14 
EGYPTIAN AUTHORITIES. 
[chap. I. 
abusing the underlings for past neglect, ordering the 
streets to be swept, and the town to be thoroughly 
cleansed ; he visits the market-place, examines the 
quality of the bread afc the bakers’ stalls, and the meat 
at the butchers’. He tests the accuracy of the weights 
and scales; fines and imprisons the impostors, and 
institutes a complete reform, concluding his sanitary 
and philanthropic arrangements by the imposition of 
some local taxes. 
The town is comparatively sweet; the bread is of 
fair weight and size, and the new governor, like a new 
broom, has swept all clean. A few weeks glide away, 
and the nose again recalls the savoury old times when 
streets were never swept, and filth once more reigns 
paramount. The town relapses into its former state, 
again the false weights usurp the place of honest 
measures, and the only permanent and visible sign of 
the new administration is the local tax. 
From the highest to the lowest official, dishonesty 
and deceit are the rule—and each robs in proportion 
to his grade in the Government employ—the onus of 
extortion falling upon the natives; thus, exorbitant 
taxes are levied upon the agriculturists, and the 
industry of the inhabitants is disheartened by oppres¬ 
sion. The taxes are collected by the soldiery, who 
naturally extort by violence an excess of the actual 
