The earlier difficulties of Ismail Pacha—Protest of the Sultan against the right of Egypt to negotiate loans—How the sublime Porte was bought over—The Khedive receives a firman confirming the succession in his own line—Arrival of Mr. Cave in Egypt to investigate the finances—Mr. Cave reports their hopeless condition—Interest of $25,500,000 to be paid on the debt out of a revenue of $45,500,000—The Moukabala—By advice of the English consul, England and France are asked to send two comptrollers of the debt—Arrival of Messrs. Goschen and Joubert—Ismail is forsaken by his friends throughout Europe—Fate of Sadik Pacha—The Khedive is sued in the International Court—Arrival of vast numbers of Englishmen to fatten on the Khedive—Native clerks all discharged from the administration—Civil and military officials suffer from non-payment of arrears—Ismail yields up his absolute power and becomes a constitutional prince—He gives up his national party—Nubar Pacha and his ministry driven from power—Ismail interferes to prevent bloodshed—He is deprived of all powers in his own cabinet—He boldly dismisses the foreigners and resumes power—A life-and-death struggle—Ismail is vanquished and deposed by a firman of the Sultan.
IN order that the causes may be known which led to the abdication of Khedive Ismail and the disasters which accompanied his downfall, it is necessary to give a brief account of the financial troubles which were the occasion of it. To begin, it is simply necessary to state that from the published official record it appeared that these English and French bondholders, of whom so much has been said, had loaned to Egypt over $450,000,000, for which they had received her bonds. Upon investigation it was found that less than $225,000,000, under any pretence, was ever received or could be properly charged to her. It further appeared that out of this last amount supposed to have been borrowed, there had never been discovered more than $80,000,000, the amount expended in the construction of the Suez Canal, and it is difficult to say how much of the loan ($40,000,000) contracted by Saïd Pacha, which he left as a legacy to Ismail, his successor, was ever expended in the public improvement of Egypt, or that she had ever received any benefit from it. The fact is unquestioned, that all the enormous public improvements at this time were paid for alone from the revenues of the country. It must be also understood that Ismail alone was the state, and had so mixed up his private with the public transactions that it is doubtful whether an earnest attempt was ever made to separate them. Every dollar was otherwise disposed of, as already stated. The greater part went to pay interest on existing loans. When Ismail Pacha abdicated, the debt of Egypt and his own personal debt stood at about $500,000,000. This huge liability was the sum total of eight loans, including that of Saïd and two on what is called the Daira, the private estate of the Khedive, together with the interest which had accumulated from 1862, the time of the first loan, to 1878, when the last loan was effected.
Before these loans were made it was known that Egypt was too poor to liquidate them. But with prospective usury so overwhelming, the money-lenders of Europe were willing to take the chances, believing that their great governments would make so insignificant a power as Egypt pay up. Several of these loans were effected in the face of the solemn protest of the Turkish Government, which declared that the Khedive had no legal right to bind the revenues of Egypt, and that by doing so without its sanction the Khedive was invading the Porte's authority. Subsequently, the bondholders, eager to drive their talons still deeper into the vitals of Egypt and impose another heavy loan on the overburdened country, mollified the scruples of the Sultan by sending the Grand Vizier a present of a quarter of a million dollars. A very large amount being required to meet the increasing interest and pay that already due, the Khedive was completely in their power and compelled to do their bidding. In order to force on him their surplus money at usurious rates, and to comply at the same time with the forms of law and secure their own creatures to manage their finances, the cunning speculators arranged it so as to dazzle the Sublime Porte with the small backsheesh of $4,500,000—a reminder of the admiration they entertained for the “ unspeakable Turk.” On the strength of this the Khedive received authority in 1873 to contract any loan or loans he pleased, and in addition to this a firman secured the direct right of descent in his own family.
This subtle stroke of the usurers, the consummation of their design, had necessarily to be concealed ; and in order to do so the world had to be persuaded it was entirely a matter of state policy that such an enormous amount of money should be given to the Sultan. The traditional idea, so lovingly nurtured by the rulers of Egypt, of changing the Mahometan law so as to have the succession in their own family, and especially in that of the eldest son, was a happy thought, and was at the same time pleasing to the Khedive, who no doubt felt an ambition one day to be a king. As a matter of course he fell into the trap, thought great deference was being paid him, and became a party to the scheme. There were other privileges granted, but the jewel in the casket was a short, pregnant paragraph, of little apparent importance at that time, but intended, if circumstances required it, for deadly use in the future to subserve the plans of the bondholders. This embodied the power to make “ conventions for all relations which concerned foreigners, whenever the Khedive may think it necessary.” When the announcement was made that the succession had been changed, the Khedive was delighted to receive congratulations upon the auspicious event, and few who visited him suspected at the time how soon the firman was destined to turn into a curse that should eat into his very heart. I confess to having been innocent of it when seeing his radiant smile, as he touched his head and heart with the document in his hand, according to Mahometan fashion, and kissed it as a dutiful vassal should. This now famous backsheesh, it will be eventually seen, bound him hand and foot, and enabled the bondholders at the proper time to place foreign dictators over him. These so shaped their administrative policy as to compel his abdication when it suited their purpose. Nor were the bondholders alone in this scheme. It was part of the policy of that wonderful man who then directed the destinies of England, and who never for an instant lost sight of a secure route to the Indies. These happy events threw temporary brilliancy around the Khedive's throne at the very moment when Fate was ironically pointing her remorseless finger at his empty treasury.
His many creditors at home and abroad beset the Khedive with complaints of the maladministration of Sadik, his minister, while the newspapers were filled with figures to prove their statements. They urged an investigation which should lead to reform and lessen the ruinous interest which was eating up the revenues of the country. Upon the advice of the English consul, Ismail invited Mr. Cave, a distinguished English official, to come to Egypt for the purpose of making such an investigation. The Khedive was no doubt sincere in this request, being anxious that Europe should know the real condition of his finances and his resources, so that public opinion should force a refunding of the debt at a lower rate of interest. Mr. Cave found Egyptian finances a tangled web. Though deceived, as he thought, by Sadik Pacha, the Egyptian Minister, yet he discovered enough to satisfy himself that worse than corrupt practices were rife. There is no evidence to connect the Khedive with the false returns and other frauds discovered by Mr. Cave. Of these he was necessarily ignorant, otherwise he would never have let an Englishman of known ability and character investigate frauds so palpable, of which any sanction on his part would justly consign him to eternal infamy. The mission ended without probing to the bottom the dark ways of the Mofétish (Sadik Pacha). They were too hidden for honest investigation to unearth, and Mr. Cave departed without having reached any definite conclusion in the premises. Enough was, however, learned by the Khedive to satisfy him that his trusted minister was administering his office badly, and that there was, to say the least, frightful disorder and confusion in his finance department. But Sadik was his life-long friend, and Ismail wished to move cautiously. No doubt Mr. Cave did all in his power to unravel the mystery, and did much toward clearing up the facts ; but if he had shown more regard for Egypt and recommended the reduction of the interest, when he became aware that its payment was crushing out the life of the country, he would have had the gratitude of all Egypt. In his report he gives the following facts : “ That there was $90,000,000 floating debt incurred in paying interest, which was being renewed at the ruinous rate of 25 per cent per annum ; that the great loan of 1873, at the time the Sultan was bribed, swallowed up every resource, so that three years' taxes were paid in two ; that there was nothing to show for all the indebtedness which, while paying an interest of from 12 to 26 per cent per annum, was eating up 70 per cent per annum of the gross proceeds of the revenue.” Poor Egypt was in the grasp of the Shylocks of England and France. But when great nations were controlled by the money power, how could it be expected that individuals should do justice? That he (the Khedive) should be pressed beyond endurance was a natural consequence. How could it be otherwise, when compelled to pay, according to Mr. Cave, “ an annual interest of $25,500,000 out of a revenue of $45,500,000”?
Like all Eastern monarchs, ready for anything to relieve the present, the Khedive adopted a scheme in 1872, which undoubtedly originated in the prolific brain of the Mofétish (Sadik Pacha) and was called the Moukabala. In this “ the landowner was allowed to redeem forever one half of his rent at once, or by certain instalments.” I recollect the feeling of uncertainty and foreboding which filled the minds of all classes when this thinly disguised attempt at robbery was first adopted. It reflected seriously upon both Ismail and Sadik. Knowing the methods of the minister, the poor fellah, though he dreaded the result, was bound to avail himself to it. He was impotent, and so accepted it without a murmur. Fearing the demand of the creditors, the minister thought it a good Eastern expedient for temporary relief. No doubt he expected it would be an easy matter in the future, when pressure came, to repudiate the contract as a public necessity and levy new taxes. Though he did not live to witness the fruition of his infamous design, the bondholders connived at its consummation in order to reap the benefit. They are responsible, if not for its proposal, at least for its iniquitous result. Temporary expedients failing, there being no prospect of the payment of interest as it became due, and clamor following the Khedive even into his palace, it was proposed that another embassy of his ardent friends “ who would hold the balance evenly adjusted,” should come to Egypt at his invitation. This was the advice of the official who in private had gently hinted its necessity, the English Consul-General.
In response to the invitation, “ the devoted friends of the Khedive,” Mr. Goschen, M.P., and Monsieur Joubert, a Frenchman, and a distinguished financier, both agents of the bondholders, arrived at Cairo in October, 1876. Up to this time newspaper correspondents and book-writers had lauded the Khedive and severely criticised the speculators who had inveigled him into their grasp, and whose exactions were mercilessly plundering the unfortunate fellah. It was well known that not more than half the amount represented by the loans was ever received by Egypt, while they were exacting interest upon the whole amount named. All the money of the Khedive was gone ; the bottom of the caisse had dropped out, and he had not a dollar to pay even his private debts. The consequence was that his friends deserted him, and an indignant cry was heard from a disinterested press. This had its effect, and though the unfortunate Khedive was doing his best to meet his engagements, he was denounced as a fraudulent borrower and a monster, while pathetic appeals besieged the governments of England and France to come to the rescue of the poor ill-used creditors of Egypt. These agents (Goschen and Joubert) had no sooner entered upon the theatre of action than they commenced with the Khedive a system of exaction. One of the first demands of Mr. Goschen was the dismissal of the Egyptian minister of finance, who had shown a decided opposition to the new arrangement, and with whom the Englishman had from the first declined all intercourse. The statement given to the public at the time was that the Khedive refused to accede to the demand, and stated as a reason that Sadik was the wealthiest subject in Egypt, was trusted by the religious element, and consequently had a hold upon the masses ; that he also possessed all the secrets of Ismail's personal and official life, and was capable of doing serious damage to the state ; that he could, if turned loose upon the people, destroy him and his dynasty. But his financial advisers were inexorable ; they cared nothing for him or his dynasty. The Khedive, though distressed, felt that a great necessity was upon him. He waited until his plans were ripe. Meanwhile the Mofétish was tried by a secret council for conspiracy against the Khedive, and condemned to perpetual exile in Upper Africa. This simply meant certain death. The minister was to all appearance ignorant of his fate. The Khedive invited him out to drive—a not unusual thing. At a place near the Nile where his carriage stopped, a guard, posted for the purpose, seized the Mofétish before he could alight. Since that time no human being connected with him has ever seen him, and though a steamer was sent up the river on the next day, with all the forms of having a state prisoner on board, there was no one in Cairo at the time of this affair who does not believe that the deposed minister was consigned to the bottom of the Nile. It is said that his chief eunuch and clerk shared the same fate. His vast property was seized by the government, his son torn from his wife, formerly an inmate of the palace, and the great numbers of women in his harem were scattered no one knows whither. His intimates and relations were all dismissed from office. Thus, as it always is in the East in such cases, the minister and all connected with him were disposed of by short methods.
This troublesome official “ silenced,” Mr. Goschen at once presented his financial scheme. This was that two comptrollers, a Frenchman and an Englishman, together with commissioners, should be appointed ; that there should be an Anglo-French railway administration, and that the revenue of the port of Alexandria must be pledged to the bondholders. All other sources of revenue were already in the hands of Englishmen. It was at this time that the cheating the landholders out of their money paid into the treasury under the Moukabala was mooted again, and the people were greatly excited, as they fully expected the calamity in the near future ; but for the moment it was passed over ; the bondholders were not quite ready to commit the infamous outrage, the bastinado had not yet tutored the beasts of burden to accept it peacefully.
The new foreign officials were no sooner in power than they ignored the Khedive, who, feeling himself thwarted in his own government, and believing that the bondholders' interests were alone cared for, became restless. It will be recollected that the Khedive had created an international court, and had even given largely of his private fortune to sustain it. Little did he dream that this was another trap set by his unscrupulous enemies. Unacquainted with Western law, trusting to the good faith of Europe, he approved of a clause which virtually deprived him of a sovereign right, that of exemption from legal process.
Egypt saw her Khedive powerless to prevent levy either on the state property or on his own, even to the carriage in which he rode. The people of Cairo were shocked when they saw this comedy played by the high contracting parties. Judgments without number were entered against Ismail.
The growing arrogance of the foreign ministers imposed on the country provoked the discontent of the masses. As soon as it became evident that Egypt was to be the prey of England, an army of office-seeking vultures from every land where she holds sway descended upon the prostrate victim to fatten at their leisure on her vitals. France supplied but few of these birds of prey. Those in power had already voted themselves $25,000 and $30,000 salaries ; the native clerks were cashiered, penniless, with their salaries in arrears. To make this outrage still more patent, care was taken by the comptrollers and the commissioners to pay themselves and their foreign friends every cent of their enormous salaries. To add still more to this extraordinary state of things, the army received no pay. Their pay too was in arrears. Officers were in rags, their wives and children clamoring for bread. The fellah groaned as he paid his last piastre for taxes, and all means were exhausted to wring more out of him. The burdens of the agricultural class were so apparent that the Eastern man, accustomed to scenes of cruelty, stood aghast at the human misery to which the unfortunate Arab was subjected. Being satisfied that his people were at the end of their tether (this was in 1875), and feeling a strong desire to ameliorate their condition, Ismail was prevented from giving his undivided attention by an unfortunate event. He was suddenly involved in a war with his neighbors, the Abyssinians. His motive and reasons for entering into it, together with the incidents connected with this war, will be set forth in a later chapter of this narrative. The war is mentioned now as adding still more to his financial troubles. The writer of this work, together with many Americans in the Egyptian service, being victims of this non-payment policy, can feelingly appreciate the complaints of the people. Now, if all these deep-laid schemes to bind the Khedive with invisible threads had resulted merely in wrong to the individual, it would not awaken such deep indignation, though it might be condemned as a cruel visitation on an Eastern potentate who had struggled hard to elevate his people. The motive of all this chicanery was that the creditors of Egypt might get squarely at the naked backs of the fellaheen, the better to wring the last piastre from them, and to make them pay into the foreigners' pockets all their hard earnings, even at the risk of starvation. This constitutes a crime against humanity which no words can properly stigmatize. This new conspiracy failed. When the prisoner of the Comanche Indian is so jaded that he can longer walk he is pierced with a lance : so was the despairing Khedive pricked by his usurping masters. The English and French governments entered the arena and urged upon the Khedive an international commission of six foreigners and the four officials, all in the interests of the bondholders, and in which no natives were allowed a voice. Ismail Pacha, of late so often humiliated, felt that he had put forth all his power to stay the encroachments upon his rights and to protect those of his people. Though he knew at this time that his act must lead to serious consequences if not to his abdication, yet he signed a decree for a commission armed with full powers, not only to inquire into the revenues and expenditures, but also into all other important questions in which Egypt was interested. He simply requested that his sovereign rights should be guaranteed. This request being refused, he abandoned that also. The conclusion was a radical change in the government. There was no doubt that great numbers of evils resulting from the bad administration of laws, the unjust levying of taxes, and other outrages, were abated. Safeguards were thrown around the people, and a proper financial administration was aimed at if not secured, and, finally, a responsible ministry, with Nubar Pacha as premier, was appointed. This virtually put the government completely in the power of the new ministry. In fact, a constitutional government was organized, and every principle of government established by Mehemet Ali came to an end. The lands of the Khedive and his family, amounting in all to about one million acres, were forced from him by the same process as in other instances, and were given in absolute title to the government. The last of the land taken was the private property of the Khedive, and was at once mortgaged to the Rothschilds for $42,500,000. It was thought that this enormous sum would go far to pay the debts of Egypt, but it was at once absorbed by the bondholders and the swarm of foreign officials, only a part of it going to pay the floating debt. A recent writer, quoting from the information furnished the British Parliament, makes the extraordinary statement that up to this time there was the prodigious number of 1325 imported office-holders, receiving salaries aggregating $1,665,000. This was progress with a vengeance ! When it is considered that all this horde replaced the poor Arab and Copt, who did the duty better for a small sum, it was not surprising that the latter should add their voices to that of the army, who had thirty months' pay in arrear and had already become destitute ; that they should all join in supporting the Notables, who were protesting against misrule, and that they should finally crystallize into a National party with their best men as leaders. The people understood that while the work of the commissioner who pretended to represent Egypt looked very well on paper, yet they were still beasts of burden, while the hundred thousand foreigners living in Egypt, accumulating fortunes there, were not taxed a cent for revenue. Improved laws might be a good thing, but when administered solely in the interests of those who had seized their country, they did not feel an abiding faith in them. The new ministry was in hostility to the Khedive, and disliked him. It had really begun to crumble at its inception. At this crisis the agent of England appeared again as a prominent actor on the theatre of events, sounding a note of blame for the acts of the ministry, which he had been instrumental in forcing upon Ismail, in such terms as to touch the amour propre of the Khedive, who, plucking up courage, ventured to express his indignation. The published account of his reply is given in his own language, which will show the bent of his mind. He expressed regret that the British Government should use such language toward him. Moreover, the responsibility they sought to cast upon him for the successful result of the new order of things, and for the due entry of the taxes, was neither logical nor just, and he must entirely disclaim it. What was his present position in Egypt? He had surrendered his personal property and his personal power, and deliberately accepted the position of a constitutional prince. A responsible ministry had been formed to advise him, and if he rightly understood the first principles of constitutional government, it was that the ministry, and not the chief of state, was made responsible under such circumstances ; while as to the entry of the taxes, he had no control or power over it, and therefore could not in any way be held responsible for it. He must decline to meddle with the proper functions of his ministers ; his advice or opinion was entirely at their disposition if they asked it, but he could not thrust it upon them. Although he quite understood that he was the person principally interested in the working of the new scheme, he could not interfere with the attributes of his ministers ; and if they were not answerable for their own acts, what was the meaning of a responsible ministry? Responsibility could only attach to him if he attempted to interfere improperly with the government of the country ; otherwise he must entirely disclaim it.
Notwithstanding the move made by the British agent in tying the hands of the Khedive, in making him only the nominal ruler, in disposing of the government to suit only partial interests and then threatening him when he was impotent, the status quo became the laughing-stock of all Egypt, except to the officials and the army who were starving, and whose wives and children were begging for bread. It is not then to be wondered at that the officers of the army, worked up to frenzy, should have marched in a body, in the February following, and driven the ministry of Nubar Pacha from power amid scenes of violence.
Being in Cairo at this time, I hastened to the theatre of events, and therefore I know that as soon as the Khedive became aware that the ministers were bearded and some of them held as prisoners, he resolutely interfered, in spite of the murmuring of the infuriated soldiery and at his own personal peril, and quieted the émeute. No man in Egypt thought he foresaw the event—not even the agents of the bondholders, who had always been sharp to find fault on the slightest excuse, and to throw responsibility upon him whenever it was possible to embroil him with the European governments. After the discomfiture of the ministry the people began the cry of hostility to the Christians, thinking that they were about to be transferred to the control of the Europeans. The alarm too was sounded that the foreigners were going to nullify the law of the “ Mukabala,” which would take from them nearly half of their possessions and beggar hundreds already struggling for existence. The whole population of Egypt, more or less interested, were intensely alarmed, and to increase the excitement large numbers under a new law were added to the list for forced labor known as the odious corvée system. The object of this was not so much to compel the people to work for the public good as to force them to pay cash to save them from working. This blackmailing, it was hoped, would pay a larger amount into the treasury for the benefit of the bondholders. Had there been any mercy shown to the people, this wretched system of extortion might have pleaded some extenuation, but everything was coldly calculated in the interest of the foreigner. The foreign masters of Egypt next procured an order from the English ministry to still further cripple the monarch by forcing him to abandon his own cabinet and abdicate his royal prerogative in favor of two foreigners sitting in the cabinet, who should have power to veto any measure they chose. Well might the wily official exclaim, on the success of the policy which had led the Eastern monarch to his ruin, that “ the commission have achieved extraordinary results in the short time they have been here—results such as a year ago it would have seemed absurd to expect.” The humiliation of the Khedive was effected under the article already referred to, and for which the Sublime Porte had pocketed the enormous “ backsheesh” which so softened the generous heart of the Sultan. By this act was created that oligarchy of carpet-baggers, a veritable dictatorial government of foreigners, reducing Ismail to a nonentity, without wealth or power. All that was left was the sympathy and latent strength of the people. Events thickened, and new surprises were daily expected ; the old land of the Arabian Nights had at last awakened from its dream of a thousand years. Had Al Rhond Raschid suddenly appeared upon the scene, he could not have been more amazed than the people of Mas'r (Cairo) were when the sheiks and men of position and wealth, ordinarily the most silent and pliant instruments of power of all the Eastern people, stood forth as champions of a new national policy, and, a thing never meditated before in their dreams, actually assembled in a public meeting, while a larger body of these people were besieging the Khedive and his ministry with a petition for a redress of grievances.
In this demonstration the discontent had assumed such proportions as to create serious alarm. The Khedive wisely warned the consul, who had been so considerate to him, of impending complications, telling him that the maladministration of those who had assumed authority was bringing about serious consequences ; that urgent steps should be taken to allay the excitement constantly increasing among the entire people. Instead of listening to the appeals for justice from the country and offering some remedy, the same misery, so often detailed, was allowed to continue. While those in possession did not hesitate to treat with contempt all other creditors, many of them foreigners, the people of Egypt were not considered as worthy of the slightest notice. To allay the excitement and to prevent a revolution, which was certainly impending, the Khedive was forced to dismiss the two foreigners from his cabinet and form a new ministry, with Cherif Pacha at its head, an old, tried minister of acknowledged ability, in whom the people, both foreign and native, had implicit confidence. The universal sentiment was that this act was wise and patriotic ; if there were no other reason, it had caused the removal of the two foreigners from unlimited power without any control—men who had no interests in the country, who were ignorant of the people and their language, who held the highest and most important places with little knowledge of the government, who never looked beyond the financial interests of their oppressors, and who deluged the country with incompetent foreigners to hold the offices their own people were more competent to fill, and to which they had an inherent right of preference. How could Ismail's action be received otherwise than with great rejoicing? No sooner had this well-timed assumption of authority been effected than tumult ceased and quiet reigned. The moneyed oligarchy and their fattened agents, the latter concerned about their salaries, feeling that an earthquake was beneath them, thought by a bold stroke to rid themselves of the Khedive and stifle the popular feeling. The writer of this published the statement at the time that this act would inevitably bring grief to Egypt. England and France were not thinking, however, of so bloody a tragedy. He knew that Ismail was the only one in his family who had the will and the power to rule the destiny of Egypt in the crisis which beset her. Unfortunately, the prediction has been verified. The agents of the moneyed interests, having once held the reigns of government and tasted the sweets of unlimited power, were like a horde of wild beasts which had once lapped human blood. They would not hesitate to gratify their thirst for it again, at any venture, however desperate, even to the destruction of the victim. His enemies, well knowing that only through another could they ever hope for success, decided upon the sacrifice of the Khedive, Ismail Pacha. To smooth their way to coveted power, having no right either legal or moral to a further lease of authority, they circulated questionable statements of universal discontent caused by cruel treatment of the fellaheen. This talk was thundered throughout Europe, and the cry of vengeance in the press was heard. It acted like a charm, and it was evident that the fruit was ripe for the picking. All due precautions being arranged beforehand, they formally requested Ismail to abdicate in favor of his son Tewfik, taking care to couple the demand with a sop—the offer of a liberal civil list. Not yet sufficiently tutored, he indignantly declined their interested proposition. Ready with their bolt, they threatened to place his uncle Halim, a deadly enemy to his own family, on the throne, and thus deprive his immediate line of the succession, for which he had paid so large a sum to the Sultan. In the mean time they had appealed to the Sublime Porte to depose him in favor of his son Tewfik. Now that Ismail had no caisse, the Sultan promptly obeyed the summons, stimulated probably by a gentle reminder, as they do nothing in the East without pay. As the fellah would be soon called upon to reimburse the baksheesh, what difference did it make? With a few exceptions, all Europe joined in the funeral procession. It being too late to resist, and his cause now being hopeless, the Khedive allowed himself to be decently set aside. The result was swift and certain. In a short time he found himself safely ensconced in the Italian palace La Favorita on the bay of Naples, and, so far as Egypt is concerned, as dead as one of her mummied Pharaohs.
Notwithstanding his bad management, the dethronement of Ismail by the great powers, including Mr. Gladstone's “ excrescence” (the Sultan), raised him to the dignity of a martyr in the eyes of the masses of Egypt. The believed he was sacrificed in protecting them from the bondholders' exactions. In these latter they simply saw new masters, whose desire was not only to get their hard earnings to pay a debt which they believed had been saddled on them by fraud and corruption, but to take their country and to endanger their religion.
In estimating the character of the Khedive it is unjust to judge him wholly according to Western ideas. The modes of reasoning of the Eastern man upon principles of right and wrong are radically different from those of his Western brother, and should be studied from the point of view that custom and habit have sanctioned. Ismail was brought up in a moral atmosphere where religion teaches it as a holy duty, under certain circumstances, to lie to a Christian—among a people whose pride of race, however ignorant and superstitious they may be, is so immense that the meanest beggar really believes himself superior to the most refined civilized man ; where the true believer is possessed with the idea that modern science and improvement are but the devices of the infidel instigated by the devil. Sincere in all their professions, their will chained by the rhapsodies of the Prophet, how can it be otherwise than that they should regulate their conduct in the affairs of life by a different code of morals? The Khedive for many years broke through the trammels that environed him, and was in the midst of successful reform, never hesitating to strike down superstitions when they stood in his way, and only when fate decreed against him did he fall. There is no more striking illustration of the difficulty he encountered than the fact that the greatest opposition he met with in his efforts to establish education and liberal government was from the very people who were to be benefited so largely by his schemes.