in our own country, and 
 the reputation, and perhaps even the very stability, of 
 the Empire itself. 
 
 Ample information on the subject can doubtless be 
 found in Blue Books and in the letters and telegraphic 
 communications to be seen in the leading journals, but 
 it is difficult to realize the real state of affairs, unless 
 the scene of action is visited ; and without pretending 
 to add to information that already exists, I simply 
 
 A
 
 propose in this letter to give my own personal im- 
 pressions of what I have seen and heard. During my 
 month's stay in the country, I devoted every day to 
 the acquisition of knowledge, seeing and conversing 
 with (often by means of an interpreter) people of all 
 classes and nationalities, and visiting myself prisons, 
 courts of justice, schools, hospitals, and villages and 
 country districts, and gaining information, wherever 
 possible at first hand. 
 
 Generally, in visiting foreign countries, and in in- 
 quiring into the effect of certain modes of action there, 
 different and varying impressions are produced ; but 
 to an Englishman ascertaining the truth as to the 
 effect of English action in Egypt during the past two 
 years, the sole — certainly the abiding impression — is 
 one of absolute despair, despair alike at what has 
 been done, and what has been left undone, despair at 
 the splendid opportunities lost of rendering essential 
 services to civilization, and at the same time of sup- 
 porting the power and good name of our Empire ; 
 despair at the enormous sacrifices already made by 
 this country without any compensating gain, but with 
 loss, and despair at the almost greater sacrifices that 
 are now necessarily entailed upon us by the weakness 
 and want of foresight of our action in the past. 
 
 To one who, like myself, had not visited the country 
 for the last two years, the first thing that strikes one 
 is the essential difference in the estimation in which 
 England is held in September, 1884, to what she was 
 in September, 1882. I was present there myself 
 shortly after the victory of Tel-el-Kebir, and I well 
 recollect the enthusiasm, the spirit of gratitude, and 
 the high hopes for the future that then pervaded all 
 classes of people. Though before then serious and 
 grave errors had been committed by those in power, 
 and though in the early part of that year bitter resent- 
 ment was felt by many who had suffered by our reck- 
 less conduct in the bombardment of Alexandria, still, 
 the decided action taken by the Government after that 
 deplorable event, culminating as it did in Tel-el-Kebir 
 
 1 
 
 X 
 
 'acrif*'
 
 and the relief of Cairo were enough to condone past 
 mistakes. It was not merely the victories gained over 
 the Egyptian soldiers behind their intrenchments that 
 struck the imagination of the people, but it was the 
 rapid forced march, after the last battle, of the 4th 
 Dragoon Guards and the Household Cavalry to Cairo, 
 and the sudden appearance of Sir Herbert Stewart 
 with only thirty troopers in a city containing many 
 thousand hostile soldiers, fully equipped and supplied 
 with arms, guns, and ammunition, and having the 
 citadel and other strongholds in their keeping, and their 
 leader Arabi in their midst, that impressed the natives 
 with a sense of the courage and determination of the 
 English soldiers, and gave confidence and hope to all 
 the European inhabitants. From that moment the 
 whole country was in the hands of England, and an 
 opportunity for rendering inestimable service to civili- 
 zation, was offered to this country such as seldom comes 
 twice in a nation's history. It is no exaggeration to say 
 that the opportunity has been worse than lost. It would 
 have been better had it never occurred. England stands 
 in a worse position now than she did prior to Tel-el- 
 Kebir, and the condition of the Egyptian people is in 
 no respect better, and in some respects worse than 
 it was during the revolutionary period of Arabi' s 
 ascendancy. Things are for the present at a dead- 
 lock, and both amongst Europeans and natives dis- 
 content and dissatisfaction are everywhere prevalent. 
 People in England have no conception of the 
 intensity of the disgust and almost hatred felt by 
 Europeans and Egyptians towards their country in 
 consequence of the conduct of Great Britain during 
 the last two years. It is the one fact about which 
 there can be no two opinions. The unanimity of 
 feeling on the point is appalling. Were it confined to 
 the French there would be nothing surprising in it, 
 but Germans, Austrians, Italians, Greeks, Turks, 
 Egyptians feel and express it with equal bitterness. 
 Lord Northbrook must be well aware of it. Even the 
 English officials, whose interest it is to put the best 
 
 ^ 2
 
 6 
 
 appearance upon all matters, cannot deny it. It is 
 difficult to say whether in this feeling there is more of 
 contempt or of hatred. "A few years ago," said a 
 Scotchman who for over twenty years has been at the 
 head of one of the principal firms in Alexandria, " the 
 saying that an Englishman's word was as good as his 
 bond held true here. An Arab never thought of 
 doubting an Englishman's word. The Europeans 
 always believed in our national truthfulness. Now it 
 is all changed. Both Arab and foreigner say they 
 have been deceived. They declare our Ministers say 
 one thing and do another, and they show their distrust 
 of us by their conduct." A Pasha who has held high 
 office in the country, and whose character for honesty 
 and integrity stands equally high with Europeans and 
 Egyptians, said to me in the course of a long con- 
 versation, with an indignant emphasis and earnestness 
 that it would have been well for people at home to 
 witness, " You Englishmen think that all we Easterners 
 are liars. We are not. We have honest men 
 amongst us, Truth may not have been regarded so 
 much in the East as it used to be in the West, but 
 what are we to say now? What about English 
 Ministers ? Do they tell the truth ? We read the 
 astounding statements made by your Prime Minister 
 in your House of Parliament, and we know they are 
 false. Europe knows they are false, and nobody now 
 believes the promises you make. You say one thing 
 and do another. England's character for truthfulness 
 is gone." Testimony such as this might be multiplied 
 a hundredfold. It's all in one strain. There is no 
 exception. As an English official, who himself is in 
 receipt of 3000/. a year, said to me emphatically, 
 " There is no doubt about the matter. We are hated, 
 and what is worse, we are despised, and what is worse 
 still, we deserve it." 
 
 Such statements are not pleasant hearing for 
 Englishmen who have any regard for their country. 
 Considering the amount of English blood spilt and 
 English money spent avowedly for the good of Egypt
 
 and the Egyptians, it is rather hard to find that at the 
 same time our character is gone and our reputation 
 sacrificed ; but there is no doubt about the fact, and it 
 is only right that it should be known. 
 
 It may be difficult for Englishmen living at a dis- 
 tance of three thousand miles from the place to realize 
 properly the effect upon the feelings of the Europeans 
 of our action on the 12th of July, 1882, when our 
 fleet bombarded the fort of Alexandria, while no pro- 
 vision was made for the protection of the lives and 
 property of the Europeans in the town. It was an act 
 of barbarism committed by a civilized power — nay, by 
 one that boasts of being at the head of civilization. 
 When it comes to be related in history it will be almost 
 deemed incredible. When it is considered, the ease 
 with which life and property could have been protected, 
 the crime of neglecting" to do it becomes the more 
 startling. A thousand English soldiers, marines, or 
 blue-jackets, landed at the proper time, could have 
 saved Alexandria, and, in all probability, prevented the 
 necessity of any war. It is piteous even now to hear 
 how Europeans of all nationalities sent to the English 
 admiral to implore him to land men for their protec- 
 tion, and how he was compelled to reply that he had 
 " no orders," and that all he could do was to send down 
 boats to the shore to take off to the various ships such 
 of the Europeans as could succeed in getting there. 
 " No orders " from an English Ministry professing the 
 loftiest principles of Christian philanthropy, to save life 
 and property, but " orders " to their admiral, in cer- 
 tain eventualities, which unfortunately happened, to 
 bombard forts, with utter disregard of the number of 
 innocent lives that might be lost, and the amount of vain- 
 able property that might be destroyed. The disasters 
 which followed are now matters of history. At the time 
 there was in Egypt a European population of from 
 90,000 to 100,000 people, who, invited and encouraged 
 first by Mehemet Ali, and then by successive Vice- 
 roys, had settled in the country and introduced into 
 it the first germs of civilization. They were the
 
 8 
 
 brains of the country, and to their energy, industry, 
 and ability was due the progress it had made in 
 prosperity and wealth. They were the founders of 
 the new city of Alexandria, with its handsome streets 
 and fine squares ; and every village in the kingdom, 
 and every district in the country shared the benefits 
 produced by their business capacity and their com- 
 mercial enterprise. Is it wonderful that when the 
 first check to their hitherto prosperous career was 
 caused by the wanton act of Great Britain, and when, 
 as the result of that act they beheld their houses 
 laid low, their homes broken up, their property 
 scattered, their business destroyed, themselves often 
 reduced to want and poverty, while many of those 
 dearest to them were slaughtered with great cruelty, 
 that they should entertain feelings of the deepest re- 
 sentment against the Power that had caused all this 
 havoc ? It was, and is known there, as it is known 
 by all acquainted with the facts in England, that 
 had the most ordinary precautions been taken after 
 the occurrence of the 11th of July by those in 
 power, there would have been no burning of Alexan- 
 dria on the 12th or 13th of July, and no massacre 
 of Christians at Tantah, Kafr Zyat, at Mehallet 
 Abu Ali, or at Mehallet-el-Kebir. The ruins of 
 Alexandria, the thousands of stones piled in heaps 
 in the streets, the numerous vacant spaces where 
 buildings once stood, and the shattered houses and 
 roofless shops, still daily remind the inhabitants of 
 the scandalous action of this country. 
 
 Were the whole of the King's Parade at Brighton 
 laid in ruins, and were the goodly houses and the 
 gardens in the Grand Parade reduced to piles of 
 bricks, and were those who carried on business in 
 the shops and those who used to dwell in the houses 
 brought to a condition of want and poverty by the 
 loss of property valued in the aggregate at over 
 4,000,000/., some idea might be formed of the state 
 and condition of things in Alexandria. Human 
 nature is much the same everywhere, and the Euro-
 
 9 
 
 peans of Alexandria are, as Mr. Gladstone would 
 say, "flesh and blood " like the people of England, 
 and the resentment they feel against Great Britain 
 is not one whit greater than would be that of my 
 own constituents, or the members of any constituency 
 in the country, at those through whose negligence they 
 had suffered. 
 
 Yet after Tel-el-Kebir this would, quickly have sub- 
 sided had this country acted with common honesty. 
 Immediately after the incendiarism, after order had. 
 been restored by the never-to-be-forgotten pluck and 
 energy of Lord Charles Beresford and. his handful of 
 men, placards were posted all over the town stating 
 that those who had suffered should be indemnified. 
 The promise was made in the name of the Khedive, 
 but it was well known that it was given upon the 
 advice of England's representative, Sir Auckland Col- 
 vin ; and as England had caused all the damage, such 
 was then the belief in her intentions and good faith, 
 that no doubt was entertained by the sufferers but 
 that as soon as order was properly restored she would 
 see to their losses being made good. Great was their 
 confidence, and is it surprising that having found that 
 confidence misplaced, they should now give way to 
 feelings of hatred and contempt for the Power that has 
 wronged them ? For, incredible as it may seem, to this 
 very day the indemnity question is unsettled; 3272 in- 
 dividuals, whose losses in the aggregate amount to a 
 sum of 3,750,000/., are still unpaid. The distress 
 caused by this unreasonable delay is incalculable. The 
 suffering and privation is not confined to the 3272 
 persons themselves, for most of them have families 
 and relatives who suffer with them. Many have been 
 entirely ruined ; most have had to borrow money to 
 support themselves and their families till the indem- 
 nities are paid ; some have been compelled to sell 
 their rights to the sums awarded them at a loss of 
 from 30 per cent, to 40 per cent., while scarcely any 
 have been enabled to commence to rebuild their 
 shattered houses and start in business again.
 
 10 
 
 Ostensibly the English Government have done 
 nothing. Having absolute power, they have pre- 
 tended that they are not responsible, and that the 
 Egyptian Government, which is impotent, is respon- 
 sible. Instead of taking the matter vigorously in 
 hand, as was their bounden duty, and appointing a 
 judge, or two or more judges, with competent as- 
 sessors, to inquire into the matter at once, and settle 
 all claims with expedition, they have behind the screen 
 of the Egyptian Government adopted as dilatory tactics 
 as it is possible to imagine. 
 
 Doing nothing at all till January, 1883, they then 
 appointed a cumbersome Commission composed of 
 eleven individuals, three appointed by Egypt, i.e. by 
 ourselves, and one respectively by Germany, Austria, 
 France, England, Italy, Russia, America, and Greece, 
 and one jointly by Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Holland, 
 Portugal, and Sweden and Norway. It is very probable, 
 as has been alleged, that many of the Commissioners 
 considered themselves rather in the light of advocates 
 than of judges, and when claims of their own com- 
 patriots came before them they supported rather than 
 adjudicated upon them, and it would be almost 
 miraculous if in some cases too large sums had not been 
 allotted, and perhaps in others too small; while in some 
 few cases people may have got something who should 
 have got nothing ; but on the whole it is said by those 
 who ought to know, that the total sum awarded is not 
 excessive. The action of the Commission, as might 
 have been anticipated from its composition, was slow, 
 and of the 9843 awards they made, the last was made 
 on the 8th of March of this year, the total sum awarded 
 being 4,250,000Z. With the exception of half a million 
 of this sum paid to 6571 people whose claims were 
 under 200/., the rest is still unpaid, and though ample 
 information on the subject is to be found in Blue- 
 books already published, and though we have a Con- 
 sul-General and a host of other English officials 
 thoroughly acquainted with every detail of the matter, 
 and though the English Government were sufficiently
 
 11 
 
 informed to bring the subject before the Conference, yet 
 they have now sent ont a member of the cabinet to seek 
 for further information. Is it astonishing that people in 
 Alexandria should consider Lord Northbrook's mission 
 as only one of the many tissues of shams by means of 
 which the Government have endeavoured to gain time 
 and avoid action and evade responsibility ? The feeling 
 of mixed disgust and contempt at those who now hold 
 the reins of power is universal. I could produce an 
 array of witnesses, the burden of whose testimony is 
 exactly the same, and the only consolation is to know 
 that most of them have been interrogated by Lord 
 Northbrook himself. The following extract is taken 
 from the letter of one who has lived fifteen years in 
 Egypt, and it is only a specimen of many others : — 
 " The manner in which," he says, " the indemnity ques- 
 tion has been handled by her Majesty's Government is 
 inexplicable except on the supposition that they are 
 desirous of irritating the European colonies in Egypt; 
 and fanning the flame of discontent against English 
 rule. Take the great mass of Europeans in the country, 
 and I do not believe that one out of a hundred cares a 
 brass farthing about politics. If some arrangement had 
 been come to for the settlement of the indemnities, the 
 feelings of dislike and distrust with which we are 
 unfortunately regarded in Egypt would not have been 
 nearly so acute, and the raison-cV etre for the " Bosphore " 
 would not have existed." 
 
 In one of Mr. Gladstone's recent Scotch speeches 
 he laid down the admirable maxim that in foreign 
 affairs we should do unto others what we would 
 they should do unto us. If the electors of Mid- 
 lothian could only apply the moral, and consider 
 what their feelings would be if, through the negligence 
 of him they so recently received with ovations, some 
 30,000 of their relatives and townsmen were suffering 
 want and privation, and that they could get no redress 
 at the hands of hini who had caused it, they would 
 understand the state of feeling in Egypt, and attach 
 due weight to those maxims of philanthropy and 
 
 a 3
 
 12 
 
 aphorisms of moral duty they recently applauded 
 with such vehemence. 
 
 Though the distress caused by the non-payment of 
 the indemnities is, at the present moment, most keenly 
 felt, it is doubtful whether more real and more lasting 
 damage has not been done to this country by the 
 various declarations made at different times in Parlia- 
 ment and at public meetings by Ministers. Idle words 
 are often the sources of serious consequences ; but 
 it is doubtful whether any have ever been so disastrous 
 to a country as those used by members of the Govern- 
 ment with regard to their intentions in Egypt. Un- 
 certainty and insecurity are the enemies of business 
 and commercial transactions, and the declarations of 
 Mr. Gladstone, taken in conjunction with the actions 
 of his representatives here, have produced an amount 
 of uncertainty and insecurity which has paralyzed 
 business, and put a stop to all investments. Eng- 
 land's intentions are a mystery to all. Her actions 
 would lead people to suppose she intended to stay 
 in the country for a lengthened period, while her de- 
 clarations are always that she is about to leave. 
 "What does England want?" said a well-known 
 pasha to me — one who was educated in England, 
 having been six years at King's College, and who is 
 much respected. " Why not tell us like men. In 
 good old Lord Palmerston's days he said what he 
 meant, and an Englishman's word was everywhere 
 believed. But now, who believes your ministers ? 
 They say one thing, but do another. If you want to 
 protect us, do it. If you want to annex us, do it; but 
 do not go about in this mean manner, first applying to 
 Cherif and then to Nubar, but all the time concealing 
 your intentions, and doing great harm to our country. 
 You are ruining us, and we cannot understand how the 
 great and generous people of England allow it ! " This 
 is but a specimen of what is heard on all sides, and 
 the only consolation I could give those who so spoke 
 was that the great and generous people of England 
 were ignorant of their sufferings and their cause, and
 
 13 
 
 that if tliey really knew the state of things they would 
 be ashamed of themselves, and make short work of the 
 Ministers who had deceived them. 
 
 There are a great many highly- paid English officials 
 now in Egypt, and I feel sure that all, if applied to, 
 will corroborate these statements. One of them, Mr. 
 Caillard, the Director-General of the Customs, iu his 
 memorandum concerning the customs, administrations, 
 &c, refers drily to the fact, " that the commercial 
 and financial stability of the country had been rudely 
 shaken by the military revolt, civil war, the cholera, 
 and the still more fatal uncertainty as to the future which 
 has checlced all enterprise for the last two years." Revo- 
 lution, war, and pestilence are sufficient evils for a 
 country to be afflicted with, but in the opinion of one 
 of the ablest men of business in the Administra- 
 tion, the conduct of her Majesty's present ministers is 
 a greater evil still. 
 
 If ministers had been silent, people here would have 
 taken it for granted that they intended to stay in the 
 country for twenty or thirty years at least, for all their 
 actions tend to produce that conviction. There are cer- 
 tain reforms which might have b:en introduced here in 
 the space of two years, and when accomplished, the 
 results would have remained after our soldiers had 
 left the country. There are other reforms, which, 
 however good in themselves, would be certainly upset 
 the moment the foot of the last soldier had quitted 
 the country. The former class have been entirely 
 neglected, while to some of the latter an amount of 
 energy has been devoted which would be ludicrous 
 were not some of its consequences so serious. 
 
 Amongst the former are the mixed administrations. 
 Necessary as were the provisions of the Capitulations 
 at one time, and also of the mixed administrations for 
 the Railways, the Domains, the Daira Sanieh, and 
 the Public Debt, still there are evils necessarily con- 
 nected with them, to remove which would have bean 
 of the highest benefit to the country. The fact of 
 there being at the present time no less than seventeen 
 
 a 4
 
 14 
 
 distinct criminal tribunals before which the natives of 
 different countries are brought, entails many serious 
 consequences. When, for instance, two or more indi- 
 viduals of different nationalities, say, e.g. an English- 
 man, a Frenchman, and a German, are all implicated in 
 the same crime against a native, they cannot be tried to- 
 gether, but each has to be taken before his own consul. 
 The result is in nine cases out of ten a denial of justice. 
 In civil matters there are the mixed courts, and though 
 these are a great improvement upon the Consular 
 courts which they superseded, they are still very 
 imperfect, and afford ample scope for judicious re- 
 forms. But such administrations as the Kail ways, the 
 Public Debt Office, the Domains, and the Daira Sanieh, 
 and others having a mixture of foreigners with 
 equal powers, entail enormous needless expense upon 
 the country and work badly as well. The Railway 
 Administration, for instance, consists of three persons, 
 an Englishman, a Frenchman, and a Turk. The Eng- 
 lishman, who is president, receives 3000Z. a year, the 
 Frenchman, 2500/., and the Turk 1325Z. The having 
 three administrators of different nationalities entails 
 the necessity of having numerous clerks of different 
 nationalities, and all the official documents have to be 
 issued in English, French, and Arabic. This alone 
 entails very large, useless expense ; but this is trifling 
 to having a ruling body representing different interests. 
 Nothing can be done on the railway without the con- 
 sent of two of the administrators, and every cheque has 
 to be signed by two of them. The result can be 
 imagined. If the English administrator proposes an 
 improvement on the line, the chances are that the 
 French one will oppose it, and the Turk is always, 
 after the fashion of his race, in favour of doing 
 nothing, and the consequences are that few if any, 
 improvements are carried out. It is fortunate for the 
 railway embankments in many parts of the country 
 that the rising of the Nile has been very low this 
 year, otherwise they might have suffered very seriously. 
 At the beginning of the year attention was called
 
 15 
 
 to them by various employers on the railway, and 
 M. Le Mesurier, the president, was very anxious to 
 take precautions ; but he was out- voted by the Franco- 
 Turko combination, and the banks are now in many 
 parts in a wretched condition. In fact the whole 
 railway system is in a lamentable condition, and there 
 is no doubt in the world that the cause is the cross 
 and contending interests that prevail at the Board. 
 The importance of this to ourselves may be guessed 
 by a little occurrence that took place recently. Lord 
 Wolseley wanted to know what arrangements could be 
 made for the speedy despatch of troops up the various 
 railway routes. The English administrator of course 
 undertook to do what he could ; but he intimated to 
 Lord Wolseley that he could not expect any hearty 
 co-operation from his French colleague ; and it would 
 have been surprising if he could. The natural evils 
 of these mixed administrations are felt in the admi- 
 nistration of the Domains, the Daira Sanieh, and other 
 departments, causing as they do useless expense and 
 bad administration ; and yet the English Government 
 has not raised its little finder to make* any reform 
 in any one of them. In September and October, 
 1882, England could have done as she wished. She 
 had made great sacrifices to put down the revolution ; 
 all foreigners in the country felt deeply grateful to her, 
 and their ministers would have acquiesced in arrange- 
 ments abolishing these mixed administrations, the 
 evils of which all admit. Had we clone so, we should 
 have lessened expenditure greatly, improved the finan- 
 cial condition of the country, and rendered permanent 
 advantage to many departments, even after leaving 
 the country. What could at that time have been done 
 with ease can now only be done with difficulty ; but it 
 is a difficulty that must eventually be faced by those 
 who in the future rule the country. 
 
 If there was one subject more than another which 
 it would have been thought would have engaged the 
 attention of her Majesty's present ministers, it would 
 have been the condition of the working classes in
 
 16 
 
 Egypt, and, judging from the professions that abound 
 in their speeches, it might have been safely surmised 
 that no stone would have been left unturned for the 
 sake of bettering their status. Nobody can know 
 better than they do how intimately connected with 
 the prosperity and well-being of the artisans and 
 labourers in all countries is a proper system of taxa- 
 tion. Taxation should be so arranged as to weigh as 
 lightly as possible upon the poorest members of the 
 community, yet in Egypt the converse is true, and the 
 poorest are the most heavily taxed, while the richer 
 classes escape the most grievous burdens. I inquired 
 very carefully into the taxation of the population of 
 Cairo, numbering, as it does, 350,000 souls, and the 
 following statement was drawn up specially for me 
 by one well acquainted with the subject. In many 
 instances I was able to verify it, and I believe it is correct 
 in almost every detail. I give it at length as it was 
 given to me, as I think it will be read with interest 
 by many, and especially by members of the working- 
 classes. 
 
 Revenue deeived prom the Poor Classes of 
 
 Egyptians. 
 
 Wool-tax. 
 
 1. When a fellah (lit. cultivator, to cultivate is 
 " fellaha" in Arabic) clips a sheep and sells the wool, 
 he is mulcted of a portion of the purchase-money in 
 the form of a tax termed " inaks." (Makass, a tax- 
 gatherer ; probably market dues). 
 
 Stuff-tax. 
 
 2. When the wool is worked into stuff, and is sold, 
 another " maks " has to be paid upon it to obtain the 
 Government stamp, without which the stuff cannot be 
 sold. 
 
 Sale of cattle tax. Tax on provisions and fruit. 
 
 3. When animals, such as horses, camels, buffaloes,
 
 17 
 
 mules, cows, &c, are sold, the " maks " is collected 
 from the purchase-money at the time of sale; but 
 sheep, goats, geese, fowls, rabbits, pigeons, eggs, 
 butter, cheese, vegetables, in fact every form of human 
 food is charged an octroi duty when it enters the town 
 for sale. Fruit is also so treated, (the original value 
 of the fruit being doubled in town by this charge in 
 many cases,) which is hard upon a class for whom it 
 is a staple food, and prized luxury during the time of 
 its season. 
 
 Slaughter and weighing dues. 
 
 4. There are heavy slaughter-house and weighing 
 clues. 
 
 Taxes on date-trees and dates. Female trees only are 
 
 taxed. 
 
 5. Every date-tree is taxed as it stands in the 
 ground, and the dates are charged an octroi duty when 
 taken for sale into the towns. Only fruit-bearing palms 
 are taxed (not the male tree, which only inoculates 
 the female which brings forth. The inoculation is 
 done by hand labour, the pollen-flowered production of 
 the male being cat and shaken over or tied to the 
 female flower). 
 
 Salt-tax, 
 
 6. Salt is a Government monopoly, and every man, 
 woman, and child must purchase about 2s. worth a 
 year. 
 
 Tax on all working men's trades. 
 
 7. All employes of every kind, household servants, 
 ■water-carriers, carpenters, masons, smiths, handi- 
 craftsmen of all kinds that daily work for a daily bread, 
 pay to the Government a heavy annual tax for per- 
 mission to carry on their calling. 
 
 Horses, fyc, in towns pay tax. 
 
 8. Horses, donkeys, mules, &c, used in towns pay 
 tax.
 
 18 
 
 Dealers shop-tax. 
 
 9. All shopkeepers, down to the poorest dealer in 
 boiled beans in a tiny wooden shanty, have to pay a 
 heavy annual tax. Not so the Europeans. 
 
 « 
 
 Complaint stamped forms. 
 
 10. When a poor man wishes to present a complaint 
 to any official, it must be engrossed on a Government 
 stamped form, which he must purchase. 
 
 Taxes on fish anal fishermen. 
 
 11. Fishermen have to pay a heavy tax in the 
 following way : — They are not allowed to sell the fish 
 they catch. It must all be taken to the Government 
 Agent, who sells it to the fish salesman by public 
 auction, and who deducts from the purchase-money 
 the ratio due to the Government, and hands over 
 the remainder to the fisherman. Sometimes the finest 
 fish is taken out of their baskets before the sale, to 
 appear at the table of the "Mamoor," " Wakeel," 
 or " Bash-kateh" (local officials). 
 
 Boat-taxes at Nile bridges, Sfc. 
 
 12. There are very oppressive taxes taken at the 
 obstructions across the Nile, at bridges and barrages. 
 These taxes, it is said, amount to § of the entire 
 freight of the boats, leaving only J- for the profit 
 of the boatman (who acts as carrier merely). The 
 fish and boat taxes are particularly vexatious. 
 
 It is scarcely possible to read of these burdensome 
 taxes and exactions without wondering how the poorer 
 classes of the towns eke out an existence, and certainly 
 for those who wish and have the power to benefit 
 humanity there could not be a more beneficial field 
 for reform than in the table of tariffs enforced at 
 Cairo. Yet during the past two years nothing what-
 
 19 
 
 ever has been done to reform these almost unbearable 
 evils. There are two other matters which are also a 
 source of misery to the ignorant fellah, viz., the con- 
 fusion of the weights and measures, and the ever- 
 varying value of the bronze money ; and though the 
 former of these has been, I am told, under discussion, 
 nothing 1 whatever has been done, and the fellahs and 
 town poor are just as badly off after two years of 
 British rule as they were before it. There are other 
 subjects, such as the indebtedness of the fellaheen, and 
 the great mischief done to them and to the inhabi- 
 tants of the villages by the introduction amongst them, 
 by a low class of Greeks, of alcoholic liquors in the 
 form of a spirit called " akari," which might have 
 engaged the attention of a power that pretended to 
 have their interests at heart, but these remain 
 untouched. 
 
 Yet it is not as though 'the English Government 
 had done nothing. In some matters they have shown 
 extraordinary energy, and it is the energy they have 
 displayed in these matters that convinces the reflecting 
 portion of the population that whatever Ministerial 
 declarations may be, they still intend to remain in the 
 country. If they do not intend to stay for an indefi- 
 nite period, why, ask they, do they devote so much 
 time and trouble to the prosecution of so-called re- 
 forms, which must necessarily be undone the moment 
 they quit the country ? The question is an intelli- 
 gible one, and no satisfactory answer has been given 
 to it. For the changes the English Government have 
 bestowed all their vigour to bring about are not such 
 as are appreciated by either the governors or the 
 governed of the country, and the result of them up 
 to the present has been to increase the evils under 
 which the unhappy nation already groans. That the 
 changes themselves were well intended, I for one do not 
 doubt, but the attempt to force them upon unwilling 
 rulers and upon an unwilling people shows a strange 
 ignorance of the character of the population and the 
 history of the country, and they have been made in
 
 20 
 
 Egypt, as they have been attempted in other parts of 
 the Empire, with a reckless disregard of their effect 
 upon law and order. To interfere at any time with 
 the established order of government is a delicate 
 matter, and when the interference is by a Western 
 amidst an Eastern people, the greatest caution and 
 prudence are required. Egypt was not a new or 
 barbarous country before the epoch of British inter- 
 ference. Dating much farther back into antiquity than 
 ourselves, it had a civilization and a system of govern- 
 ment and sanctions of its own, and though there was 
 much in them that does not square with Western 
 ideas, still they fulfilled perfectly the primary object 
 of all government in preserving the peace, and esta- 
 blishing law and order on a firm and stable basis. 
 Divided as the country was into the governorships of 
 Cairo, Alexandria, and the Canal and its fourteen 
 Mudiriehs or provinces, each presided over by a Mudir 
 assisted by his agents, the Wekils, Nasir-el-Kissim, and 
 Sheikhs, the first and most important objects of 
 government were attained. The very essence of the 
 government was patriarchal, and the personal responsi- 
 bility of those entrusted with official functions. Just as 
 the Mudir was directly responsible to the State, repre- 
 sented in former times by the Khedive, but now by 
 the Minister of the Interior, so to him were respon- 
 sible the Wekils and Nasir-el-Kissim, and to them 
 again was responsible the village Sheikh. On occa- 
 sions all had to suffer pretty sharply for any lache 
 in their ministerial conduct, and the form of punish- 
 ment inflicted was the same to all alike, high or low, 
 rich or poor. 
 
 It was with this state of government that England 
 determined to interfere, and the two special reforms 
 to which it has devoted its entire energy are those 
 affecting corporal punishment and the prisons in 
 which offenders were confined. 
 
 There is probably no country in the world, certainly 
 none in Europe, where there is so much corporal 
 punishment as in Great Britain. In English schools
 
 21 
 
 the cane and the birch, and in Scotch schools the 
 tawse are almost in universal use, and garotters and 
 those who resort to violence, as well as all the in- 
 mates of our prisons, are subject to the cat-of-nine- 
 tails. Yet, with singular oblivion of the parable of 
 the mote and the beam, those representing England 
 in Egypt do not attempt to reform any abuses that 
 might be connected with corporal punishment, but by 
 a stroke of the pen entirely abolish the only form of 
 punishment known in the country from time im- 
 memorial. 
 
 A French writer has said that the English are more 
 affected by words than things, and undoubtedly his 
 remark is corroborated by the action of the Govern- 
 ment with regard to the courbash. What is called a 
 courbash was last session exhibited in the lobby of the 
 House of Commons, and no doubt it was a terrible 
 instrument, made out of the hide of the rhinoceros or 
 hippopotamus, and capable of inflicting great pain 
 and torture upon any part of the human body to 
 which it was applied with severity. That great 
 cruelties have been practised with it anfl with other 
 instruments of torture in Egypt is undoubted, and 
 every effort to prevent the recurrence of such bar- 
 barities should be warmly supported ; but to suppose 
 that the courbash was in general use is an error. 
 Though I should say, from my own judgment, that 
 most Egyptians are indifferent to the sufferings of 
 others, they are not as a race actively cruel, and 
 though the punishment they regard has always 
 been corporal, its infliction, in ninety-nine cases 
 out of a hundred, consists of a few strokes on the 
 feet with either a small strip of leather or a small 
 stick much like an English cane. The idea of bas- 
 tinadoing shocks Englishmen, and with perhaps well- 
 intentioned, but certainly misguided, motives, our 
 authorities have endeavoured to alter the locus in quo 
 for castigation. There can be no possible doubt that 
 if the question were submitted to the people of Egypt 
 as to the portion of the body of man or child that
 
 22 
 
 was best adapted to the stroke of the rod, or even 
 the courbash, they would one and all select the feet, and 
 for obvious reasons. By going about from childhood 
 with bare feet the skin of the feet is of extraordinary 
 thickness and hardness, so that they can run over the 
 sharpest and most pointed flints and stones with 
 impunity, and it is certain that twenty cuts upon the 
 feet of a fellah do not produce as much real pain as 
 six cuts on an English schoolboy's hand with a cane. 
 As for the cat applied to the back, as it is in England, 
 it is a hundredfold more cruel than the courbash 
 applied to the feet of an Egyptian, and those who 
 witnessed the floggings in Alexandria after the incen- 
 diarism there can testify to the fact. In July, 1882, 
 when those Arabs, who had been caught red-handed 
 pillaging and burning, first saw the cat, they ridiculed 
 and laughed at the harmless-looking little instrument ; 
 but the first lash on the first prisoner soon changed 
 their tune, and after the infliction of twenty-five cuts 
 they howled, writhed, and rolled in agony and acute 
 pain, with backs frightfully swollen and hacked, and 
 revolting to behold. Much as Englishmen pride 
 themselves on their philanthropy and their sympathy 
 with suffering, the fact is incontestible that our 
 punishments of all descriptions, including flogging, 
 are far more severe and terrible than they are in 
 Egypt. That in the latter country on certain oc- 
 casions there have been cases of cruelty and of torture 
 which would be impossible with us, is no doubt true, 
 and to prevent the recurrence of such barbarities a 
 system of inspection should have been instituted, but 
 instead of trusting to some such salutary reform as 
 this, those in power, with an utter disregard of con- 
 sequences, abolished capital punishment by one stroke 
 of the pen, with results that in some cases were ludi- 
 crous, but in others most serious, affecting the lives 
 and limbs of a large portion of the population. 
 
 The comical aspect of the effects of English zeal 
 against the courbash was illustrated in the convict 
 prisons. Convicts alone, that is those who are con-
 
 23 
 
 clenmed to travaux forces for five, seven, or fifteen 
 years, have to work in the prisons in Egypt; and the 
 work they have to perform, in addition to the fact that 
 the prisoners are always chained together by the ankles, 
 is the sole form of punishment they are subject to. 
 As soon as these gentlemen knew that flogging was 
 abolished throughout the land by the humane English 
 Government, they simply declined to work, and the 
 English Director of Prisons found himself in a dilemma, 
 to escape from which he has had considerable diffi- 
 culty. He applied at once to the present Prime 
 Minister, JNTubar Pasha, to have the decree of March, 
 1883, modified so that at least convicts who refused to 
 work might be whipped. But Nubar is fully pene- 
 trated with the English spirit of humanitarianism, and 
 was quite shocked at the suggestion of Dr. Crook- 
 shank ; and though he eventually yielded to the 
 demands of the Director, a serious discussion arose 
 as to what part of the bodies of the convicts should 
 be treated with the courbash. The Englishman, with 
 truly insular prejudice, would not hear of the feet 
 being touched ; and Nubar, for anatomical reasons I 
 believe, was equally resolute against the back being 
 the favoured spot; so a compromise has been arrived 
 at by the adoption of a veritable via media, and for 
 the future Egyptian convicts who will not work are 
 to be flogged with the courbash as English boys are 
 with the birch. It is certain that this reform will not 
 make England popular with the convicts. 
 
 But the serious effects produced by the inconsiderate 
 action of those who have abolished the only form of 
 punishment known in the land without being in a 
 position to substitute any other in its place is the 
 enormous increase in crime that has been caused 
 thereby. Egypt used to be one of the safest 
 countries in the whole world to live and travel in. 
 In the days of Ismail Pasha it used to be said that 
 travellers might walk from one end of his territory 
 to the other in perfect safety with only an umbrella in 
 their hands. After his deposition for some time people
 
 24 
 
 were as safe, and it was not till Arabi's pretensions 
 unsettled matters that life and property began to be 
 insecure, but never at any time has there been the 
 same want of security as has existed since the decree 
 abolishing the courbash was promulgated. Murders, 
 burglaries, brigandage, and assaults are now rife in the 
 country. Nubar Pasha and some officials attempt to 
 conceal them and to explain them away, but there is 
 no doubt about the facts, and the state of alarm 
 amongst the Europeans and the natives is very great. 
 In Alexandria many of the most influential members 
 of the European colony have had a meeting to devise 
 plans for protecting their lives and property in- 
 dependently of the Government. Every day I was in 
 the country I heard of cases of murder and of the 
 assaults of marauding parties. The prisons are so 
 full that there is not room for fresh prisoners, and 
 means are being discussed for clearing them of those 
 who were detained for trivial offences. Over two 
 thousand are awaiting their trial. I inquired of one 
 whose official duties connect him closely with the 
 criminal department what was the percentage of the 
 increase in crime during the last two years. His reply 
 was significant. He said, " It is not a case of per- 
 centage. Ten per cent.," as I had suggested, " even 
 " a hundred per cent., would not give you an adequate 
 " idea of the increase. Egypt used to be the quietest 
 " and most easily governed country in the world, and the 
 " freest from crime, whereas now there is more crime 
 "than in any country in Europe. No one lives in 
 " safety now in the country, and everybody is alarmed." 
 Another, after describing how some of his work-people 
 had been robbed and assaulted, said, " Can you 
 " wonder ? You English come to repair our house, and 
 " you begin by taking away the foundations, and you 
 "are astonished that the walls fall down." 
 
 It is a fact beyond dispute that our inconsiderate 
 and almost reckless interference with the powers and 
 functions of the Mudirs, and the attempt to abolish, at 
 a moment's notice, the only form of punishment ap-
 
 25 
 
 predated in the country, Las given a great impetus 
 to crime, and has caused throughout the land an 
 incalculable amount of misery and suffering. 
 
 Next to the courbash the prisons have received 
 the greatest attention at the hands of the English, and 
 room, as there undoubtedly is, for improvement in 
 these, the question at once suggests itself, what is the 
 use of our introducing English reforms unless we in- 
 tend to remain in the country for an indefinite period. 
 To suppose that either Turkish, Coptic, or Egyptian 
 officials will persevere with them after our departure 
 is too childish to think that the supposition can ever 
 have been seriously entertained. Even on the assump- 
 tion that, notwithstanding the repeated declarations 
 of Ministers, it is their intention to remain in the 
 country, people are at a loss to understand their object 
 in the changes they have introduced into prison life. 
 Is it, it is asked, in the interest of the prisoners, to 
 make their lives more endurable ; or is it in the in- 
 terests of justice, to make their punishment more 
 terrible ? The correct answer would be, in my opinion, 
 that the intention was to benefit the prisoners, but 
 that the result has been to make their lives more 
 miserable. 
 
 Prison life in the East, and in many parts of the 
 South, has always been a very different thing to what 
 it is in England and in colder climates. A hot climate, 
 producing, as it does, indolence and laziness, and a 
 feeling of laisser-faire, and dolce far niente,has affected 
 prison discipline, as well as other matters. In Egypt im- 
 prisonment simply used to mean deprivation of liberty. 
 The prisons consisted of simple rooms, some large and 
 some small, and most of them overcrowded. In 
 these receptacles all classes of prisoners were placed, 
 without any attempt at classification, old and young, 
 tried and untried, murderers, forgers, burglars, and 
 people accused or convicted of the pettiest thefts or 
 assaults. Their life was not a hard one. As an 
 abode, the prisons are infinitely superior to the houses, 
 or rather mud-hovels inhabited by the fellaheen
 
 26 
 
 or the town poor. Each has his mat upon which 
 to sleep, and they are allowed to talk and amuse 
 themselves as much as they like, and they are all free 
 from what they consider the curse of existence — work. 
 Their friends and relations could come and see them 
 several times in the day, and bring them whatever food 
 they pleased. They were allowed three hours' exercise 
 in the open air during each day. For insubordination, 
 or for any breach of prison discipline, they were sub- 
 ject to a flogging. On the whole, they had a very 
 good time of it — too good a time, certainly, according 
 to Western ideas. 
 
 The three reforms which have been introduced at 
 the instance of England are : — 1st, the abolition of 
 flogging; 2nd, the making their prisons clean; 3rd, 
 the preventing the relations coming to seethe prisoners. 
 Now, good as these reforms may be in themselves, it 
 is easy to understand that with the exception of the 
 first, they are not appreciated by the prisoners. In 
 former days the prisons used to be filthy. I visited 
 some of thern myself in 1882, and the difference in 
 point of cleanliness is most marked. Instead of being 
 foul and dirty to a degree, they are now very clean, pro- 
 perly whitewashed and painted and perfectly sweet, 
 and no doubt far more healthy than they were. Un- 
 fortunately these advantages are lost upon the natives. 
 They prefer dirt. They must be absolutely without 
 the sense of smell, and their mud houses are more 
 filthy than an English pigstye. They have no beds, 
 and in the summer generally sleep in the open air in 
 their accustomed blue shirt. In the winter the whole 
 family, divested of all clothing, huddle together on 
 the top of the mud oven, and by means of close 
 contact with one another, and the heat remaining 
 from the fire that has served to bake their bread, 
 they manage to keep themselves warm. On some of 
 the Domain lands a superior class of house was 
 built for the fellaheen, each house having two rooms 
 and a kitchen, and regular doors, fireplace, and glass 
 windows. The fellaheen of a certain village were
 
 27 
 
 placed in them, but when the agent returned in six 
 months to visit his model dwellings, he found the 
 inmates had built their mud cabins against the walls 
 of the new houses where they dwelt, and turned the 
 cattle into the houses. 
 
 Not appreciating, as a grateful people ought, our 
 sanitary reforms, they simply detest the one which has 
 deprived them of seeing their friends and relations. 
 There may have been cases in former times where 
 prisoners who had no friends or relations fared badly 
 as regarded food, though the chances are that their 
 fellow-prisoners would give them something ; but now 
 the State supplies certain rations for all, and relations 
 may still bring food, but it has to pass through the 
 hands of the gaoler, and it is doubtful whether the 
 prisoner gets all that is brought him; but what he 
 objects to is not seeing his relations. Instead of 
 visiting him every day, and often several times a clay, 
 their visits are now only allowed once a week, and 
 salutary as this rule may be according to our ideas, it 
 is not one that has increased our popularity in the 
 country. 
 
 It is doubtful whether the reform abolishing flogging 
 in the prisons is appreciated by any class, but it 
 is certain that it has rendered prison discipline 
 almost an impossibility. An occurrence which took 
 place on the first day of the present month ex- 
 emplified this, and it further illustrated the diffi- 
 culties inherent in the divided authority that now 
 prevails. That day thirty-two prisoners escaped 
 from Cairo gaol. As the doors were open for 
 bringing in food they made a rush, overpowered 
 the gaolers, and ran off. In the course of the 
 same evening eighteen were recaptured. I myself 
 visited the gaol next day with the Inspector- 
 General, Dr. Crookshank, who has laboured hard 
 against great obstacles, and who at this time was 
 deserving of all sympathy. He wanted to punish 
 the eighteen that had been recaptured, but to flog 
 them, he was told, was against the law, and as for
 
 28 
 
 solitary confinement there were no cells into which to 
 put them. Besides this the Chef du Parquet ap- 
 peared on the scene, and declared that nothing at 
 all could be done to them till they had been convicted 
 of escaping. To be sure, they had been taken red- 
 handed, and there could be no doubt as to their guilt ; 
 but such is now the Egyptian respect for law that a 
 prisoner must not be punished till convicted, and 
 hence the necessity of a proces verbal before a Judge of 
 First Instance, and then an appeal; so any punishment 
 they deserved must be postponed for at least eighteen 
 months. Poor Dr. Crookshank was in despair ; for the 
 prisoners, knowing his impotence, did their best to 
 annoy him, and some of them being aware that cleanli- 
 ness was one of the reforms he was bent upon, com- 
 mitted indecencies too foul to be recorded, and he had 
 no redress. He could not even punish those in charge 
 whom he thought to blame. Believing the sub- 
 governor of the prison was to blame, he sent down 
 an order for his immediate discharge, when a message 
 was sent back to say that the Procureur-General, Ohefik 
 Bey Mansour, had imprisoned the governor, and 
 made the sub-governor governor in his place. Such 
 was the state of affairs when I left, and how it ended 
 I do not know. I should think the prisoners will 
 soon try to escape again. 
 
 However excellent the reforms may be which England 
 intends to introduce into the prison arrangements of 
 Egypt, it is simply waste of time and money unless it 
 is her intention to have supreme power there for an 
 indefinite period. It is the interest of none to help us. 
 On the contrary, it is the interest of every under-official 
 to thwart us, for, if he assists, he knows what he will 
 have to expect from Turkish superiors when we leave. 
 Only very recently one who had been staff official 
 interpreter to Colonel Hayes at Tantah applied to 
 Mr. Gibbons, one of the head Police Inspectors, for 
 another appointment. Mr. Gibbons refused it him on 
 the ground that when there were something like seventy 
 people being subjected to torture in the prison of
 
 29 
 
 Tan tali by the then Mudir, he did not inform Colonel 
 Hayes of the circumstance, and the man at once ex- 
 cused himself on the ground that he did not know how 
 long the English were going to stay, and that he could 
 not be expected to sacrifice his whole future by helping 
 them. Every Egyptian official feels the same. English 
 officials know, and I have heard many express their 
 opinion on the impossibility of their expecting to obtain 
 co-operation from the natives. 
 
 The fact that the English Government has neglected 
 those reforms of Administration which in all proba- 
 bility would have been permanent after the soldiers 
 had left the country, and that they have devoted all 
 their energies to the prosecution of reforms which 
 must be futile in the event of England quitting the 
 country, is, in Egypt, considered a strange commentary 
 upon Ministerial declarations. Really, to our shame 
 be it said, it is regarded as only one portion of that 
 huge cloak of hypocrisy with which the Government 
 have endeavoured to conceal all their intentions — as 
 part and parcel of that vast system of fraud by which 
 in pretending to act solely for the benefit of Egypt 
 and the Egyptians, they have really been acting for 
 what they consider the interests of the British Empire. 
 
 Egypt for the Egyptians — Egypt to be governed 
 constitutionally like England with a genuine Parlia- 
 ment, a responsible Ministry, and a constitutional 
 Sovereign — how well it sounded little more than a 
 year back, and how glibly did Lord Granville on one 
 occasion discourse about it in the House of Lords. 
 What are the facts now ? Why, Egypt is as despoti- 
 cally governed as it was in the days of the Pharaohs. 
 Not only is there no Parliament, but the so-called 
 Ministry only contains one Egyptian. The following 
 composed the Ministry during my stay in the country, 
 and I give their nationalities : — 
 
 President of the Council^) AT x> ... / a™™ 
 
 j nr- - ± j? t j- JNubae Pasha (an Arme- 
 and Minister of Justice} • cw. • ± % \ 
 
 7 -n A i. . I man Christian). 
 
 and Foreign Affairs •)
 
 30 
 
 -n. f Mustapha Pasha Fehmi (a 
 
 Umancc A m n \ 
 
 ^ Turk). 
 
 t> it ttt i f Rushdi Pasha (a con- 
 
 Pubhc Works . . .| yerted Malte8e) : 
 
 WalJcf. .... Zschi Pasha (a Turk). 
 TFar .... Abdel Kadee, Pasha (a 
 
 Turk). 
 Public Instruction , . Mahmad Pasha Falaki (an 
 
 Egyptian). 
 
 Did these Ministers govern, and were they responsible, 
 the cry of Egypt for the Egyptians would appear a 
 mockery, but the mockery is greater, for these with 
 their one Egyptian do not govern, and therefore 
 cannot be responsible ; for at the present moment the 
 government of Egypt is despotic, and the despot that 
 rules is England, represented by her Consul- General, 
 Sir Evelyn Baring. 
 
 It is more than probable that for a country like 
 Egypt, which has always been governed despotically, a 
 despotic government for some time to come is the only 
 one possible ; but one thing alone makes a despotic 
 form of government tolerable, and that is, that it 
 should be a good government, conferring blessings on 
 the nation governed. It is a humiliating confession to 
 have to make, but there can be no doubt about the fact 
 that the present despotic government by England is 
 a bad one, inflicting evils instead of conferring benefits 
 upon the country governed. In what proportion the 
 blame for this is to be divided between the Home 
 Government and their representative, Sir Evelyn Baring, 
 it is difficult to say. 
 
 It is at all times an ungracious task to have to 
 criticize the conduct of an official functionary like the 
 English Consul-General in Egypt, but his mistakes 
 have been too glaring, and the consequences are too 
 serious for them to be passed over in silence. His has 
 been both for England and Egypt a most unfortunate 
 appointment. In an ambassador and diplomatist 
 tact and urbane manners are as essential as is
 
 oL 
 
 courage in the soldier; and yet in botli these 
 essential qualifications England's representative in 
 Egypt is singularly wanting. Pompous in his bearing, 
 and brusque and repellant in manner, Sir Evelyn 
 Baring would probably carry out a really good policy 
 in such a fashion as to render it unpopular. But 
 considering that the policy, if policy it can be called, 
 with which he has been associated, has been one of 
 weakness, timidity, and vacillation, it is not surprising 
 that he has succeeded in making himself and the 
 nation he represents more unpopular than language 
 can describe. To add to our country's misfortune, 
 France at the present time is represented by a sin- 
 gularly able diplomatist. M. Barrere possesses not 
 only a subtle intellect and a large knowledge of affairs, 
 and, what is of more consequence, of men, but he is 
 also endowed with exquisite tact and excellent man- 
 ners. The consequence is that England, with any 
 amount of brute force at her back, is comparatively 
 powerless before France, who, without any such force, 
 reaps all the benefit of it by the superiority of the 
 intellect of her representative. The continuation of 
 the Mixed Tribunals in their present form to the year 
 1888, and the adoption of the French procedure in 
 criminal cases, though they inflict serious evils upon 
 Egypt and damage the reputation of England, are 
 signal triumphs for French diplomacy. 
 
 But the most fatal, the almost irreparable, mistake 
 which Sir Evelyn Baring has committed was in ad- 
 vising, or even in any the faintest degree counte- 
 nancing the abandonment of the Soudan. It seems 
 astounding that any responsible minister in England 
 who knew anything of the country or of its history, 
 should ever have entertained the idea, but for one in a 
 responsible position in Egypt to entertain it and to 
 help to carry it out, is almost beyond belief. In Egypt 
 itself, amongst men of all classes and of all shades of 
 views, amongst Europeans, Turks, and Egyptians, 
 there is but one opinion, and that is that to give up 
 Khartoum and the Eastern Soudan, and to put back
 
 32 
 
 the boundaries of Egypt to Wady Haifa, is a retro- 
 grade step of the worst description, retarding and 
 checking a civilization, which, if not of a high class, is 
 preferable to barbarism ; introducing in the place 
 of order and settled government anarchy and a period 
 of revolutionary struggles ; absolutely ruining a 
 commerce and trade which for years has been in- 
 creasing and benefiting the people of Upper and 
 of Lower Egypt alike ; giving an impetus unparal- 
 leled in these days to slavery and the slave-trade, 
 and entailing upon Egypt the necessity of a large 
 and costly army. It is to undo the beneficial 
 work of the last sixty years ; and when the English 
 Prime Minister spoke of the slave-dealers of the 
 Soudan — men whose object in life is for pecuniary 
 gain to enslave their fellow-men with every species of 
 cruelty — as " warriors fighting for their freedom," he 
 not merely shocked all honest men in England, but 
 he produced an impression in Egypt which it will be 
 difficult to erase. " What are we to think of a nation 
 like England," they say, "which at one moment takes 
 so humane an interest in our worst criminals that she 
 will not allow them to be touched with a rod, while 
 at another moment she forces us to hand over millions 
 of our subjects to the horrors of the slave-trade." 
 Sherif Pasha has greatly strengthened his own posi- 
 tion in the country by declining to hold office if 
 Khartoum was to be given up. " No true Egyptian 
 will subscribe to the abandonment of Khartoum and 
 the Eastern Soudan. On this point there is only one 
 voice in the country — I should be unworthy of my 
 post were I to consent to an act I consider suicidal. 
 The British Government does not realize what is in 
 store for them." 1 
 
 1 The necessity of Khartoum to Egypt cannot be given better than 
 in the words of Sir Samuel Eaker, " Should the Soudan be lost to 
 Egypt, the telegraphic notice of the rising Nile daily chronicled at 
 Khartoum and forwarded to Cairo will no longer warn the authorities 
 of the approaching flood, and the Delta will be exposed to sudden 
 inundations. There will be no scope for future extension. The com-
 
 33 
 
 The not realizing the material consequence of their 
 acts of omission and commission has been the bane of 
 the British Government, and both England and Egypt 
 will suffer egregiously for it. Had the most ordinary 
 precautions been taken, had the common sense 
 advice offered over and over again to Ministers been 
 acted upon, there would have been no massacres at 
 Trinkitat, Sinkat and Tokar, no annihilation of the 
 armies of Hicks Pasha and Baker Pasha, no sanguinary 
 slaughter at El Teb and Tamasai, and no necessity for 
 the despatch of Gordon to Khartoum, or for the present 
 most costly and hazardous expedition for his relief. 
 In September, 1882, a few days after the battle of Tel- 
 el-Kebir the Madbi received a crushing defeat at El 
 Obeid ; and had the advice of Sir Charles Wilson and 
 others in authority been followed and a small detach- 
 ment of Indian troops sent to Khartoum, nay, had our 
 Ministers even declared that on no account would they 
 allow Khartoum to be abandoned, it is certain that 
 some forty thousand lives would have been saved and 
 England would not at this moment be wasting her 
 strength and her treasure upon a Soudanese expedition. 
 
 One other grave mistake fraught with serious con- 
 sequences has been committed under the regime of 
 Sir Evelyn Baring, in not merely reducing the present 
 Khedive of Egypt to a condition of impotency but 
 doing it in such a way that it is apparent to all his 
 so-called subjects. The position of Tewfik Pasha at 
 the present time is not an enviable one. Through 
 evil report and through good report he has been loyal 
 
 merce of the interior will cease in the absence of all security. The 
 prestige of Egypt and of England will have departed. The success 
 of a southern insurrection will be a dangerous example to the northern 
 provinces, and for all Arab tribes from Mecca to Damascus. No 
 Government can afford to lose power through insurrection ; it is the 
 first breach which precedes a general dislocation. A permanently 
 hostile frontier will entail upon Egypt the crushing necessity of a 
 large military organization."— Letter to the Times, January 1st, 1884. 
 Since published in pamphlet form by Macmillan and Co., entitled 
 "The Egyptian Question," p. 78.
 
 to England, and, as his reward, has been reduced to a 
 position where he has not even the semblance of power. 
 He will be more than human if lie continues as faithful 
 to England in the future as he has been in the past. 
 
 The net results of English intervention during 
 the past two years have been for Egypt the useless 
 slaughter of at least 30,000 of her people, the 
 battering and burning of her finest town and port, 
 the reduction to poverty and privation of some 
 thousands of its inhabitants, the diminishing the 
 value of her land, and the stoppage of business, 
 the increasing to an enormous extent throughout 
 her territory of brigandage, robberies, and murders, 
 the undermining of the authority of the Khedive 
 and of all his Ministers and Mudirs, the insur- 
 rection in the Soudan, the destruction of the 
 Egyptian army, and the reduction of the State to 
 bankruptcy, with a deficit of 8,000,0002., which cannot 
 be met without external aid ; — for England the loss of 
 many men and the expenditure of much money, and 
 with them the loss of reputation, character for honesty 
 and straightforwardness ; — and for Europe such ex- 
 asperation and indignation that Mr. Gladstone's dream 
 of a European Concert is realized, only it is formed 
 against ourselves, and the chance of a European war 
 are by no means remote. 
 
 What I have stated, are facts which cannot be 
 denied, and, grievous as they are, some allowance 
 might be made if they were the result of mere mistakes, 
 or even such a series of mistakes as in matters dealing 
 with distant lands may sometimes be made through 
 ignorance. But they are worse. They are the result 
 upon the part of those now in power, of an entire 
 want of political purpose, and an utter disregard of 
 moral principle, which, if persisted in, must inevitably 
 bring about the fatal ruin of the Empire. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone, in his recent speech on the strength 
 of England, tells us to " be just, and fear not." In 
 Egypt the conduct of the Ministers, over whom he pre- 
 sides, has been unjust to a degree, and they have
 
 35 
 
 trembled like aspen leaves before every breath of 
 foreign criticism. In one of his recent Scotch speeches 
 he expressed regret that foreign politics should be 
 treated as party questions. Strange as the sentiment 
 may sound in the mouth of the author of " Bulgarian 
 atrocities," it is a perfectly sound one, and as it is 
 culpable for an Opposition, for party purposes, to 
 thwart and oppose a right foreign policy, so is it 
 equally culpable for the followers of a Ministry for 
 party purposes to support a wrong and essentially 
 ruinous foreign policy. If the majority of those who 
 now sit on the Ministerial side of the House of Commons 
 do not oppose the Egyptian policy or no-policy of the 
 Government, they are sinning against light. 
 
 It is absolutely essential that the Government should 
 be compelled to state what is to be their policy both in 
 Egypt and the Soudan. The present state of un- 
 certainty is unbearable and injurious to all interests 
 concerned, and to keep it up for the sake of party 
 purposes is simply criminal. If the " rescue and retire " 
 policy of the Radicals is to be that of the Government, 
 let them say so at once, and humbly confessing that in 
 Egypt " they have done those things which they ought 
 not to have done, and have left undone those things 
 which they ought to have done," let them compensate 
 the Egyptians amply for the wrongs they have 
 inflicted upon them, and order our soldiers back to 
 England. If, on the other hand, they intend to 
 support the integrity of the British Empire, let them 
 acknowledge that supremacy in Egypt is essential to 
 it, and that while we are determined at all hazards to 
 support that supremacy, it shall be so done as to 
 benefit the English and Egyptian nation alike. 
 
 I beg to remain, dear Lord Salisbury, 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 W. T. MARRIOTT. 
 
 October 20, 1884.
 
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