1891.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 173 



works, railroads, irrigating canals, telegraphs, etc., in 

 advance of the necessity of the country. Great loss was 

 incurred in the construction of the Suez Canal. The govern- 

 ment became bankrupt about ten years ago, and England 

 took charge of the country in the interest of the bond- 

 holders of the debt, The revenues of the country amount to 

 about forty-eight millions, of which twenty-six millions are 

 derived from a direct tax on land. A country so poor as 

 Egypt can derive but little money from customs duties, 

 which we well know fall not upon property, but upon con- 

 sumption A people who go nearly naked, who sleep on 

 the ground, and have no furniture in their huts, cannot 

 easily be reached by indirect taxation. Salt and tobacco 

 must be had by the poorest, and from these sources several 

 millions are derived. A country without forests, mines or 

 water power must be agricultural ; and, though cotton is a 

 very large and increasing crop, the only manufacturing that 

 has ever been done in Egypt on a large scale is in the pro- 

 ducing and refining of sugar. 



O CO 



The amount of arable land is about one-half of that in 

 Ireland ; but its productiveness ranks it far above that of 

 Ireland. The agriculture of Egypt has been carried on in 

 much the same way, and apparently without the least ex- 

 haustion of the fertility of the soil, for thousands of years. 



The date of Mena, the founder of the city of Memphis, is 

 now put by Egyptologists at about seven thousand years 

 ago. The pyramids date back more than six thousand 

 years. These and contemporary works indicate a civilization 

 in which society was regulated by firm laws ; a religion 

 founded upon high morality ; a perfected language and 

 advanced literature ; a knowledge of mechanics, engineering, 

 chemistry, metallurgy ; a people clothed in fine fabrics of 

 linen. This development of social life carries mankind in 

 this valley back to an age of the world misty in point of 

 time ; and, as agriculture was their means of living, we may 

 well conclude that this narrow strip on each side of the Nile 

 has been annually cropped for more than ten thousand years, 

 — perhaps double that time. We know, from the innumer- 

 able representations in sculpture and color, depicting the 

 ancient life of Egypt upon the walls of tombs, their methods 



