EGYPT. 



305 



1860 ; and " Lessons on the Comparative Anat- 

 omy and Physiology of Man and Animals," in 

 14 volumes, 1857 to 1880. He was a member 

 of all the principal scientific societies in the 

 world ; the Royal Society gave him the Cop- 

 ley medal in 1856, and the Scientific Society 

 of the Netherlands made to him its first award 

 of the grand Boerhaave medal in 1880. He 

 offered his services as a physician freely to the 

 city of Paris in the cholera epidemic of 1852 ; 

 and during the Franco-German War of 1870 he 

 organized a company of engineers out of the 

 employe's of the scientific establishments, and 

 worked diligently, while the city was exposed 

 to bombardment and fire, to save their collec- 

 tions. 



EGYPT, a principality of northern Africa, 

 tributary to Turkey. Mehemet Ali, the gov- 

 ernor, rebelled against the Porte in 1811 and 

 assumed the powers of government. In 1841 

 he was recognized under the guarantee of the 

 five great powers of Europe as Vali or Viceroy, 

 and the sovereign authority was made heredi- 

 tary under the Turkish law of succession. In 

 1863 Ismail obtained a firman creating him 

 Viceroy, and subsequently, in consideration 

 of his increasing his annual contributions by 

 $1,720,000, the Sultan conferred upon him by 

 an imperial firman (1866) the Persian-Ara- 

 bic title of Khidiv-el-Misr, or King of Egypt, 

 commonly pronounced Khedive, following the 

 French pronunciation. By another firman he 

 obtained the right of making treaties and in- 

 creasing the standing army, and the right of 

 succession was changed from the eldest male 

 heir, as prescribed by the Koranic law, to 

 the eldest son. Halim, his uncle, was driven 

 from the country, and his immense estates 

 were confiscated. He fled to Constantinople, 

 where he has never ceased to urge his claims 

 as the lawful heir to the throne. Ismail de- 

 veloped an insatiable thirst for wasteful ex- 

 penditure. In 1878 the financial condition of 

 Egypt had become so perilous that a commis- 

 sion of inquiry was formed conjointly by Eng- 

 land, France, Austria, and Italy. In their re- 

 port it was charged that Ismail had been the 

 cause of the deplorable situation in Egypt, 

 and that he ought in consequence to be held 

 responsible, and to this end they caused him 

 to cede to the state (1) all the property of 

 the Dairas Sanieh and Kassa, and (2) all the 

 property held in the name of the khedivial 

 family. In fact, it was discovered that Ismail 

 had appropriated to himself 505,000 acres of 

 land, and had distributed among the princes of 

 his family 423,729 acres. The principle of Vetat 

 c'est moi was inherent in Ismail. Embarrassed 

 by the rigid inquisitions of the representatives 

 of the powers, Ismail resolved, as Mr. Vivien, 

 the English consul-general, has said in his dis- 

 patches, "to finish by one of those dramatic 

 incidents which one may see only in history 

 and in Oriental life." He arrested his finance 

 ': minister and foster-brother, Ismail Pasha the 

 , Mouffetish, a man of immense wealth, who, 

 VOL. xxv. 20 A 



brought to a mock trial, was condemned to 

 exile, but in reality was either poisoned or 

 thrown into the Nile. Ismail confiscated to 

 his own use his great wealth, but it was in- 

 sufficient to tide him over the crisis it only 

 deferred it. On the 26th of June, 1879, he 

 was deposed, and his son Tewfik ascended the 

 throne. 



The Government was now really adminis- 

 tered under the supervision of two controllers- 

 general, appointed one by the French and the 

 other by the British Government, who were 

 given the right to investigate all the depart- 

 ments of the public service, and an advisory 

 voice at the councils of the Cabinet. By a de- 

 cree of the Khedive, issued April 5, 1880, an 

 International Commission of Liquidation was 

 appointed to elaborate a financial law to regu- 

 late the relations of Egypt with her creditors. 

 The scheme consolidating the foreign debts, 

 fixing the interest at 4 per cent., and reserving 

 certain revenues to meet it, was sanctioned by 

 the Khedive in 1881. That same year a politi- 

 cal movement was set on foot to deprive the 

 controllers of the extraordinary powers they had 

 assumed over legislation and administration, 

 and to place the powers of government in native 

 hands. From the emeute in the streets of Cairo 

 in 1879, however, down to the massacre of the 

 llth of June, and the bombardment and burn- 

 ing of Alexandria on the llth of July, 1882, 

 there was little if anything to appeal to the 

 sympathies of Europe in the movement inau- 

 gurated exclusively by the military. Prior to 

 the year 1882 the wrongs of the fellah had 

 been remedied. For the first time in his 'life 

 he was emancipated, and he owed his disen- 

 thrallment to the condominium of England and 

 France, which had secured him (1) the sup- 

 pression of onerous and vexatious taxes, and 

 the tax-gatherer placed under inspection ; (2) 

 the adoption of a fixed and equitable term 

 of military service, to replace the perpetual 

 service to which he had been condemned, and 

 from which he could purchase exemption only 

 by an excessive lacTcsheesh. Oppressed by tax- 

 es, he was before the condominium a mere chat- 

 tel attached to the glebe, or a soldier in the 

 ranks until death. The National party in Egypt 

 was a phantasy it had no real existence. The 

 insurrection of Arabi was composed of a little 

 band of plebeian fellah beys who were playing 

 the Mameluke. They aimed at the creation of a 

 military power ; and in this they were aided by 

 the religious institution of El-Azhar, which con- 

 tributed money and breathed into the pa- 

 tient fellah the spirit of religious fanaticism 

 which later at Alexandria and Tantah was to 

 burst out in a flame of blood. Mr. Gladstone 

 truly said about that time: "It is a state 

 of military violence aggravated by cruel and 

 wanton crime; and within the circuit of associa- 

 tions such as these freedom can not grow," add- 

 ing that it had been charitably believed in Eng- 

 land that the military party was the popular 

 party, struggling for the liberties of Egypt. 



