It is stated that Lord Dufferin, in framing a scheme
for local Courts in Egypt, has come across the difficulty of the Capitulations. Each Power in Egypt, as in Turkey, protects and tries its own subjects, and though they would surrender this privilege if English Courts were established, they will not give it up if the Courts are to be Egyptian. They fear extortion and oppression too much. At the same time, it is most difficult to administer justice while a numerous and influential class remains outside the jurisdiction to which the body of the people must submit. In the ports a compromise can be made, a legal agent of the Consulate sitting in all such cases side by side with the Egyptian Magistrate, on the principle acknow- ledged in our own system of mixed juries ; but in the in- terior it is difficult to carry this out, The French have been greatly perplexed. by this difficulty in Tunis, but have obviated it by making the Courts frankly French, and so depriving the Powers of their excuse. In India the device adopted was to sweep away all exemptions in civil cases only, but in Egypt it is the civil claim which most provokes unjust judg- ments. We question if there is a remedy possible, without a Protectorate entitling the Resident to "call attention" to abuses in such and such a Court.
Previous page
