EGYPT. 



193 



feet deep, steamers and other vessels of deep 

 draught that formerly were unable to enter the 

 port in rough weather can run in at all times and 

 can load and unload without lightering. 



Railroads, Posts, and Telegraphs. The rail- 

 roads belonging to the state system that were 

 completed and in operation on Jan. 1, 1899, were 

 1,1(50 miles long, besides which were 72 miles of 

 lines belonging to companies, making a total 

 length of 1,238 miles, of which 825 miles were in 

 the delta and 413 miles in upper Egypt. The Gov- 

 ernment had in process of construction 290 miles, 

 and companies had 64 miles. Besides these there 

 were 390 miles of agricultural railroads in the 

 Daira Sanieh estates; neither is the military rail- 

 road in the Soudan included. Concessions had 

 been granted for 230 miles of narrow-gauge rail- 

 roads in the delta. During 1899 there were 209 

 miles of new standard-gauge railroads opened to 

 traffic, making 430 miles constructed since 1897. 

 The construction of agricultural railroads pro- 

 gresses steadily, and on Jan. 1, 1900, there were 

 1,400 miles of these. Locomotives, cars, bridge 

 work, and other material have recently been ob- 

 tained largely from the United States, where the 

 manufacturers were able to furnish rolling stock 

 made after their own standard designs in less time 

 and at lower prices than British manufacturers 

 could tender. The railroad traffic in 1898 on 1,214 

 miles completed was 11,312,400 passengers and 

 2,786,780 tons of freight; gross receipts, E. 2,- 

 031,869; working expenses, E. 917,536; net re- 

 ceipts, E. 1,114,033; equal to 55 per cent, of the 

 gross receipts. 



The number of letters and postal cards carried 

 in the mails during 1898 was 14,733,000, of which 

 12,260,000 were domestic and 2,473,000 foreign; 

 neAvspapers, 8,040,000, of which 7,100,000 were 

 domestic and 940,000 foreign; parcels, 563,800, of 

 which 274,000 were domestic and 289,800 foreign; 

 postal orders and remittances, 563,800, amounting 

 to E. 16,437,000. 



The telegraph lines are the property of the Gov- 

 ernment. On Jan. 1, 1899, they had a total length 

 of 2,105 miles, with 9,364 miles of wire. The num- 

 ber of messages in 1898 was 2,743,788. 



The Suez Canal. The number of vessels that 

 passed through the Suez Canal during 1898 was 

 3,503, of 12,962,632 tons, of which 2.295, of 8,691,- 

 093 tons, were British; 356, of 1,353,161 tons, 

 German; 221, of 891,642 tons, French; 193, of 

 526,478 tons, Dutch; 85, of 300,251 tons, Austro- 

 Hungarian; 46, of 261,602 tons, Japanese; 48, of 

 243,381 tons, Russian; 49, of 232,358 tons, Span- 

 ish; 74, of 208,418 tons, Italian; 47, of 109,709 

 tons, Norwegian; 54, of 83,541 tons, Turkish; 8, 

 of 30,228 tons, Danish; 10, of 15,705 tons, Egyp- 

 tian; 4, of 6,181 tons, Chinese; 4, of 3,162 tons, 

 American; 2, of 1,941 tons, Greek; 1, of 1,703 tons, 

 Roumanian; 2, of 1,021 tons, Swedish; 3, of 606 

 tons, Portuguese; and 1, of 451 tons, Argentinian. 

 The receipts for the year were 3,411,791. The 

 number of passengers taken through was 219,671. 

 The share and loan capital of the company 

 amounts to 464,100,827 francs, including about 

 50,000,000 francs redeemed. There are besides 

 100,000 founders' shares which receive dividends 

 when the profits exceed a certain percentage. The 

 net profits in 1898 were 48,789,818 francs, of which 

 -H>.<>18,028 francs were divided among share- 

 holders. The amount that has been expended on 

 improvements to the canal out of revenues was 

 151,174,307 francs up to Dec. 31, 1898. The re- 

 ceipts of 1899 exceeded those of 1898 by 6,500,000 

 francs. The dividend was 108 francs a share in- 

 stead of 97 francs. The number of vessels that 

 passed through in 1899 was 3,503, of which 2,310 

 VOL. XL. 13 A 



were British, 387 German, 226 French, 206 Dutch, 

 101 Austrian, 69 Italian, 65 Japanese, 61 Nor- 

 wegian and Swedish, 55 Russian, 39 Spanish, 26 

 American, 26 Turkish, 21 Danish, 5 Belgian, 4 

 Greek, 3 Portuguese, 2 Egyptian, and 1 Siamese. 

 The passengers numbered 221,332, of whom about 

 88,000 were civilians and 24,000 pilgrims or emi- 

 grants. 



Political Events. The British project of abol- 

 ishing the mixed tribunals and replacing them 

 with an Egyptian court was abandoned when the 

 other powers showed no disposition to relinquish 

 their treaty rights. Lord Cromer lays down as 

 the conditions on which these courts may continue 

 to exercise their functions free from the apprehen- 

 sion that their existence is threatened, first, that 

 the judges shall adhere strictly, not merely to the 

 text, but to the spirit of the law which regulates 

 their attributes and not encroach on functions of 

 the Government; second, that everything that is 

 possible shall be done to avoid political lawsuits. 

 The attempt that was made in the direction of 

 Mohammedan law reform was also abandoned 

 for the time on account of the resistance of the 

 Mufti, who was removed, however, and another 

 one appointed w r ho may pi'ove more amenable to 

 British influence. The Mehkemeh Sheriah, or 

 courts which deal with questions of personal 

 status, such as marriage, divorce, and succession, 

 were considered to be in an unsatisfactory con- 

 dition. The particular reform that was proposed 

 was that two Mohammedan members of the na- 

 tive Court of Appeals should be added to the 

 appellate court over which the Grand Cadi pre- 

 sides. The judges of the secular courts are 

 lawyers by profession, and only exceptionally of 

 the ulema class from which cadis are chosen. On 

 the matter being submitted to the Legislative 

 Council the Mufti, whose special functions consist 

 in interpreting the sacred law, declared himself 

 strongly averse to the proposed change on the 

 ground that it constituted an infraction of the im- 

 mutable law of Islam. The Mufti having been dis- 

 missed, a commission was appointed under the 

 presidency of the Minister of Justice to consider 

 anew the whole question of the reform of the 

 Mehkemehs. The archives of the religious courts, 

 in which deeds and titles dating back hundreds of 

 years in many cases were in utter confusion, were 

 set in order with the aid of the Ministry of Justice. 

 The number of suits in the civil native courts in- 

 creased in 1899 over the number in 1898 by 20 per 

 cent., while crime continued to diminish. The 

 experiment of intrusting the decision of petty 

 cases to the village authorities was successful. 

 More slave dealers and kidnapers were prose- 

 cuted and convicted in 1899 than during the five 

 previous years. 



The Soudan. The death of the Khalifa Ab- 

 dullahi on Nov. 24, 1899, was followed by the 

 opening to Europeans of the Soudan after an em- 

 bargo that lasted sixteen years. Previously the 

 White Nile country, south of Omdurman, was in a 

 state of war. The Khalifa with his family and fol- 

 lowers, numbering about 10,000, roamed on the 

 left side of the river ovit of the range of the patrol- 

 ling gunboats which kept supplies from being 

 brought across the White Nile or the Blue Nile. 

 After the dervish camp was finally captured and 

 the Khalifa killed, the relations of the Mahdi and 

 the principal emirs who survived were sent down 

 to Egypt and imprisoned at Rosetta. The blacks 

 of the Khalifa's army were freely enlisted in the 

 Egyptian army. The Arabs were made to work in 

 cultivating land or rebuilding Omdurman, or were 

 taken on Major Peake's expedition to cut the sudd 

 and open the whole course of the White Nile to 



