THE CONDITION OF EGYPT.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—As most people acquainted with the good-natured, in- dustrious, and frugal population of the Nile Valley cannot but feel a lively interest in their future welfare, and as that welfare must in great measure depend upon their actual condition, their difficulties and their hopes being known in Europe, I trust you will not consider the humblest effort to diffuse such knowledge out of place, especially at a time when the visit of the Khedive to Europe and the approaching publication of Sir S. Baker's book are likely to provoke some discussion on Egyptian affairs. Nor are indications wanting that the Eastern question may shortly again come to the front among the great political problems of the day, in such a shape that England will have seriously to consider whether her interests and her duties in the East do not require her to undertake the government of Egypt.
The natural advantages of Egypt are known to all. A fertility which the incessant crops of many thousand years have been unable to exhaust, a climate which never deceives the hopes of the husbandman, equally free from the unseasonable frost and blights of northern regions and the devastating storms of the tropics, excellent water-carriage throughout the whole length and breadth of the land, an industrious, orderly, and easily contented people, a position on the high road of commerce between the East and West, frontiers protected by the desert from neighbours contemptible in numbers and in ignorance of the arts of civilised war. Her coast is indeed open to the attack of any strong maritime power, but this very dependence on the forbearance of the more powerful European nations might seem to be an advantage, since the hopelessness of resistance takes away all reasonable excuse for expensive and useless armaments ; and no surer guarantee of independence could be found than the mutual jealousy of the Great Powers, a jealousy which would extend to any attempt on the part of the Porte to draw tighter the slight bonds of vassalage which unite Egypt to its dominions.
This fortunate land has been governed for half a century by a dynasty which has produced abler rulers than any other Eastern family of modern times. The present Khedive is, we are told, a man of exceptional enlightenment and sagacity, distinguished for humanity, and studious of the arts of peace,—a patron of learning and of popular education, anxious to encourage all trade—ex- cept that in slaves—and eager to develop the resources of his country.
Under these favourable circumstance*, what is the condition of Egypt? We might reasonably expect the people to be happy and contented, the expenditure moderate, applied to useful objects, and easily met by taxes scarcely felt in the midst of growing prosperity. The reality is very different. The fellaleen's con- dition is worse than that of the serfs of the tenth century, since not only are they taken away from their villages and compelled to work gratuitously for weeks together in the factories and on the farms of the Khedive, while exorbitant taxes are arbitrarily levied, in true Oriental style, in proportion to the wealth of which they give any indication by improve- ments in husbandry and comfort, and to their power of resisting the persuasive arguments of the stick, but they are also exposed to the better organised oppression of modern civili- sation, to a rigid conscription, and a more scientific system of taxation. So great are their sufferings, that some villages have been wholly deserted by the inhabitants, yet they have little reason to envy the townspeople. I dare not, lest I should seem guilty of exaggeration, repeat what I have heard of the amount of taxes paid by the native inhabitants of Cairo. Yet the Government cannot pay its way, and is obliged to have recourse to loans, negotiated on minors' terms, and to forced contributions, and is even now deliberating whether it cannot obtain some uncleanly profit by opening a gambling establishment at Cairo.
Though the expenditure is so enormous, little is spent produc- tively; works of public utility progress slowly, or not at all. In short, the country, notwithstanding some outward advance to- wards Western civilisation, such as the adoption of black coats and trousers among the officials, and of third-rate French architecture in the new quarters of Cairo, is said to be far less prosperous and contented than it was twenty years ago.
It would be unfair to lay the whole blame of the failure of his administration on the Viceroy personally. Ismail Pasha is pro- bably neither the able, humane, and enlightened ruler described by his servants, and believed in by travellers who see Egypt from the luxurious deck of a Government steamer ; nor is he the cunning, cruel, and sensual Oriental of whom a startling picture is occasionally drawn for the benefit of tourists at Cairo. As far as one who has no personal knowledge of him can judge, he is a man who, possessing an Asiatic's love of luxury and display, with considerable activity of mind, has been greatly dazzled by Western civilisation,—the civilisation of the Boulevards and the Palais Royal. He has appreciated the ad- vantages of trade sufficiently to endeavour by means of monopolies and forced labour to become the one great trader and planter in his dominions. He has mixed with the Sovereigns of the greater European States on a footing of almost equality, and has striven to rival their splendour and to imitate their over-grown arma- ments. Hence his Government is neither an Oriental nor a European despotism, but more oppressive and costly than either.
An old-fashioned Eastern despot would also have kept a harem of 300 women, but he would not have subsidised Italian singers and opera-dancers ; he might have built more palaces than he could possibly live in, but he would not at the same time have pulled down the beautiful Arab houses of Cairo to make room for dusty, glaring, stucco imitations of Paris streets, making the town pay heavily for what are not improvements. He would have thought it quite natural to extract large advances from a wealthy subject by threats of exile to the Soudan, but he would not have understood the art of floating ruinous loans. He might not have done much for the encouragement of trade and com- merce, but neither would he have been fascinated by the schemes of speculative adventurers, or have wasted his money in buying worthless machinery, and distressed his people by forced labour in his factories.
I had meant to have said a few words about the slave trade in Egypt and the open import of slaves down the Nile, but I have already trespassed far too largely on your space.—I am, Sir,
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