The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1864-11-28
Monday Morning, Nov. 20, 1864.
Egypt in 1864.


Egypt consists OF the cities of Alexandra
and Cairo, and just SO much land on either
bank OF the Nile as the waters OF that all-fer-
tilizing stream can be induced to cover
Turn Nile water over patch uf sand, and in
few seasons it will become soil, in compare
son TO which, the richest uplands of England
are sterile and Improbable. Neglect the
tracts thus reclaimed, and in a very short
time they will 60 back into desert; therefore
for all practical purposes, Egypt is the Nile,
and the Nile is Egypt.
The land Of Egypt is ruled over by twenty
princes, one OF whom is the viceroy. Eigh-
teen OF the Others are known as consuls-gen-
eral OF European nations, but the twentieth IL
the most powerful Of them all, and his name Is
Bakshesh. Very little indeed can be done in
the land without the aid or countenance of
Bakshesh; he ia the great ruling power. Not
y bale of goods can enter the country without
his leave, not handful OF cotton can leave ii
without paying him tribute. Do you want to
set mp steam engine, to build house, to hire
a lighter, to send goods by railway, TO do
something which you have no right to do, to
get something which you have no right to
get? why, then invoke Bakshesh; offer up
proper quantity of piastres on his shrine, and
the thing is done. Imagine you can get on
without his aid, and you will soon find out
your mistake. Put your faith in his brother
princes, and see how you will fare. Bakhesh
will stop you in the corridor as you approach
the august presence, and If he frown small
profit will spring from your interview. Dodge
past him, get your order, your permit, your
judgment, concession or what not, and the
day of submission is but postponed. You can
clll spirits from the vastly deep, but viii they
Cont? Can you put what you have gained
into execution without the aid of Bakshesh
Not bit of it. Let your own special prince
back up your petition. let the viceroy grant it,
let the minister of state draw up the order,
let the highest in the state be charged to car
ry it out in your behalf, and what have you
gotP Nothing! Get firman from the sultan
himself, and you are no better Off Bakshesh
has creatures nominally filling some tifth-rate
government posts, any one of whom can put
q spoke in your Wheel Bakshesh is bribery
and corruption, and without these nothing
can be done. As the Nile water is to the land,
so is bribery and corruption to the rulers and
people OF Egypt. Nothing is produced with
out it.
The people of the land of Egypt are prob
ably the simplest, the most docile, and withal
the most hard-working race in the world
They are naturally honest, for Orientals to
boot; but Turkish rule has ground all the best
parts out of them, and contact with the riff
raft of the Levant has made them cheats and
liars of the first water. Obedient and easily
led, they have improved upon the teaching OF
their masters, and the higher you go In the
social scale the greater rascal you find. The
simple fellGh, or agricultural laborer, is not a
bad SORT OF fellow; the sceikh, or chief of his
village, is trickster; the moudir, or magis-
trate OF his district, is bully and rogue !;
the bey of his province is rufian; and his
ohi of fho Arol fu tha
with few exceptions, throughout the Otto
man empire; the greater the power of doing
good, the greater the extent OF evil done.
Ali laborin Egypt is force, more or less, and
always will be. A handful of beans and a GU
Gunner, costing perhaps penny In all, will
feed al adult Arab ior day; a short spell OF
work will provide this, and why should he
work for more? Suppose he save money, his
scheikh, or moudir, or bey, or pasha hears of
it, and straight he is asked for loan, or the
money is borrowed p by force. Would you
or care to work for more than our daily
bread, if the policeman on our beat could
come in and say that unless we lent him a
sovereign he would walk us off to jail,--if the
nearest county court judge might send word
that unless we returned ten pounds by the
messenger he would decide againet US any ac-
tion that any rascal thought proper to bring,
--if q clerk in the war office might write and
say that he thought we we're going to be drawn
as private soldiers and sent to the Gold Coast,
but that a check for ESQ by next post might
avert the doom? fancy not.
Still, and in spite OF all, many fellahs do
work hard, speculate and save money. What
happens? They have no strong boxes, or in
those who have, the coins are buried. Mil
lions OF pounds in gold are imported into
Egypt every year, and yet money is always
scarce, exchange on Europe being seldom less
than two and ahalf per cent The gold is In
the country somewhere, but few ofits holders
dare TO circulate 1t. 1t Is paid for the produce
of the earth, and back into the earth it goes; !;
the hider dies, and the hoard is lost.
TWenty-four regular mail steamers inter-
and quit the port OF Alexandria every mo nth,
and there are frequently ten or dozen Brit
ish merchant steamers waiting at one time to
be discharged or loaded. Yet there is no
landing stage, no pier, no jetty, no dock OF any
description; the cargoes are discharged into
lighters, and from these huddled on shore any
how. Take plough-field in Surrey, and en-
ploy company OF giants to cast pell-mell
therein the contents of five hundred holds.
and you may form faint idea of the condi-
tion in which the so called custom house OF
Alexandria was kept for the four months pre-
ceding last March. Without any attempG at
assortment, without the slightest protection
from the weather or thieves, in place open
to all the world by land or sea, lay piled to-
gether in inextricable confusion, bales of Man
chester goods, cases of machinery and fnrni-
ture, casks of oil and wine, packages of cut
lery, tin ware, iron rods, and plates, "coppel
bottoms" crates of glass aud crockery, boxes
OF wearing apparel, and all the other requi-
sites OF q country which manufactures moth
ing OUT the simplest and rudest commodity
IL was quite possible to form list of these
various wares, ior twenty per cent OF the
treatment they had received aimee thew left
the ships side, and their contents were scat
tered abroad. Here, crushed undar main
shaft, for want of which some anaina 4, ,ha
interior had stopped work, that no,h;o., h.,
the rain could reach it, you might cs,oh J1 :
glimpse of what was once a box Of knisa. |"
There, you might find bales Of ~shirtin ss;,
and "sewed muslins" standing Two feet desc
in mud; and cotton gin or fire pump rust.
ing in the damp. Everywhere confusion, ne
glect, and sacrifice of property was TO b,
seen, which increased day by day.
The exports are cotton, cotton seed, and
till lately, grain. Pick and clean your cotton
pack 1t, carry it to the platform Of the rail
way station or the bank Of the canal, and ii
ordinary countries you have done all that II
necessary to insure its despatch. Not so ii
Egypt. There, the sovereign of the countr,
is It's sovereign, and something more. He Ia
farmer and manufacturer, and a merchan
upon his own account, and not for amusemen
or experiment, but for profit. The railway
his own, so is the canal; he can monopolz'
every track upon the one, and every boat up
on the other; the water carriage on the Nile
is also at his command, and he uses all thre,
unsparingly. All his own produce was whisk
ed up to port before . single bale Of tina