306 



EGYPT. 



" There is not," said he, "the smallest ray or 

 shred of evidence to support that contention." 



The unaccountable failure of the naval forces 

 of England and France to punish the massacre 

 of the llth of June for these two powers were 

 the custodians de jure of the peace of Egypt 

 under the treaty led to the bombardment on 

 the llth July of Alexandria, a necessity that 

 grew out of the refusal to act one month be- 

 fore. The French Government declining to 

 act in concert with England, gave rise to 

 a feeling of hostility between these two pow- 

 ers, which may not be allayed until England 

 shall name some definite period when she will 

 withdraw from Egypt, and that country be 

 committed to a condominium in which all the 

 great powers shall be represented. The insur- 

 rection was virtually suppressed in September, 

 1882, after t\\z fiasco of the rebel army at Tel- 

 el-Kebir. The Egyptian army was disbanded, 

 and Sir Evelyn Wood charged with its reor- 

 ganization, in which, with a gendarmerie, Eng- 

 lish officers were incorporated. The subse- 

 quent defeat of this new force in the opera- 

 tions having Suakin for their base, leaves Egypt 

 dependent for any offensive operations upon 

 the English army of occupation. Sherif Pa- 

 sha's ministry, unwilling to carry out the plan 

 proposed by Lord Dufferin to abandon the 

 Soudan, resigned, and was succeeded by Nubar 

 Pasha, of whom Gen. Gordon, in his book, 

 " Colonel Gordon in Central Africa," has writ- 

 ten, "Nubar has never been to Egypt more 

 than a comparatively low-born Armenian, who 

 was clever enough to dispute with the consuls- 

 general, and who, when Minister of Foreign 

 Affairs and in the Privy Council, was fully 

 aware of all the loans, etc., of the Mouffetish." 

 Nubar is a German subject, but has always 

 been a ready instrument to further British in- 

 terests. It is significant, therefore, that he is 

 still Minister of Foreign Affairs under British 

 rule in Egypt. 



Area and Population. Egypt proper is con- 

 tained within the limits of the narrow valley 

 beginning at the cataracts of Assouan in 

 24 5' 23" N., where it has a width of about 

 five kilometres, spreading as the Nile descends 

 to an average of twenty-five to thirty kilo- 

 metres, and then widening into the large plain 

 through which the Nile flows in two branches 

 and j>ours into the Mediterranean in latitude 

 31-5. The Nile, in its sinuous course from 

 Assouan, covers a distance of 1,415 kilometres. 

 The length of the delta, from the point where 

 it bifurcates to the sea, is 175 kilometres in 

 a straight line, and from Aboukir to the Pe- 

 luse it has a width of 250 kilometres. It has 

 an area of 29,400 square kilometres, being 

 nearly the exact size of Belgium (29,455 kilo- 

 metres). The Government has divided Egypt 

 into Lower and Upper Egypt, and these in turn 

 are subdivided into moudiriehs or provinces, 

 which are placed under the control of govern- 

 ors and sub-governors, called Moudirs and 

 Nazirs. The amount of land in the moudiriehs 



of these two great divisions of the country, ex- 

 clusive of sandy wastes and uninhabitable parts, 

 is 5,977,433 feddan*; to which may be added 

 lands growing date-trees, surface of Nile from 

 Wady Halfai to the sea, surface of canals, rail- 

 ways, dikes and roads, towns, fortifications, 

 marshes, sandy hills, lakes, etc., 7,782,7J73/ed- 

 dans. A feddan is nearly equivalent to an 

 acre. Kharadji and ouchouri are terms de- 

 noting fiscal divisions of land. According to 

 the budget of 1884, the average tax per feddan 

 on ouchouri was 51 piasters, while the tax 

 upon kharadji was 128J piasters. The agri- 

 cultural population forms 61 per cent, of the 

 total, the foreign 1-84 per cent. Taken by 

 nationalities, the number of foreigners in Egypt, 

 according to last census, was Greeks, 37,301 ; 

 Italians, 18,665; French, 15,716; Austrians, 

 8,022; English, 6,118; Germans, 948; other 

 foreigners, 4,116 total, 90,886; native, 6,469,- 

 716; nomad, 245,779 total, 6,715,495. A 

 comparison of the official census of the year 

 1846 with that of 1882 shows an annual in- 

 crease in the population of about 1*25 percent. 

 The population of the principal cities and towns 

 in 1883 was Cairo, 368,108; Alexandria, 208,- 

 755 ; Damietta, 34,046 ; Tantah, 33,725; Man- 

 sourah, 26,784; Zagazig, 19,046; Rosetta, 16,- 

 671; Port Said, 16,560; Suez, 10,913. 



Government. The administration of Lower 

 and Upper Egypt has been divided into 14 

 moudiriehs. Lower Egypt comprises the mou- 

 diriehs of Kaloubieh, with chef-lieu at Benha; 

 Charkieh, at Zagazig; Dakalieh, at Mansou- 

 rah; Menoufieh, at Chebin; Gharbieh, at Tan- 

 tah ; Beherrah, atDamanhour ; Giseh, at Giseh. 

 In Upper Egypt, Benisouef, with chef -lieu at 

 Benisouef ; Fayoum, at Medi net -el -Fayoum; 

 Minieh, at Minieh; Siout, at Siout; Girgeh, at 

 Sonhag; Keneh, at Keneh; Esneb, at Esneh. 

 The cities of Cairo, Alexandria, Suez, Ismailia, 

 Port Said, Rosetta, and Damietta, have each 

 a governor and a prefect of police. 



Since 1882 a body of gendarmery has been 

 formed for the provinces, and a special corps 

 of police for Alexandria and Cairo. 



On the 1st of January anew organization of 

 police came into force, and was placed under 

 the direct control of a director-general attached 

 to the Ministry of the Interior. In February, 

 1884, new criminal codes were adopted, which 

 were intended to supersede the magisterial 

 power, until then invested in the moudirs. The 

 moudirs, under the present system, are now 

 authorized to investigate all complaints and 

 submit the result to the council of judges of the 

 native courts. The cadi, who is clothed with a 

 religious character as well, acts in conjunction 

 with the mudir, and as a sort of justice of tl 

 peace of the commune. As formerly, t 

 Sheilc-ul-hlam, residing in Cairo, is umpire ii 

 all religious matters. An attempt has been 

 made to constitute native courts after the man 

 ner of the mixed tribunals or courts of reform, 

 which were instituted by the powers to replace 

 in a measure consular courts, in 1875. The 



