Mehemet Ali, came to the throne. Educated in Paris, he made a great display of European culture; railways and canals, especially the Suez Canal, were pushed to completion at a dizzy rate, and there seemed no limit to his care for agriculture, which is the one resource of the country. New irrigation ditches of great dimensions were opened, dug by forced labor of course. The Suez Canal was completed in 1869: four million two hundred thousand pounds were spent in the festivities at the opening. In fact money was spent so lavishly on all occasions that the public debt, secured by successive bond issues, became tremendous. At the same time it was found that he and his favorites were accumulating enormous private fortunes.

The public finances were soon in distress, and in order to raise the wind Ismail sold to England in Disraeli's administration (1875) all his Suez shares, 176,602 in number. There being all told 400,000 shares, this purchase, along with what was already held by individuals, gave to British shareholders a controlling interest in the French company. The block was then worth four millions sterling; it is now worth twenty-five millions. What was more important, it was a crushing blow, of course, to the predominance of French influence. Things went from bad to worse with the finances until Ismail's government became shamelessly venal and the peasants were cruelly oppressed. European bondholders were justly uneasy and interest was not forthcoming. In 1878 France urged the coöperation of Great Britain in securing control of Egyptian finances and a joint commission of inquiry was appointed. The debt was ninety millions sterling, the interest about two and a half millions. This Ismail extorted with such cruelty from the peasants that their cries ascended to heaven: under pressure the Khedive (a new title given him by the Sultan in 1867, as an acknowledgment of virtual independence) agreed to rule thereafter by a cabinet. One was formed and, at Ismail's own instigation, mobbed, the two principal ministers, those of finance and public works, being English and French respectively, and the nominal head an astute Armenian, Nubar.

This governmental device was well understood to depend on the European representatives in Cairo, the consuls-general. Nubar

demanded from them a larger army, which he got, and other powers to which they could not assent. After reducing the interest on the debt, he resigned and was succeeded by Taufik, the heir-apparent, as prime minister. In a very short time Ismail dismissed the whole cabinet and appointed a new one consisting entirely of natives: this was done to conciliate the upper classes, wealthy Turks who had grown rich at the expense of the poor, and it was speciously represented as a national movement. It was an effort of course to throw off international control before it became too strong. England and France immediately demanded Ismail's deposition at the Porte, and although the Khedive had sent enormous bribes to Constantinople, the Sultan was nevertheless at the disposal of the powers.

Ismail was succeeded by his son Taufik on May 25, 1879, and five days later left for Smyrna, taking with him an enormous fortune and a numerous harem. He died in Constantinople in 1895. At once, after his departure, the international control was restored in Egypt, and a commission of liquidation set to work reducing taxes and instituting various reforms. The abuses of oriental conditions by European consulates are notorious: at times the right of exterritoriality has been so extended as to give consuls perfect control over hundreds of natives who are ostensibly in their employ but are really fugitives from justice or recalcitrant to the customs of their people. Long endurance of that outrage and the fact that Egypt has been for ages a refuge for the scum and outlaws of southern Europe, combined of course with religious fanaticism and national pride, resulted in an exasperation among high-spirited natives that finally ended in Arabi's rebellion against what seemed an effort to render intolerable conditions. permanent. He and his agents aimed to increase the native army and get control of Taufik.

In this last they succeeded and were rapidly making headway with their other plans, when on May 25, 1881, the consuls-general of France and England demanded the banishment of Arabi and the resignation of the cabinet in which as minister of war he was the ruling spirit. The Khedive yielded, formally; but under the plea of repressing the disorder which was now becoming general in the great towns he continued Arabi in place and actually dec

orated him for his services. On June 11 the natives of Alexandria began to riot and killed a hundred and fifty Europeans, the life of the British consul being saved with great difficulty from those who pursued and stoned him. Both France and England had been gathering a fleet in anticipation of trouble. France remained inactive, but on July 11, when the news of Arabi's successes and of his decoration for the sorry work was confirmed, seven British warships bombarded the town. The rabble with oriental versatility employed their opportunity in burning and plundering beneath the hissing shells. Three days later, July 14, the British finally landed marines and restored order. They likewise occupied a number of forts commanding the town. In the sequel a commission of indemnities awarded nearly four and a half millions sterling to those who suffered from the bombard

ment.

Under such pressure Arabi was dismissed at last and immediately began to organize his many followers for war. On August 15 Wolseley arrived and on the 18th his army. The British fleet seized the Suez Canal and gave the company a hundred thousand pounds as indemnity. On September 13 the English met Arabi at Tel-el-Kebir and overwhelmed his force; two days later they occupied Cairo; and at Christmas Arabi was sent as a prisoner to Ceylon. England had nominally and ostensibly conquered Egypt for its Khedive, who of course had yielded to Arabi under the stress of necessity! That was made as clear as words and deeds could make it. It would have been a simple thing then and there to have declared a protectorate; but politics was just then very tangled in Europe, and out of deference to French feeling no outward sign was given. In fact Gladstone declared that English intervention had no other aim than to restore order. This was certainly said in good faith, and the Liberal government certainly intended to evacuate Egypt in due time.

But restore order! Neither the ignorant, venal Pasha class of Turks who had misgoverned the country, nor the ignorant, rash, inexperienced natives of the Arabi class, nor the existing ministers with their bureaucracy -no one in Egypt could either restore or keep order. Fire kindled almost immediately in the farthest Egyptian province, the Sudan. In 1883 two Egyptian

expeditions under English generals were wiped out by the fanatic leader who called himself by the style of Mahdi (Messiah) and his followers by that of dervishes (devout). Next year Gordon took command, tried his fortune on a reasonable plan, but was not properly supported, and Wolseley, sent to reinforce him, came too late. In 1885 the Sudan was lost and the Mahdi reigned at Khartum. What was to be done to keep Egypt at all for its Khedive and regenerate the land so that resources even for selfpreservation might be created? Should the English destroy existing institutions root and branch, or put life and decency into the old? In a forcible way England announced that Egypt would be ruled as always, only now by the "advice" of Great Britain as conveyed through her consul-general and minister plenipotentiary in Cairo.

After a few trials the right man for that important position was found in Evelyn Baring, now Lord Cromer. Lord Dufferin came, saw, diagnosed, and laid down the lines of action. These lines have in the main been followed, and in times of uneasiness the word of power has been spoken from the respectable but insignificant mansion which is the British diplomatic agency and consulate. Reform progressed so rapidly and financial prosperity came so quickly that in 1889, the Mahdi being dead and his successor worthless, preparations began for the reconquest of the Sudan. After two years of preliminary movements, Kitchener wiped out the Dervish force at Omdurman with an army which was partly Egyptian but also partly English. Victory therefore was not followed by a complete restoration of the vast and indefinite territory of the Sudan to Egypt as an Egyptian province: a separate government known as the condominium of England and Egypt, purely military, under the Sirdar Kitchener, commander-in-chief of the Egyptian army, was established at Khartum. The British and Egyptian flags fly side by side throughout the Sudan, whose limits, now that France has been shouldered out of Fashoda, are fairly definite and comprise a territory as large as all central Europe.

So much for the historical outline; what was the organic force? A certain number of Englishmen were appointed to the higher offices in every branch of the administration, and they were ex

pected by the exercise of common sense and with the moral backing of British prestige, gradually to revolutionize the spirit of every department. This they began at once to do; their first concern being the irrigation system, which is initial and central to Egyptian well-being. Hitherto the great proprietors had taken water from the canals, when, where and how they pleased, by the simple process of bribing the officials and bullying the peasant owners at will. This was instantly stopped, and what the rich lost the peasants gained. The former class turned sullen and bitter, but their obstruction was futile. Immediately there began a vast development of paid public labor, the curse of the corvée or forced labor being abolished at a cost of nearly half a million sterling. Every energy was concentrated for the wider and cheaper distribution of Nile water to the cultivators by repairing the old works and building new ones.

But even ample water at a fair price could not pay the peasants' debts. For ages Greeks, Syrians and Copts, all avowed Christians, had been the usurers of Egypt, and like the Jews in Europe, they held the people in galling bonds. They bribed and combined with the tax gatherers to strike abject terror into every heart by irregular, uncertain and unjust methods of collecting taxes and interest, both of which were for the most part paid in kind. The rate of interest ran as high as sixty per cent, and the security was the growing crops! France and England already had control of the finance, but as they could not agree about methods of reform, France withdrew. The land tax was the foundation tax, and only by thorough discipline of the collectors could it be justly laid and raised. This England undertook alone and accomplished, but in the process her extra-legal financial adviser, really controller, revolutionized both the personnel and the methods of what is the largest portion of the entire administrative system.

The first step was to inaugurate a system of penurious economy in every department except that of public works, which directs the irrigation system. There was terribly bitter feeling far and near, from the Khedive's ministers down; for England not merely gave "advice" to the ministers, it peered into every department of administration to the limits of the land by means of its in