238 



EGYPT. 



a real desire on the part of the population to contrib- 

 ute to the development of instruction. The aboli- 

 tion of the ohdes system is completely effected. Be- 

 quests for concessions of land not included in the 

 cadastre have been accorded. My government will 

 again submit this question to your examination. J. 

 think that the period of the concessions might be ex- 

 tended, and greater facilities accorded : this would be 

 an encouragement to the agricultural population, and 

 an augmentation of the general welfare. The public 

 works voted by you have been carried out with ac- 

 tivity in the twenty-three localities you have desig- 

 nated. The necessary contingents cannot be definitive- 

 ly fixed until after the completion of the general census 

 upon which they are established. Hitherto we have 

 been unable to carry out this operation, the impor- 

 tance of which I leave to your appreciation, and the 

 radical solution of which I confide to your enlighten- 

 ment. A census system carried out with intelligence 

 and equity offers manifest advantages without causing 

 any annoyance to the inhabitants, and without inter- 

 fering with individual liberty. The regulations you 

 have established with regard to the bonds to be sub- 

 scribed by native borrowers have been communicated 

 to the moudiriens. The application of these regula- 

 tions is subordinated to the operation of a law upon 

 mortgage, which will shortly be submitted to your 

 deliberations. The monthly collection of the terri- 

 torial dues was to undergo modifications in uniform- 

 ity with the desire you expressed last year. The 

 Minister of Finance is instructed to explain to you 

 the reasons which have prevented the government, 

 in presence of the difficulties which resulted from it, 

 from putting hi execution the new mode of collec- 

 tion. 



The proposals that my government will submit to 

 your deliberations this year relate to three principal 

 questions hygiene, the cultivation of cotton, and the 

 sluices and dams. Various causes of insalubrity have 

 been pointed out to me. In a great number of locali- 

 ties there are lakes of stagnant water and marshes. 

 Now, experience has shown that in. draining these 

 lakes and marshes the atmosphere is purified and the 

 germs of sickness destroyed. It is of importance, 

 therefore, that you should deliberate upon the meas- 

 ures to be taken in order to ameliorate the sanitary 

 state by proceeding gradually and taking into account 

 local exigencies. For two years the cotton crop in 

 certain provinces has not answered our expectations. 

 Egypt had, nevertheless, conquered an eminent place 

 among producing countries by the excellent quality 

 of her cotton. It had been distinguished at the Paris 

 Universal Exhibition. But hi the majority of the 

 provinces of Lower Egypt the abundance of the crops 

 has diminished, while the quality has deteriorated. 

 This latter fact arises from the introduction of foreign 

 seed. As to the diminution in the quantity, you will 

 have to seek the causes in order to combat tnem with 

 success. I also call your attention to the means of 

 developing and perfecting all the branches of agri- 

 culture. The works of the sluices, dams, and bridges, 

 have already absorbed considerable sums. "We ought 

 to pursue with energy the accomplishment of these 

 eminently useful undertakings, the fertile sources of 

 public wealth. To seek the means of developing the 

 prosperity of the country, such, gentlemen, is our 

 duty. May God protect and bless our efforts ! 



On September 26th Mr. Charles Hale, United 

 States consul-general, entertained at dinner, 

 at Alexandria, Mehemet Tefvik Pacha, heir- 

 apparent to the throne of Egypt, together with 

 twelve other pachas, principal ministers of the 

 Egyptian Government. Tefvik Pacha proposed 

 the health of the President of the United States 

 and the happiness of the American people. 



On June 17th a contract was signed between 

 the Egyptian Government and an English com- 

 pany for the construction of the proposed 



breakwater and docks at Alexandria. The com- 

 pany is authorized to levy the same dock-dues 

 as are paid at Liverpool. In the event of the 

 Egyptian Government taking possession of the 

 enterprise when completed, interest at the rate 

 of twelve per cent, will be allowed on the pur- 

 chase-money until paid off. 



The Slave-Trade Blue Book, published by 

 the English Government in 1868, contains new 

 charges against the Egyptian Government for 

 conniving at the slave-trade on the "White Nile. 

 Mr. Eeade, the English consul at Cairo, denies 

 the truth of the statements made in July, 186*7, 

 by the Viceroy in Paris, to a deputation of the 

 British and Foreign Antislavery Society, that, 

 " though he could act against his own people, 

 he was defeated when he sought to do so 

 against Europeans, who were the chief delin- 

 quents," and that, "if he were free to act 

 against European slave-traders, the slave-trade 

 would soon disappear." Mr. Eeade, rejecting 

 this charge against Europeans in Upper Egypt 

 as impossible, the whole number of whom, he 

 says, is under a dozen, and who are regarded 

 with much jealousy by the local authorities, 

 proceeds to say : 



It is, however, a matter of public notoriety that 

 from ten to fifteen thousand slaves are annually 

 brought down the Nile to Cairo, while an equal or 

 even greater number find their way to Sou akin and 

 the Eed Sea. The principal dealers are well known, 

 and allowed by the local authorities to pursue unmo- 

 lested their abominable traffic. True it is that some 

 of these delinquents are occasionally arrested and 

 their property confiscated, and sometimes a few 

 slaves are even set at liberty ; but the great bulk of 

 the trade is tacitly sanctioned, if not actually con- 

 nived at, by the authorities themselves. At Galabat, 

 on the Abyssinian frontier, an enormous slave-mart 

 is constantly open. Two hundred Nile-boats, em- 

 ployed regularly in this trade, are permitted to navi- 

 gate with impunity, upon the payment for every 

 voyage they make of a certain tribute to the local 

 authorities, while a similar impost is levied on every 

 slave caravan that passes along the desert of Korusco. 



If, my lord, the Egyptian Government were sin- 

 cerely desirous of checking the progress of so great 

 an evil, a good opportunity is now afforded to it for 

 inflicting a severe blow on the slave-trade in this 

 part of the world. I must confess, however, I am 

 far from sanguine that much can be expected from 

 that government of its own volition, and for several 

 reasons: 1. That important persons and function- 

 aries of the government denve considerable profit 

 and advantage from the trade, either directly or indi- 

 rectly directly, because their palaces, houses, and 

 estates are supplied with slave labor j indirectly, be- 

 cause inasmuch as the trade is ostensibly a forbidden 

 one, they are enabled to levy on the dealers heavy 

 toll for permission to evade the law. 2. That the 

 army of Egypt is largely recruited from the male 

 black adult slaves. And 3. That the fellahs, or farm- 

 er population, are glad to have the means of sending 

 as substitutes for themselves and children, when 

 summoned by the government to forced labor, slaves 

 bought at these marts. 



Mr. Keade, in the disguise of an Arab, visited 

 a number of slave-markets in Cairo and Tan- 

 tah. In the former city he saw between two 

 hundred and fifty and three hundred. There 

 would have been three thousand on sale there, 

 but the greater number had been removed to 



