292 



EGYPT. 



pects" was restored to the mndirs, but ar- 

 rested persons could only be committed to 

 prison after a judicial examination before a 

 court consisting of the mudir, a judge, a rep- 

 resentative of the Interior Department, and 

 two or three sheikhs of the province. When 

 the English determined on abolishing the 

 corvee, the Public Works and Finance depart- 

 ments both suggested the imposition of a 

 water-tax for the purpose; but Nubar Pasha 

 pointed out that the Khedive Ismail had raised 

 the taxes ten per cent, on the ground of in- 

 creased irrigation, and that the peasantry 

 would not submit to an arbitrary increase, be- 

 cause they look upon the tax as an equivalent 

 for the water furnished. The Egyption Con- 

 vention set free an annual sum of 450,000 for 

 the reduction of the land-tax, which the Fi- 

 nance Ministry wished to apply to taxes that 

 could not be collected, while Sir Colin S. Mon- 

 crieff needed as much for the abolition of forced 

 labor. At Nubar's suggestion, the amount 

 was divided, 250,000 a year being applied to 

 a gradual abolition of the corvee, and 200,000 

 to offset taxes that could not be collected. 



To provide means for their projected re- 

 forms, or to escape from the danger of a de- 

 fault of interest, the English were always 

 ready to increase the land-tax or resort to new 

 imposts, notwithstanding the evident signs of 

 overtaxation and impoverishment. Nubar 

 Pasha resisted this destructive policy, and sug- 

 gested economy of expenditure and the ex- 

 tension of the taxable area by bringing fresh 

 lands under culture as the best means of pre- 

 serving the financial equilibrium. He insti- 

 tuted a finance committee to examine every 

 proposed change that involved increased ex- 

 penditure. To promote the second object he 

 gave away large tracts of uncultivated public 

 land, with exemption from taxes for three, 

 six, or ten years. To supply with water 250,- 

 000 feddans that were thus taken up, the Nu- 

 barieh Canal was built by a private company. 

 Nubar's efforts to keep down expenses and 

 simplify the administration finally brought him 

 into collision with Sir Evelyn Baring in the 

 summer of 1887, and from that time their re- 

 lations were never cordial. The Prime Minis- 

 ter objected, not so much to the employment 

 of Europeans in the Government departments 

 as to the complication of the administrative 

 machinery by the creation of new departments, 

 bureaus, sections, and subsections. In a report 

 that was signed by Sir Edgar Vincent, Sir 

 Colin Scott Moncrieff, Yakub Artin Pasha, and 

 Blum Pasha on May 24. 1888, the Prime Min- 

 ister was charged with having obstructed many 

 economies that the financial authorities hail 

 proposed. Later, the question of reforming 

 the octroi administration came up. Nubar 

 Pasha, following a report of Yakub Artin 

 Pasha, proposed that the octrois and the indi- 

 rect taxes should be placed under the direction 

 of the Ministry of Finance instead of being 

 administered by a separate department. The 



change would necessitate the abolition of a 

 post held by a Frenchman, and M. d'Aubigne, 

 the French agent, therefore objected. The 

 Khedive then called upon Nubar Pasha to with- 

 draw his recommendation, and he obeyed, but 

 at the same time called his master's attention 

 to the hostile report, and asked the Khedive 

 either to defend his minister or allow him to 

 reply to his accusers. The Khedive made no 

 reply, and Nubar went on to say that he stood 

 between two fires, and had been made the 

 scapegoat of both the native party and the 

 English, and concluded with the words, "I 

 owe too much to your Highness ever to resign, 

 but it is within your Highnesses power to dis- 

 miss me when you will." On the following 

 day, June 8, his dismissal was published. This 

 action was taken by the Khedive without con- 

 sultation with Sir Evelyn Baring, who was ab- 

 sent at Cairo. 



The New Ministry. Tewfik Pasha not only 

 dismissed his Cabinet, but summoned Riaz 

 Pasha to form a new one, without consulting 

 with his English advisers. He had not shown 

 such independence before since the beginning 

 of the English occupation. His choice of a 

 new minister was generally interpreted as a 

 triumph of the anti-English party and of Ghazi 

 Mukhtar Pasha, the Turkish commissioner, 

 whose recall the English had been unable to 

 bring about, and who exercised an unwelcome 

 influence and authority in the country, which 

 grew stronger with every fresh blunder com- 

 mitted by the English administrators. Mukh- 

 tar had two months before predicted the very 

 date of the fall of Nubar. He conferred with 

 the Khedive on the evening of the dismissal, 

 received an ovation on the streets when re- 

 turning from the palace, and Kiaz consulted 

 him before accepting office and making up the 

 new Cabinet. The Turkish Government had, 

 since the early period of Mukhtar's residence 

 in Egypt, maintained a diplomatic attitude of 

 observation till January, 1888, when it in- 

 structed its commissioner to warn the Egyptian 

 Government against entering into commercial 

 treaties with foreign powers, as instanced by 

 the tobacco convention with Greece to the 

 prejudice of Turkish produce, and to admonish 

 the Khedive against overstepping the firmans 

 in respect to overtaxation of his people. On 

 the removal of Nubar Pasha, Sir Evelyn Bar- 

 ing hastened to Alexandria. He did not at- 

 tempt to alter the composition of the new 

 Cabinet, except to secure the withdrawal of 

 Omar Lutfi's name as Minister of War and the 

 transfer of AM Mubarek Pasha, who had been 

 offered the post of Minister of Public Works. 

 The Cabinet was finally constituted as follows: 

 Riaz Pasha, President of the Council, Minister 

 of the Interior, and Minister of Finance; Fakri 

 Pasha, Minister of Justice; Zulfikar Pasha, 

 Minister for Foreign Affairs; Mustapha Fehmi 

 Pasha, Minister of War; Zeki Pasha, Minister 

 of Public Works ; Ali Mubarek Pasha, Minister 

 of Public Instruction. 



