EGYPT. 



297 



toils of the usurers. The usual course of for- 

 eign creditors when the fellaheen were not 

 prompt in their payments had been to appeal 

 to the provincial governor or his subordinates, 

 who would compel payment, if the fellah was 

 able, by arbitrary methods. The provincial 

 authorities were admonished by the Minister 

 of the Interior in the summer not to interfere 

 in the disputes between the fellaheen and 

 their creditors, who must have recourse to 

 the courts of justice. An appeal was made 

 to the creditors to deal leniently with the fel- 

 laheen until normal conditions return. It was 

 expected that English capital would flow into 

 the country, and not only provide the fellaheen 

 cheap money for their present wants, but enable 

 the Government through the co-operation of 

 an English commission to assume the debts of 

 the fellaheen and convert the usurious interest 

 into moderate rates. It was further announced 

 that the commission intrusted with the revision 

 of the Egyptian laws would incorporate in the 

 new code a provision reserving a certain quan- 

 tity of land to every farmer as an inviolable 

 and inalienable family possession. The first 

 effect of these proposed reforms was to ag- 

 gravate the financial embarrassments of the 

 peasantry, for now the money-lenders would 

 make no more loans. The fellaheen on their 

 part refused to pay their debts until the Eng- 

 lish commission met to consider them. After 

 several months of this monetary derangement, 

 the Ministry of the Interior in November is- 

 sued another order directing the provincial 

 authorities to take measures to induce the 

 fellaheen to pay their foreign creditors. The 

 commission to consider the indebtedness of 

 the fellaheen was appointed in October. After 

 a few sittings the Government changed its 

 attitude in this question and adjourned the 

 inquiry until the next year. 



The partition and sale to the fellaheen of the 

 Daira Sanieh and Domain lands is expected to 

 improve the well-being and the tax-paying 

 capacity of the j)eople. These estates, to con- 

 solidate which vast numbers of fellaheen were 

 expropriated by the ex-Khedive, cover a fifth 

 part of the total cultivable soil of Egypt. Their 

 administration by European officials has not 

 been successful. Under the Control the Daira 

 Sanieh thus administered paid expenses and 

 the interest on the debt for which it was 

 pledged, while the Domains ran behind 700,- 

 000 in four years. The latter were partly 

 divided up into parcels in 1883 and conveyed 

 to peasant owners. 



The decay of agriculture can not be effectu- 

 ally arrested without taking measures for the 

 restoration, improvement, and maintenance 

 of the irrigation- works. The corvee is no 

 longer equal to the task of keeping the canals 

 clear, and the desert is encroaching upon the 

 tillable land. The introduction of steam-en- 

 gines for pumping supplied a corrupt motive 

 for negligence, since the failure of the subsid- 

 iary canals enables the proprietors of steam- 



pumps to exact a high price for furnishing the 

 peasants with water. Extensive improvements 

 in the system of canalization were among the 

 promises held out by the English, and technical 

 studies of the subject were undertaken. 



Repeal of the Capitulations* The English were 

 hindered at every point in their reform projects 

 by the capitulations, which grant exceptional 

 rights and immunities to foreigners, the chief 

 of which are exemption from taxation, and 

 separate courts of justice. These privileges, 

 constituted in some respects a serious griev- 

 ance. The English had a double motive in 

 desiring to abolish them to win popularity 

 with the Egyptians, and to take away from 

 other foreign countries their exceptional po- 

 sition and right to interfere in Egypt. The 

 abrogation of the capitulations was opposed 

 by the foreign colonies in Egypt, to whom 

 those privileges were materially valuable. 

 Still, the European governments were will- 

 ing to accede to the proposition, with the ex- 

 ception of France. That power refused its 

 consent, and so the year passed by without 

 this necessary preliminary to financial reform 

 and the contentment of the Egyptians being 

 accomplished. 



Alexandria Indemnity Commission. A com- 

 mission was appointed in the spring, charged 

 with investigating and deciding upon claims 

 for indemnification for damages suffered from 

 the bombardment, burning, and pillage of 

 Alexandria. The president was Abdurrahman 

 Rushdi, and the vice-president Yacoob Artin 

 Beys ; the other members were representatives 

 of England, Austria, France, Germany, Italy, 

 Russia, Greece, and the United States. Claims 

 less in amount than 200 were first taken 

 into consideration. The majority of these 

 were presented by native Egyptians, the Greeks 

 and French coming next. The commission 

 had not quite ended their labors at the close 

 of the year. The total amount of damages 

 awarded approximates 4,000,000. 



Political Trials. Several trials for crimes con- 

 nected with the Alexandria riots, the burning 

 of that city, and other incidents of the rebel- 

 lion, were set on foot by the Khedive's Govern- 

 ment ; but after it was seen that the object 

 was to strike terror, and that dangerous reve- 

 lations might be brought out in evidence, the 

 English discouraged these prosecutions. The 

 first trial was instituted for the satisfaction of 

 the English themselves. The accused were 

 thirteen Arabs indicted for the murder of Prof. 

 Edward Henry Paltrier and his companions, 

 Capt. William Gill and Lieut. Harold Charring- 

 ton, on Aug. 12, 1882. That well-known Ori 

 ental scholar, who had recently visited several 

 Arab sheiks and sought to win them over to the 

 English cause, was commissioned to return and 

 complete the arrangements in company with 

 the two officers. The party carried with them 

 for this purpose 40,000, ostensibly to be 

 employed in buying camels for the British 

 army. Capt. Gill had orders to cut the tele- 



