Ismail, the successor of Saïd Pacha—Great rejoicings on his accession—Wealth and energy of this prince—How the Suez Canal came to be built—Why Pharaoh Necho in ancient Egypt and Mehemet Ali in modern Egypt refused to permit such a canal to be cut—Effects of the Suez Canal complications on Egypt—Ismail's course toward the bondholders—De Lesseps an able and shrewd schemer—Ismail's policy in the government of Egypt—Description of the man—His attempts at reform.
SAÏD PACHA assumed the viceroyalty of Egypt amid the rejoicings of his people. They had been crushed under the cruel and imbecile Abbas Pacha, his nephew. Saïd was in the vigor of his manhood and full of confidence. He projected many grand schemes, but few of which were consummated during his reign of ten years. He died friendless and insolvent. Though vastly superior to his predecessor in personal qualities, still his government was a failure and bankrupted the country. Sanguine of something better, the Egyptian people welcomed Ismail Pacha to the vice-regal throne with rejoicings greater than had welcomed any previous ruler.
They knew that he had been schooled under the best instructors of the day, that he was a planter and merchant prince, and one of the most accomplished Egyptians who had ever been called to rule over them. They were aware that while those nearest the throne were toying away their time in the salons of Paris, or hunting the gazelle upon the deserts of Africa, he was a tiller of the soil, who, avoiding the fascinations and extravagances of the court of Saïd, had devoted himself to cultivating cotton and cane. Spending his surplus money while a prince in beautifying Egypt with costly buildings and palaces, for which he had always a weakness, he gave early promise of beneficence and progress. The people, seeing for the first time a man of sense and a successful working prince at the head of their government, seemed to have great reason for cordially welcoming the new ruler.
Ismail ascended the throne during the time of the Civil War in America, and early perceiving from the vast proportions of the struggle that cotton-growing, in which he was so successful, would receive a severe check in the United States, turned his energies and great capital to its more extensive culture. From this and the cultivation of cane he added enormously to his already colossal fortune. Saïd having already pledged Egypt to the cutting of the Suez Canal, it remained for Ismail to redeem the pledge. A brief historical sketch of this great work is in place here. Necho, that wise old Pharaoh who lived 600 years before the Christian era, connected the Bitter Lakes and Lake Timsah on the Isthmus of Suez, midway between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, by a canal with the Nile. Similar canals existed from a very early period contiguous to it and running through what is now called the Land of Goshen. By some convulsion of nature, or possibly the neglect of the government, these works entirely disappeared, the lakes dried up, the Land of Goshen became an arid waste, and much of it remains so to this day. During his reign Ismail constructed a broad, deep canal connecting the Suez Canal in a direct line from Ismailia with the Nile, and these barren wastes are beginning to bloom with vegetation, while trade and travel begin again to make the land of the Israelites look as it did in the olden time. The Pharaoh of the day of which we speak was urged to connect the two seas, but his country having been marvellously blessed for uncounted centuries with a dense and thriving population, he concluded that they could only lose by too daring attempts at progress. It was held with some reason that other nations would be inevitably precipitated upon the country in their anxiety for the commerce of the East, and that Egypt would be swallowed up in the whirlpool of ambitious competition. Policy at that time prevented the connection of the two seas. Two thousand years afterward history repeated itself. Mehemet Ali, the founder of the present dynasty, an untutored fisherman, but a man of extraordinary sense, was harried by speculators and consuls-general for the concession of men and money to connect the seas. Unaware that a remote predecessor had decided against it, the new Pharaoh gave nearly the same reasons for steadily rejecting their overtures, incredulous of the great benefit to Egypt so generously promised. Many years elapsed, and Saïd, his son, became Viceroy. When a prince he had been the friend of De Lesseps, and he now lent his ear to the able and wily Frenchman. Lesseps succeeded in despite of England, for England steadily opposed the project with all her influence. Time rolled on, money failed, and the great work was lingering when Ismail Pacha became Khedive. Though he knew it would be fatal to the immediate interests of his country by taking the great Indian travel directly through the canal and making Egypt simply a toll-gate for that and its commerce, yet he believed that in the distant future it would not only add lustre to his name, but confer great benefits upon Egypt. The concession had been granted, and sooner or later the great work must be completed ; therefore it was worse than folly to stop its progress, and through him, his money, and his people, the Suez Canal was opened to the nations of the world. The downfall of his great friend and supporter, Napoleon III., and the ill-fortune of France in her war with Germany, left him to the crafty policy of England. The money-lenders of France, whose original enormous loans to Egypt had to be buoyed up to prevent a total collapse, saw bankruptcy staring them in the face, and prudently called upon England, whose people were equally interested in the bonds, to help them out of the difficulty. Waddington, having succeeded in his schemes for temporary security, was no doubt pleased to let England take the Lion's share of influence and spoils without protest. Poor Egypt was the victim of wanton cupidity, and the Khedive was forced to a compromise, which included his own abdication. Bismarck's “ kick at the dead lion” in this affair is, perhaps, one of the most extraordinary diplomatic freaks of the far-seeing Chancellor.
The results but too plainly justify the wonderful prevision of the “ grim old soldier,” Mehemet Ali, when pointing out to his successors their true policy. It would have been well had they been guided by him in this and in other vital matters, or at least have exacted some guarantee of the great powers for their security. That the work was inevitable there is no doubt. Ismail understood this, and thinking that he had gone far enough in engrafting modern ideas on his policy to insure him against outrage, entered heartily into the scheme for the completion of the canal. Subsequent events handed him over, bound hand and foot, to the designing Western powers. The policy denounced by Mehemet Ali led to his ruin. It may suit the bondholders to say that Ismail clung to the principles of the founder of his dynasty, which worked well so long as there was a stern despot to apply them ; that subsequently all had changed, and that Ismail had neither the ability nor the strength of character to carry out a policy suited to the requirements of the times. The fact is, that Egypt ran the risk that is always incurred by a weak power over whose inheritance two stronger powers are ready to come to blows. Ismail attempted the impossible task of modernizing everything in Egypt in thirteen years. In this endeavor the state revenues and his own private fortune became involved beyond hope. The Rothschilds now enjoy millions, the wreck of his estates, and Englishmen boast of the splendid investment Disraeli made in buying the Suez Canal bonds for which Egypt had given her security.
Ismail may well regret that his good sense was blinded by his ambition, and that he too, like Saïd Pacha, listened to the fatal eloquence of De Lesseps. The latter was only too willing, as President of the 1878 Commission, to turn upon his victim after fattening on the spoils wrung from Ismail's credulity. Situated as Egypt is, in the north-east angle of Africa, which may be said to divide Europe and Asia like a wedge, nothing can ever happen in either without being felt in Egypt. Though ever prominent as the highway to the East, this great route has become more so now that the whole of Europe's commerce with the Indies is carried on through the canal. The Arab prefers despotism at the hands of one of his own faith to a liberal government at the hands of the foreigner. Ismail understood this hatred of European interference, and invited Americans to assist him in organizing his army. Politically they represented nothing, and were acceptable to his people. He also appointed Arabs to high official position, and desired that the people should be heard through the Notables. This was a novelty. They had never before questioned their rulers, and nobody was anxious to “ bell the cat.” Before voting, they inquired which way the government leaned, and then they all went in a body that way. Their recent outbreak did not arise from a wish to repudiate their enormous debt. They were willing that their laborious people and rich lands should pay it. But young and progressive Egypt had been elevated in the last decade and made to feel that, however just and honest their present Khedive might be, still his government under the new arrangements made with the bond-holders was entirely in the hands of those appointed to suit the interests of their European creditors. The instincts which Ismail had stimulated by his policy of respect for his people were offended by the submission of Tewfik to European dictation.
Ismail Pacha was Khedive of Egypt during my service. He was the first to hold that dignity. The sum which purchased this rank and title from the Sultan was very large. He is past the meridian of life, under medium height, but compactly built. He has dark brown hair and mustache, a swarthy skin and keen black eyes, whose penetrating glances shoot from under half-closed lids. Habitual ease of manner and slowness of speech give him the air of great self-possession. He impresses every one as a man of strong convictions and extensive observation.
The following reflections on Ismail in his political and social relations were written when he was one of the most notable men of his day, and the writer was fresh from contact with him in the relations of a general of high rank to his commander-in-chief :
When in repose and his eye is partly shut, no man has a more sphinx-like expression ; but the strongly-marked face conceals behind it constant thought and indicates that the cares of state weigh heavily upon him. In his hours of ease his conversation is very agreeable. Speaking French slowly and deliberately, with a finely modulated voice and a countenance lit up with the characteristic smile of his family, he gives one the impression that he would make a good boon companion. Though in detailing the events of his reign I shall have to speak of an occurrence which will lead many to think him cruel, yet, having in my long acquaintance witnessed so much that was humane in his character and life, my opinion is that he was far from being an unamiable man or sovereign. His large family and the great numbers of people who have served under him bear willing testimony to his kindly heart. After his accession, when all the terrible punishments and confiscations of his predecessors had ceased, numerous instances of arbitrary and unjust outrage of which I was informed came to his knowledge, and his interference was immediate. The use of the kourbash without the authority of law was severely punished. He made earnest endeavors to abolish slavery in his dominions, and notwithstanding statements to the contrary, he was anxious to do this in the harems themselves, where every woman is a slave. One of his means to that end was the education of women. If there was nothing else to be placed in his credit, he has erected for himself, in the education of women and in the abolition of slavery, a monument which will endure after all the errors of his administration have faded out of history.
The forcing of a parliament upon an unwilling people who lived in a dreamy philosophy and preferred the iron hand of one man, is another evidence of the enlightened humanity of Ismail. He was one of those who believed that no real advance can be made in the Arab race until the outcrop of Islam's wrongs is corrected, none of them being greater than the violation of nature in depriving woman of her legitimate sphere of action and influence.
In its interior economy the harem of the Khedive and his numerous family, and the harems of those among the higher dignitaries whose association they claim, have in their approximation of Western custom undergone vast changes. The substitution of European dress for the Oriental may not be a gain in picturesqueness, but it is a long stride in the direction of adopting modern customs. The sitting on chairs and on the divan, which their new costume compels, is a great innovation upon the time-honored squat, though it is said, when the change took place, the ladies found it difficult to dispose of their tiny feet, it being convenient to place one on the chair and leave the other dangling. When crinoline was in fashion, this graceful position retained some of the quaint picturesqueness of their discarded habits.
Ladies of rank now sit at a modern table with knives and forks and eat like Europeans, instead of dipping the fingers into their dishes, as was the case a few years ago. Instead of lying on divans and sleeping on the floor, putting everything into great leather bags and hiding these in closets, or stringing their fine dresses on cords hung across their chambers, modern inventions have been introduced ; even trunks and bureaus are now in common use. The ladies now ride out in carriages openly and with the thinnest possible veils. They are accompanied as formerly by their sable guardians, but the latter are now more for show than for use. While it is etiquette not to look at these ladies of the harem, they look at the stranger as though they courted the furtive glance of admiration. When it is said that a high princess walked unveiled at the springs near Cairo, we may easily believe that the Egyptian women are beginning to feel their freedom. It is not to be understood, however, that the women have generally favored this change from Oriental to European customs. Indeed, its most violent opponents have been found among them, and so far from envying they have always pitied their Western sisters.
But the elevation of woman by education has given many Egyptian ladies a proper idea of their dignity, and customs and superstitions which conflict with it are contemned by this new generation. Though the class is not numerous, still their influence is felt, and the close observer can see that the worst features of Mahometanism are being seriously shaken. This fact was fully appreciated by Ismail, and it was his endeavor in the refinement of women to elevate the family, educate the sons by enlightened mothers, and prepare Egypt for a better future by a means which thus went to the very root of things.