ECUADOR. 



a<|iiil addressed a petition on the subject 

 tu th Executive, on tin- inth of July. Theap- 

 peii! met with an immediate response, the bank 

 having at once exchanged its notes \\iihuut 

 any restriction whatever, and druwii bills at 

 4o per cent. 



A Guayaquil paper, evidently echoing the 

 public voice, presented the following com- 

 plaint : " The monetary crisis, which, for 

 time back, has been assuming colossal 

 proportions, has sunk the republic into a very 

 painful condition; commerce is uncertain; pub- 

 lic expenses are limited; and social ruin is 

 threatened." 



The following decree relating to the national 

 debt was sanctioned by the Congress about the 

 beginning of 1874 : 



ARTICLK 1. In future will belong to the inscribed 

 debt : Notes issued by the offices of public credit, 

 whatever the source of the obligation legitimizing 

 the same ; the amounts in arrears for salaries and 

 pensions, whether civil, military, diplomatic, or 

 financial, during the legitimate administrations of 

 the republic, or recognized by the capitulation of the 



EGYPT. 



275 



26th of September, 1861 ; and the interests for loans 

 decreed and exacted by the Government prior to 

 1869. Special paragraph : For the amortization of these 

 credits it will be requisite to exchange the docu- 

 ments representing the same against notes of public 

 credit. 



ART. 2. The inscribed debt will be amortized (with 

 distinction as to origin) with the product of the tax 

 on the transfer of properties, as established by de- 

 cree of February 29, 1869. Special paragraph : Dating 

 from January 1, 1874, it will be paid in cash only, at 

 the rate of 4 percent., until the amortization referred 

 to in the present law is effected. The rate will bo 

 reduced to 2 per cent, in cash from the first day of 

 the year following the entire amortization. 



ABT. 8. Every six months the creditors included 

 in the inscribed debt will be called together ; the 

 sum available for distribution among them will then 

 be announced; and paid to those offering the best 

 terms to the Treasury. No proposal exceeding 10 

 per cent, to be received. 



AKT. 4. -This decree modifies the 1st and 2d Arti- 

 cles of the decree of February 20, 1869, and Articles 

 2 and 5 of the Law of Public Credit of June 15, 1861. 



This decree was followed shortly after by 

 another : 



ARTICLE 1. Ten per cent, of the part of the Church 

 revenue (di&mot) belonging to the state shall be re- 

 mitted annually by the Executive to our Holy Father 

 during the embarrassing circumstances with which 

 he is now afflicted, and as an offer of justice, loyalty, 

 and reverence, that the Ecuadorian people make to 

 the head of the Church. 



ART. 2. That the present decree shall be consid- 

 ered in force as from the beginning of the present 

 year. 



The President, in justification of the decree, 

 adduced the following reasons: "That the 

 Catholic population should contribute to the 

 sustenance of the universal Government of the 

 Church ; that this duty is more required at 

 present, when our Holy Father finds himself 

 despoiled by iniquitous usurpations of his lands 

 and incomes, and when no Catholic Govern- 

 ment should fear to comply ; and that the cir- 

 cumstances of the republic permit it to give in 

 some manner a solemn testimonial of their ad- 

 IK-SOII to the Holy See." 



The chief article! of export, with their yaloe 

 and the quantities thereof bhipped in 1873, 

 were as follows : 



K(i YPT, a country of Northeastern Africa, 

 nominally a pashalik of the Turkish Empire, 

 but virtually an independent state since 1811. 

 The ruler of Egypt, who has the name of 

 Khedive, is Ismail Pasha, born at Cairo in 

 1830, second son of Ibrahim, the son of Me- 

 hemet AH, succeeded to the government at the 

 death of his uncle, Saul Pasha, January 18, 

 1863; heir-apparent is the eldest son of the 

 Khedive, Mechmed Tefwick. The territories 

 under tlje rule of the Khedive are estimated 

 at 659,100 square miles; the Egyptian statis- 

 tician De Regny (in his work, u Statistique de 

 1'Egypte d'apres des Documents officiels," vol. 

 iv., 1873) claims 927,000 square miles. Since 

 then Sir Samuel Baker has proclaimed the an- 

 nexation of a large portion of Central Africa, 

 extending to the southward as far as the equa- 

 tor, to the dominions of the Khedive ; and 

 Colonel Gordon, in 1874, has been sent there 

 at the head of a new expedition, to confirm 

 the Egyptian rule. In addition to these im- 

 mense tracts of land, the entire kingdom of 

 Darfour was, toward the close of the year 1874, 

 incorporated with the dominions of the Khedive. 

 If, as appears to be probable, the incorporation 

 of these territories with Egypt should be per- 

 manent, the Khedive will rule over an empire 

 extending over an area of at least 1,500,000 

 square miles, with a population of some 20,- 

 000,000. At all events it seems probable that 

 Egypt will not only remain as it now is, the most 

 prominent among the native states of Africa, 

 but will become, ere long, one of the largest em- 

 pires of the globe. The population of Egypt 

 proper is given by Regny as 5,251,757 in 1872 ; 

 that of the entire Egyptian Empire is estimated 

 at about 8.700,000. The population of Egypt 

 proper was in 1872 divided as follows : 



The following table shows the strength of the 

 several nationalities to which the foreign popu- 

 lation in 1873 belonged : 



English 8,000 



Germans 1,100 



Other nationalities. . . 1.890 



Greeks 84.000 



French 17,000 



Italians 18,906 



Americans 6,800 





