EGYPT. 



291 



total claim on the Egyptian Government at 

 about 5,000,000. 



The Government made a settlement with 

 him and his sons, by which the portion of the 

 civil list payable to the family, amounting at 

 their estimate to 116,000 was capitalized at 

 fourteen years' purchase, and paid over in the 

 form of 32,000 acres to be selected from the 

 domain lands, valued at 1,630,000. The 

 Egyptian Government claimed that the pen- 

 sions paid to the princes ceased at their deaths, 

 and in agreeing to convert them into property 

 it conceded Ismail's claim to dispose of his civil 

 list on his death. In lieu of other claims that 

 he had brought he agreed to accept 1' 

 in cash, while the Government restored the 

 two palaces in Cairo that formerly belonged 

 to him and the one in Constantinople, which 

 he has made his residence. 



Irrigation Worts, The most important work 

 done by English engineers in Egypt is the 

 completion of the barrage, which is a great 

 weir extending across both branches of the 

 Nile. It was begun by French engineers, but 

 abandoned as useless. As soon as it w;is con- 

 structed, Sir Colin Moncrieff determined to 

 utilize it, in the face of the criticisms of En- 

 glish as well as of French engineers. Dur- 

 ing the first six months of 1887 fhe Rosetta 

 aqueduct was completed. Next in importance 

 to the barrage is the Canal Te \vfiki, which will 

 be opened in 1889. Starting from the apex of 

 the delta, it runs east of the eastern branch to 

 the sea. Irrigating siphons, regulating bridges 

 and locks, distributing sluices, and drainage 

 canals have been constructed within the delta 

 and on both sides of the river. Drainage is 

 at present a greater de^iderotum in Lower 

 E<rypt than water-supply. The Mahmoudieh 

 Canal, which supplies Alexandria with water 

 and furnishes water communication between 

 the port and the river, has been dredged. Im- 

 proved irrigation and the reclamation cf sub- 

 merged lands have caused an extension of cot- 

 ton cultivation in the Fayoum district. A be- 

 ginning has been made of cotton-planting in 

 the province of Beni Souef, and in that and 

 the neighboring provinces of Assiout. Minieh, 

 and Girgeh the cleaning of the Ibrahimish Ca- 

 nal and other works have increased the pro- 

 duction of sugar by one third. 



The expenditure of Sir Colin MoncriefFs 

 department in 1887 was 800,356 Egyptian 

 pounds, of which one half was spent on new 

 works and one half in repairing and maintain- 

 ing the old. Of the total sum^lS^ti Egyp- 

 tian pounds came from the ordinary budget. 

 o4'.'.0-23 pounds from a fund of one million 

 pounds sterling that was raised for puMic 

 works, and 237.607 pounds from a special fund 

 applicable to the abolition of the corree. The 

 most beneficial reform of the British adminis- 

 tration has been the substitution of free for 

 forced labor on the canals. Under the old sys- 

 tem men were compelled to leave their homes, 

 often when their labor was most needed for 



their crops, and made to work at mending the 

 canals in the most inefficient and wasteful man- 

 ner. If they brought no tools, they were 

 made to dredge out the mud with their bare 

 hands. Their families brought them food, car- 

 rying it sometimes a great distance. In 1883 

 there were 202.650 men thus employed for 

 one hundred days each. In 188-i the number 

 was reduced to 165,000. In 1885 there were 

 1 -25. 936 men employed at forced labor, while 

 11(5.535 Egyptian pounds were paid for substi- 

 tuted hired labor. In 1886 the eorree laborers 

 numbered 95,093, and 265.06(3 Egyptian pounds 

 were expended on paid labor. In 1887 the 

 number of fellaheen called out for the eorree was 

 reduced to 87.120. and the cost of substituted 

 free labor was 233,561 Egyptian pounds. 



The Ministry of Xubar Pasha, In 1884 Sherif 

 Pasha resigned the post of Prime Minister be- 

 cause he was unable to approve the policy of 

 evacuating the Soudan, on which the British 

 Government insisted. Riaz Pasha, the ex- 

 Premier, a Mohammedan of Turkish origin, 

 who was greatly respected by the Egyptians 

 for patriotism and integrity, declined the office 

 because he held the same views. Xubar Pasha, 

 an Armenian Christian of European educa- 

 tion, though equally convinced ot the folly of 

 abandoning the Soudan, accepted the post, and 

 -upposed to be a willing instrument of 

 English policy. He was not popular, but was 

 known as a statesman of great experience and 

 ability. He applied himself to the task of 

 smoothing the way for the English projects, 

 and opposed only those that were totally im- 

 practicable. "When Sir Colin Scot: Moncrietf 

 had built the barrage and cleaned out the 

 canals, he proposed that his engineers should 

 direct the irrigation, as well as provide the 

 water, assuming that the provincial officials 

 were all corrupt. Nubar Pasha, however, in- 

 sisted on preserving the power of the mudirs, 

 who were the visible representatives of au- 

 thority. With less success, he opposed the 

 sweeping changes that Clifford Lloyd intro- 

 duced in the Interior Department. Under the 

 old system the mudirs exercised and abused 

 the right to arrest and transport without trial 

 persons suspected of crime. During the for- 

 mer ministry of Riaz Pasha. 1,300 suspicious 

 persons were sent to work in the quarries. 

 Local sheikhs procured the imprisonment of 

 their enemies or of individuals who would ray 

 money to regain their liberty. Yet. when 

 Clifford Lloyd emptied the prisons, setting free 

 thousands of prisoners, some of whom had 

 been detained six years without trial, and 

 placed the prison system and the power of 

 commitment under the direction of English 

 officials, charging police officers with the ex- 

 ecutive functions of the mudirs. the prestige 

 of the latter was destroyed, and brigandage 

 and crimes of violence became so rife that 

 Xuhar's views were finally accepted, and the 

 old system was re-established, with safeguards 

 against abuses. The power to arrest "sus- 



