234 



EGYPT. 



(born 1816), who followed, on January 18, 

 1863, his brother Said as the fifth Viceroy of 

 Egypt. A Council of State (created in 1856) 

 is at the head of the administration. The area 

 of Egypt is 659,000 English square miles. It 

 has 7,465,000 inhabitants, 4,306,691 inhabiting 

 Egypt proper. The chief cities are Cairo, 

 282,348 inhabitants ; Alexandria, 180,796 ; Da- 

 mietta, 57,000 ; Tantah, 55,000. 



The Khedive, in 1869, called Prof. Brugsch, 

 of the University of Berlin, to Egypt, to estab- 

 lish an Egyptian university at Cairo, and to be 

 the president of the department of Egyptian 

 Language and Literature. A preparatory school 

 and a polytechnic school have already been 

 opened. Thus far the university consists of 

 five departments, besides the two already men- 

 tioned, of a law-school, a school of drawing, 

 and a commercial school. A sixth depart- 

 ment, a school of Egyptology, was soon to be 

 added. The latter school will admit twenty- 

 four pupils, who will find in the house of the 

 director lodging and superintendence. Foreign 

 students are received on condition that, after 

 completing their studies, they remain for sev- 

 eral years in the service of the Egyptian Gov- 

 ernment. The whole of the university is under 

 the management of the learned Aali Pacha 

 Mubarek, the son of a fellah in Upper Egypt, 

 who, at the same time, is at the head of the 

 whole department of public instruction. 



The total receipts for the year ending Sep- 

 tember 9, 1866, according to the official budget, 

 amounted to 1,458,112 purses, and the total 

 expenditure to 941,227 purses (500 piastres = 

 1 purse, 20 piastres = 1 American dollar). The 

 public debt amounted in October, 1869, to 

 29,000,000 sterling. The value of the com- 

 merce of Alexandria with foreign countries 

 was, in 1868: imports, 531,600,000 piastres, 

 (225,800,000 from Great Britain); exports, 

 930,700,000 (707,400,000 to Great Britain and 

 111,700,000 to France). There entered in Al- 

 exandria, in 1868, 2,616 vessels with a tonnage 

 of 1,483,585 ; 948 of which vessels were steam- 

 ers ; passengers, 43,538. The length of tele- 

 graphs is about 2,000 English miles. 



The relations of Egypt to Turkey, in 1869, 

 were any thing but friendly. The Sultan is 

 the nominal sovereign of the country, but 

 without real influence upon its Government. 

 The Turkish Government is alarmed at the 

 growing power of the Khedive, while the lat- 

 ter strives to obtain unlimited sovereignty. 

 The immense importance of the Suez Canal 

 has increased the illy-concealed aspirations of 

 the Viceroy and aroused the suspicions, jealousy, 

 and fears of the Porte. The Turkish Govern- 

 ment took particular offence at the journey 

 made in 1869 by the Viceroy to the courts of 

 the European princes, to invite them to attend 

 the opening of the Suez Canal. At Constan- 

 tinople they were of opinion that the Viceroy 

 had no right to issue the invitations in his own 

 name, but that he was, on the contrary, bound 

 first to invite the Sultan, and to send through 



him the invitations to other monarchs. The 

 step of the Viceroy was regarded as a proof of 

 his suspected intention to establish the entire 

 independence of Egypt. The Turquie of 

 Constantinople (an official organ) remarked 

 that the Viceroy "gave himself the airs of an 

 independent sovereign," and that he " con- 

 temptuously ignored " the suzerain rights of 

 the Porte. Alluding to the report that the object 

 of the Viceroy's European tour was to induce 

 "one of the great powers" to raise its con- 

 sulate in Egypt to the rank of a legation, and 

 to negotiate with the other signers of the 

 Treaty of Paris for the purpose of obtaining 

 the neutralization of the Suez Canal, the Tur- 

 quie said that this would be "an act of treason 

 which would nullify all the privileges given to 

 Egypt by the Sultans, as well as the conces- 

 sions which its governors only owed to the 

 generosity of their suzerains." 



In August, the Grand- Vizier addressed, in 

 the name of the Sultan, a letter to the Viceroy, 

 fully detailing the complaints of Turkey. It 

 was as follows : 



Your Highness is aware of all the various rumors 

 and apprehensions to which the object and chief aim 

 of your journey^to Europe have given rise both in 

 the press and in the cabinets. At the moment 

 when these rumors were everywhere circulating, it 

 appeared to us that a frank and loyal explanation 

 would be the sole means to remove all doubts and 

 difficulties to which they might give rise. By order 

 of our august master, therefore, I avail myself of your 

 Highness' s return to Egypt to address to you what 

 follows. The high confidence and benevolence of 

 his Imperial Majesty toward your Highness have 

 been shown by too many visible and material proofs 

 to render it necessary for me to dilate thereupon. 

 At & moment when it was in the midst of the 

 gravest political complications, the Imperial Govern- 

 ment, while modifying them, did not refuse to grant 

 the various demands^ which you addressed to it. 

 though in the eyes of" the world these demands did 

 not seem to harmonize with the sentiments of loyalty 

 which our august master had a right to expect from 

 you. 



This circumstance and the strange conduct of the 

 Egyptian troops on their arrival and at the commence- 

 ment of their stay in Crete, on the occasion of the 

 last insurrection in that^island, and the precipitation 

 with which they were withdrawn, together with other 

 similar incidents, had been almost forgotten by his 

 Imperial Majesty the Sultan, with the sole view of 

 giving your Highness yet another proof of the be- 



toward you. Thus your Highness will admit that 

 not only did his Majesty show no desire to trammel 

 the continuance of your power within its designated 

 limits, but that he has also spared neither aid nor fa- 

 cility in your interest. The great country of Egypt, 

 which is placed under the administration of your 

 Highness, being one of the most important territorial 

 possessions of his Imperial Majesty, the well-being 

 and prosperity of its inhabitants are naturally the 

 object of nis most lively solicitude. In consequence 

 and in virtue of his right as sovereign of the country, 

 our august master would be entitled to exercise a 

 supervision over the expenditure which weighs so 

 heavily on the present as on the future of Egypt. 

 If this supervision has not been exercised, if the 

 other rights and duties specified by the imperial 

 firmans which conferred the hereditary administra- 

 tion upon your family have not been invoked, it has 

 been not because his Majesty meant for a moment to 

 renounce any one of either his rights or his duties, 



