290 



EGYPT. 



Lutfi ; Minister of Public Works, Ali Muba- 

 rek Pasha; Minister of Finance, Haidar Pasha; 

 Minister of Public Instruction, Khairz Pasha; 

 Minister of Justice, Fakhri Pasha ; Minister of 

 Vakufs, Zeki Pasha ; Minister for the Soudan, 

 Ismail Ayub Pasha. 



Lord Dufferin, special commissioner of the 

 British Government, after working out a com- 

 prehensive scheme of legislative, judicial, and 

 administrative reform, returned to his post in 

 Constantinople in the beginning of May, 1883. 

 After the abolition of the dual control by a 

 khedivial decree, Sir Auckland Colvin was 

 appointed financial adviser to the Khedive. 

 A Council of State, composed partly of na- 

 tives and partly of Europeans, was created in 

 September. In the same month Sir Edward 

 Malet was succeeded by Sir Evelyn Baring in 

 the post of British diplomatic agent and con- 

 sul-general. Sir Auckland Colvin was re- 

 placed by E. Vincent as European financial 

 adviser to the Khedive. Clifford Lloyd was 

 at the same time appointed adviser to the 

 Minister of the Interior. On Nov. 22d, M. 

 Catnille Barrere presented his credentials as 

 French diplomatic agent and consul-general. 



After the destruction of the Soudan army, 

 the Egyptian Government, unable to agree to 

 the British proposition to evacuate a part of 

 the Soudan and cede territory on the Red 

 sea to Abyssinia, gave in their resignations. 

 A new Cabinet was constituted by Nnbar 

 Pasha. 



Area and Population, The area of Egypt prop- 

 er is about 210,000 square miles. The popula- 

 tion in 1877 was stated in an official estimate 

 to be 5,517,627, of which number 569,115 re- 

 sided in the Mohafzas, or town districts, having 

 an aggregate area of 176,546 square kilometres, 

 and 4,948,512 in the Moudiriehs, or provincial 

 districts, 844,808 square kilometres in extent. 

 The number of births registered in 1877 was 

 173,529 ; of deaths, 138,668. The net immi- 

 gration from 1873 to 1877 was 19,241. The 

 number of foreigners residing in Egypt in 1878 

 was returned as 68,653, of whom 29,963 were 

 Greeks, 14,524 Italians, 14,310 French, 3,795 

 English, and 6,061 of other nationalities. 



An enumeration conducted in 1883 gives the 

 total native population of Egypt proper as 

 6,798,230, of whom 3,393,918 were males and 

 3,404,312 females. 



The population of the principal towns in 

 1883 was as follows: Cairo, 368,108; Alexan- 

 dria, 208,775 ; Tanta, 38,725 ; Damietta, 34,036 ; 

 Mansura, 26,784; Zagazig, 19,046; Rosetta, 

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



The population of the three geographical dis- 

 tricts into which Egypt proper has from ancient 

 times been divided was as follows in 1877, 

 not including the population of the town dis- 

 tricts, amounting to 569,115 : Lower Egypt, 2,- 



823,995 ; Middle Egypt, 653,119; Upper Egvpt, 

 1,471,398. The whole country is divided into 

 eleven administrative provinces. 

 The Soudan. The conquered and annexed 



districts on the Upper Nile and in Central 

 Africa are known collectively as the Egyptian 

 Soudan. They form a single administrative 

 district, and since Arabi's revolt have been 

 placed in charge of a special ministry. The 

 Soudan proper is divided from Egypt by a belt 

 of desert, and is not easily accessible by water 

 on account of the deposits and growths which 

 frequently obstruct the Nile. The inhabitants 

 of the Upper Nile region are distinct in race 

 from the Egyptians. The conquest of this re- 



ion was begun by Mehemet Ali, who annexed 

 ennaar and Kordofan. The same policy was 

 pursued by his successors, especially Ismail 

 Pasha, who, urged on by Europeans who 

 wished to obtain commercial profits from this 

 country, or were interested in the suppression 

 of the slave-trade, or the exploration of the 

 sources of the Nile, added the province of Dar- 

 four to his dominions in 1869, and subsequently 

 the equatorial province, extending to the bor- 

 der of King Mtesa's empire of Uganda. The 

 annexation of Darfour was only nominal as 

 long as the power of Sebehr* remained un- 

 broken. Suleiman, Sebehr's son, who rebelled 

 openly in 1878 after his father's arrest, was 

 finally overthrown by Yussuf Pasha and Ro- 

 molo Gessi, Gen. Gordon's Italian assistant. 

 "Chinese" Gordon, who was clothed with 

 unlimited discretionary power, was more suc- 

 cessful than his predecessor, Sir Samuel Baker, 

 in maintaining the authority of the Khedive. 

 But the Arab colonies of Darfour and the des- 

 ert, and the warlike negro races of the rest of 

 the Soudan, profoundly dissatisfied with the 

 extortionate and corrupt rule of the effeminate 

 Egyptians, were ready to oppose a desperate 

 resistance to the proposed abolition of slavery. 

 Gordon's pacification of Darfour and the Nile 

 country was only superficial, and. notwith- 

 standing the ascendency and popularity which 

 he acquired among a large part of- the popula- 

 tion, he left more dangerous elements of dis- 

 content than existed before his coming. The 

 inhabitants of Bahr Gazelle and Gondokoro are 

 more nearly akin to the Egyptians, and have 

 always proved more tractable than the black 

 races of the Soudan. 



The whole of, Upper Egypt, comprising Kor- 

 dofan, Sennaar, Darfour, Berber, Suakim, 

 Shendy, Bahr Gazelle, and all the region be- 

 tween Wady Haifa and Abyssinia and Uganda, 

 from the Red sea to the Libyan desert, was 

 united in 1877 into one administrative district 

 under the name of the Soudan. This country 

 is surrounded on three sides by deserts. Its 

 length is 1,640 miles, and its average breadth 

 660 miles. The population is about 40,000,000, 

 of which number 10,000,000 are not under the 



* Sebehr was a slave-dealer who resisted the anti-slavery 

 designs of Ismail and the British officers placed by him in 

 command in the Soudan. The khedive formed an alliance 

 with Sebehr. who had established a formidable military power, 

 for the conquest of the independent sultan of Darfour. Sebehr 

 went to Cairo with the expectation of bribing the pashas to 

 get his sovereignty recognized, but he was arrested and kept 

 In retirement at Cairo until his services were employed in 

 18S3 against the Mahdi. 



