EGYPT. 



country, and each commercial enterprises as 

 lie deemed conducive to the prosperity and 

 progress of his people. 



Industrial and commercial enterprises of all 

 kinds have been welcomed. Hut the Khedive, 

 whose authorization is necessary before any 

 corporation can be established, has tirmly set 

 his face against the acquisition of lands by for- 

 eign agricultural companies. In this he has 

 been seconded by the comptrollers. 



Egypt has become, in the way explained 

 above, the ward of the Christian powers. 

 There are fourteen governments that claim 

 the right of intervention which England and 

 France have exercised as trustees for the rest. 

 England and France, though acting thus far in 

 harmony, are the chief rivals for the reversion 

 of this part of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey 

 was allowed to take advantage of the situation, 

 to strengthen her hold on Egypt. By the fir- 

 man of 1879, which confirmed Tevfik on the 

 throne, the Sultan annulled the practical inde- 

 pendence which Ismail had purchased at an 

 enormous price, and reasserted his sovereignty 

 in principle by depriving the Khedive of the 

 power of contracting foreign loans and that of 

 indefinitely increasing the army. The limit to 

 which the military establishment is restricted 

 is 18,000 men. Germany, Austria, and Italy 

 do not let the claims of either England or 

 France pass unchallenged. They are seeking 

 to extend their prestige in Egypt. They may 

 cry " Stop ! " by their united voice in the Euro- 

 pean concert, to the aggressions of either of the 

 rivals. The French are the most firinly seated 

 in Egypt; they have done the most for the 

 country, and now exploit it as a commercial 

 dependency, while English mercantile interests 

 in Egypt are waning at present. Yet the old 

 boast that the Mediterranean will become " a 

 French lake " is not now uttered openly. The 

 recent extension of French dominion on the 

 northern coast of Africa has not only awak- 

 ened the distrust of the English, but has caused 

 serious alarm in Egypt. Great Britain, since 

 the construction of the Suez Canal, claims 

 Egypt as her own property by the right of the 

 stronger, and is prepared to occupy and hold 

 the country with her whole military strength 

 against all comers, and to supersede the gov- 

 ernment and subjugate the people the moment 

 the submission required by her "paramount 

 interests" is refused. 



The change from national independence to a 

 mediatized condition, in which the functions 

 of government were exercised by the agents 

 of European powers, and the Franks were 

 insinuating themselves into all the positions 

 of profit and authority, and in which the 

 Sultan was making his regained sovereignty 

 unpleasantly felt, had its natural outcome in 

 a national movement. This movement took 

 form in 1881. It conflicted with the policy 

 adopted by the Khedive ; but from his nature 

 and his position he could not help being in 

 some respects morally identified with it. The 



natural champions of the native cause were the 

 army, the only institution which had not been 

 denationalized, and the class which would least 

 appreciate the good in the foreign innovations. 

 The soldiers had a grievance of their own: 

 their native officers were being displaced by 

 Turks. Smarting under this wrong, tin 

 sumed the character of the Janizaries of old, 

 with a determination which made it apparent 

 that foreign domination can not acquire much 

 moral strength and authority, even over so 

 docile and submissive a people as the Egyptians, 

 from mere diplomatic arrangements. 



A mutiny of troops broke out at Cairo on 

 the 2d of February, of such dimensions that 

 the Government was intimidated, and allowed 

 its course to be dictated by the soldiery. Dis- 

 satisfaction had been felt for some time by the 

 Arab officers at the conduct of the Minister of 

 War, Osman Reski Pasha. The minister, who 

 was of Circassian origin, offended the native 

 officers by giving appointments to Turkish offi- 

 cers and favoring them, while he treated the 

 Arabs with arrogance and contempt. The 

 colonel of the body-guards and the colonels of 

 the two other regiments stationed at Cairo 

 presented a petition to the Viceroy, requesting 

 the removal of the Minister of War. The ad- 

 dress was handed to the Prime Minister, Riaz 

 Pasha, who in the course of time sent it to the 

 Minister of War. The latter called a council of 

 war, and ordered the three colonels to be placed 

 under arrest. The guard regiment, as soon as 

 they heard of the arrest of their colonel, stormed 

 the arsenal where the officers were confined, 

 and where the investigating board was sitting. 

 Osman Pasha escaped by flight, and Eflatun 

 Pasha, his deputy, and General Stone Pasha, 

 the American chief of the staff, were mal- 

 treated. Finally, the imprisoned officers were 

 found and borne away in triumph to the Abdin 

 Palace, which was surrounded by the troops, 

 boisterously demanding an audience with the 

 Khedive, to whom they reiterated the demand 

 for the dismissal of Osman. The Khedive in- 

 dignantly ordered the insubordinate colonels 

 to give up their swords, and met with a flat 

 refusal. The ministers came to the "Viceroy and 

 took council. After some deliberation they 

 concluded that it was best to yield. The sol- 

 diers, after they were told that Osman was re- 

 moved, and Mahmoud Sami Pasha el Barudis, 

 at the time Minister of the Wagf, or Public 

 Institutions, appointed in his place, departed 

 with salutes and cheers. 



The most popular of the refractory colonels, 

 Ahmed Araby Bey, became the leader of the 

 native cause. He possessed all the qualities 

 of a patriot leader and champion of popu- 

 lar rights. In the time of Ismail he had been 

 deprived of his rank through caprice, and suc- 

 ceeded in being restored. From that time he 

 determined to devote his efforts to obtaining 

 the privilege of a fair trial for the officers of 

 the army before they could be dismissed. His 

 sympathies soon extended over a wider field. 



