240 



EGYPT. 



any international contract, were excluded from 

 parliamentary discussion. 



The Chamber of Notables was made up from 

 among the Omdes, or district magistrates, of 

 whom there are five or six hundred in Egypt. 

 The Omdes are elected by the Sheiks-el-Beled, 

 or village chiefs, of each district, from out of 

 their number. The Sheiks-el-Beled are usually 

 the wealthiest and most influential land-owners 

 of their communes. They obey the Omdes as 

 blindly as the fellaheen obey them. The entire 

 administrative system is in the hands of these 

 two grades of local magistrates, who owe their 

 position to the choice of the people, among 

 whom they must permanently reside. 



The national movement was not set on foot 

 by the military party, but was already in prog- 

 ress. The best men in Egypt of both religions 

 were studying over some practical means of 

 escape from the grasp of the united dominion. 

 The grievances of the half -starved officers of 

 the army and displaced officials were only in- 

 cidents of a movement which proceeded from 

 a sense of wrong pervading all classes. The 

 native merchants and the city population had 

 murmured for years at the privileges secured 

 by firmans, which enabled their foreign com- 

 petitors to leave them behind, and the hearts 

 of the fellaheen were full of sullen rage against 

 the invading horde who fattened on their labor. 

 The public debt, which consumed two thirds 

 of the taxes that ground them to the earth, 

 was known to be a usurious imposition; but 

 it was of Ismail's making, ard its payment was 

 required with unbending rigor by the Western 

 powers. It was, therefore, accepted as a Ms- 

 met from which there was no escape. The in- 

 justice of the repudiation of the Moukabalah, 

 however, rankled in their souls. The shrewd 

 and prudent leaders of the National party 

 based their appeal for self-government on the 

 full satisfaction of the claims of the bondhold- 

 ers as a prime condition. Sherif Pasha, the 

 new Prime Minister, was, as the most dis- 

 tinguished and respected statesman in Egypt, a 

 fit representative of the national aspirations 

 before the outside world, while Sultan Pasha, 

 the President of the Assembly of Notables, 

 was more distinctly a guide and intellectual 

 leader of the movement. 



The project of organization, submitted to 

 the Chamber by Sherif Pasha, embodied the 

 usual forms of representative government, but 

 did not permit it to trench upon the ground 

 occupied by the Control. The members were 

 to be elected for four years, to draw pay, and 

 enjoy immunity from arrest. The sessions were 

 to be annual, and opened by a speech from the 

 Khedive or a delegated minister. Ministers or 

 deputed officials could take part in the dis- 

 cussion. Ministers were to be responsible for 

 acts infringing on the rights of the Parliament, 

 and to be bound to furnish explanations of 

 matters within the jurisdiction of the Cham- 

 ber. The Khedive could dissolve the Chamber, 

 but must order a new election, to take place 



within four months. The Chamber should dis- 

 cuss and vote upon every law submitted by the 

 ministry, and could express an opinion upon 

 the budget. They could pass no laws except 

 those laid before them by the ministers. No 

 new tax could be imposed without being voted 

 by the Chamber. The Khedive and ministers 

 could act without the Chamber in urgent cases, 

 but must communicate their proceedings. The 

 old Chamber, established by Ismail Pasha in 

 1865, was a merely advisory body. Sherif 

 Pasha wished to revive the Parliament in 1879, 

 and introduce the principle of ministerial re- 

 sponsibility. 



The Chamber of Notables, upon assembling, 

 prepared another project, which would give 

 them full constitutional powers. They de- 

 clared, as had Arabi and the National party all 

 along, that the Control and the liquidation set- 

 tlement were inviolable; but they demanded 

 that the budget should be submitted to them. 

 As the estimates for 1882 had been prepared, 

 they did not ask to vote the appropriations for 

 the current year, but insisted on the right to 

 discuss and vote supplies thereafter. They de- 

 manded full ministerial responsibility, requiring 

 that the Khedive should not retain his ministers 

 after they had lost the confidence of the Cham- 

 ber. Also the initiative in legislation, to the 

 extent that the ministry should consider laws 

 originating in the Chamber; and, if it would 

 not ratify them, that it should state good rea- 

 sons for its refusal. They claimed, further- 

 more, the right to investigate the conduct of 

 officials. 



Sherif Pasha possessed the confidence of the 

 English, and hoped to solve the difficulties of 

 the situation. But the Nationalists insisted on 

 giving the Notables the control of the admin- 

 istration and of public expenditures. On the 

 4th of January Arabi Bey was taken into the 

 Cabinet as Assistant Minister of War. Weeks 

 were spent in trying to negotiate a compromise 

 between the ministers' project of organization 

 and that of the Notables ; but, the Controllers- 

 General, instructed by their governments, set 

 their faces firmly against all the demands of the 

 Chamber. 



The identical note of the Western powers, in 

 which they declared that they would defend 

 the Khedive from all inner and outer dangers, 

 was based only on a vague and fugitive agree- 

 ment. It was presented January 7th, and con- 

 tained the following menacing language, which 

 was understood to veto the demand for consti- 

 tutional government in Egypt, and to warn 

 the Porte against taking independent action : 



The two governments are closely associated in their 

 determination to ward off by their united^ efforts all 

 causes of internal and external complications which 

 might menace the order of tilings established in Egypt. 

 They have no doubt that the publicly expressed as- 

 surance of their intention in this respect will contrib- 

 ute to prevent dangers which the Khedive's govern- 

 ment might have to dread, which dangers, moreover, 

 would certainly find England and France united to 

 face them. 



