OBITUARIES, FOREIGN. (NUBAR PASHA O'GRADY.) 



071 



came again with Mapleson to New York in the 

 season of 1883, and accompanied Patti in her 

 tour of that year. In 1890 he was appointed a 

 Professor of Singing in the Royal Academy of 

 Music, London. 



Nubar Pasha, Egyptian statesman, born in 

 Smyrna in 1825; died in Paris, Jan. 14, 1899. He 

 was an Armenian by birth and creed. After 

 studying in Switzerland and France, he betook 

 himself in 1842 to Egypt, where his relative 

 Boghos Bey was minister of Commerce. Through 

 the latter's influence he was appointed reader and 

 interpreter to the Viceroy Mehemet Ali, whose 

 sleepless nights he beguiled by reading books of 

 history. He accompanied Ibrahim Pasha, the 

 heir apparent, on a visit to Constantinople, and 

 during the return voyage he had to exercise great 

 tact and constant vigilance to restrain the al- 

 ready demented prince from ordering the Turkish 

 captain to hang all the Christians of his suite 

 at the yardarm. Nubar won the confidence of 

 Abbas Pasha, who succeeded to the throne in 

 1850, and when he was sent to London to secure 

 the support of the British Government for the 

 resistance of the Viceroy to the pretensions of 

 the Sultan, his success with Lord Palmerston 

 established his reputation as a diplomatist and 

 led to his appointment as Egyptian agent at 

 Vienna, where he remained till the death of his 

 master, in 1854. Under Said Pasha he conducted 

 the negotiations with the English Government 

 relative to the overland postal route and the 

 railroad across the desert from Cairo to Suez. 

 This was intended by the British to prevent the 

 construction of the Suez Canal, for which Fer- 

 dinand de Lesseps had obtained a concession, and 

 as French influence was predominant at court 

 Nubar was dismissed in disgrace for his part in 

 the negotiations. When Ismail Pasha succeeded 

 Said in 1863, the opportunity of the wily Ar- 

 menian came again. The new Viceroy, ambitious 

 to shine among sovereigns, relied implicitly on 

 this accomplished diplomatist and statesman. 

 When Nubar succeeded in obtaining for Ismail 

 the title of Khedive, and permission to change the 

 order of succession in Egypt from the eldest male 

 of the reigning family, as in Turkey, to the eld- 

 est son of the reigning Khedive, as in European 

 monarchies, his ascendency over Ismail could 

 not be shaken, although as an Armenian and a 

 Christian, an innovator who set at naught Mo- 

 hammedan traditions and ideas, he antagonized 

 the ruling caste. It was he who removed the ob- 

 jections of the Porte to the piercing of the isth- 

 mus, and who conducted to a successful issue 

 the negotiations that led to the arbitration of the 

 Emperor of the French. He was made first a bey, 

 then a pasha, in spite of his religious disabilities, 

 and received a grant of lands. Ismail's dream of 

 founding a great African empire and his gigantic 

 financial schemes for the economic development 

 of Egypt are generally supposed to have been en- 

 couraged and fostered, if they were not suggested, 

 by Nubar, who managed the negotiations con- 

 nected with the Khedive's enormous borrowings 

 and gained great wealth for himself in the pro- 

 cess. He was not a sincere believer even in the 

 independence of Egypt, but seems to have been 

 from conviction or interest a partisan or agent 

 for the upbuilding of English influence, even when 

 this was at the lowest ebb, when French ideas 

 were most in favor, and when Ismail Pasha was 

 at the height of his renown as a powerful and 

 progressive ruler and conqueror. At this period 

 Nubar Pasha obtained the consent of the Euro- 

 pean powers to a revision of the capitulations 

 to the extent of abolishing consular jurisdiction 



and creating in the place of consular courts the 

 mixed tribunals for tin- trial of civil Huittt be- 

 tween Egyptians and foreigners or between for- 

 eigners. The laws for these tribunal*, based on 

 the French code, were drawn up under his own 

 directions. Nubar became Minister of Commerce 

 in 1804, and Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1H07. 

 When Ismail Pasha, overtaken by financial em- 

 barrassments, learned to distrust him thoroughly 

 he had established such a reputation with for- 

 eign governments and so ingratiated himself with 

 the creditors of Egypt that he was repeatedly 

 made Prime Minister in alternation with Sherif 

 Pasha. After being dismissed and sent into exile 

 in 1874, he was recalled and placed at the head 

 of the Government in 1878, when Ismail Pasha 

 conceived the idea of introducing representative 

 institutions and an international control of the 

 finances as the last hope of saving his throne and 

 escaping from bankruptcy. In accordance with 

 this plan, the English Government nominated Sir 

 C. Rivers Wilson to be Minister of Finance, and 

 the French Government M. de Blignieres to be 

 Minister of Public Works, in the Ministry of 

 which Nubar Pasha was chief. Demonstrations 

 in the street and protests of the ulemas against 

 Christians being allowed to rule a Mohammedan 

 country gave Ismail a pretext for soon dismiss- 

 ing first Nubar and then his European colleagues. 

 Ismail appointed a ministry of Egyptians, in 

 which his son and heir, Tewfik, was President of 

 the Council. Nubar then set to work to bring 

 about the downfall of his old master. Through 

 his machinations the German Government, al- 

 though Germans had no great interests in Egypt, 

 threatened armed intervention to enforce a 'de- 

 cree of the mixed tribunal which a foreign cred- 

 itor had obtained against the Egyptian Govern- 

 ment. Ismail Pasha discovered, to his consterna- 

 tion, that in the code sanctioned by the powers 

 in 1873 for those tribunals a peculiar clause was 

 inserted giving the court authority to enforce a 

 judgment against the sovereign state by seizing 

 state property. Great Britain and France, seek- 

 ing to forestall the action of Germany, brought 

 such pressure upon the Porte that the Sultan, 

 as suzerain, deposed Ismail Pasha and made his 

 son Tewfik Khedive. The dual control was then 

 established, with M. de Blignieres as Controller 

 General, and Major Baring as the English repre- 

 sentative. 'Nubar did not return to office until 

 after the defeat of Hicks Pasha's army and the 

 consequent evacuation of the Soudan. He was 

 Prime Minister from 1884 till 1888, when he re- 

 signed in consequence of a dispute relating to 

 the reorganization of the Ministry of Finance. 

 In April, 1894, after a long dispute between Abbas 

 Pasha, Tewfik's successor, and Lord Kromer, 

 Nubar was induced to accept the premiership 

 again as a sign of the definite establishment of 

 British domination. In November, 1895, he re- 

 signed and returned to his Paris residence. 



O'Grady, Hubert, English actor and drama- 

 tist, born in Dublin, Ireland, 1841 ; died in Liver- 

 pool, Dec. 19, 1899. He was educated by the 

 Christian Brothers, and when a boy was engaged 

 on account of his fine soprano voice for the cho- 

 ruses of oratorios at the Ancient Concert Rooms, 

 Dublin. He was bound to the trade of 'uphol- 

 sterer, but after serving nearly seven years he ran 

 away to Liverpool, began to make his living as 

 a minstrel and music-hall singer, and was very 

 successful. He was engaged by Dion Boucicault 

 for the first provincial tour of The Shaughraun, 

 and made his dtlnit in the leading rOle at the 

 Theater Royal, Edinburgh, Jan. 21, 1876. His 

 success was instantaneous and remarkable, and 



