The daily gazette., 1877-05-15

his sons when they may be taken like
runaway convicts, and sent he knows not
where, under the forms of conscription
All round about Cairo there are vast lath
and plaster buildings, chiefly standing in
wide gardens and surrounded by high
walls; you ask what they are, and the an
swer is always the same-paaces of the
Khedive. Three years ago it was report
ed that his Highness had thirty-three pal
aces, but he still goes on building. In
fact, everywhere you turn there is some
such house building, or built, or aban-
doned and closed; and every one of them
is "palace Of the Khedive." 1t is the
same as you ascend the river, until it be-
comes one of the standing jokes of the
Nile voyager wherever house, or gardens
or white walls appear, to ask, "Is that a
palace of the Khedive?" And in nine
cases out of ten the answer is in the affir-
native, while in the tenth case it is that
the building in question belongs to one
| of the Khedive's sons, or sons-in-law, or
stepmothers, or cast-off concubines.
IT. as your boat lies at Ghizeh, you look
oIt Of your window in the early morning
you will probably see a long aud melap-
choly procession on the bank. Firstcomes
an ill-looking man in red fez and along
white shirt, carrying a cane. Then come
two or three dozen boys and girls, half
naked, foot-sore, weeping as they limp
along, or trying to sing a kind of slow
chorus, and following them another man
with cane, which ne freely uses to en-
courage the loiterers. This is a gang of
day laborers. The Khedive is filling up
some low Lying land with earth taken
from the rivers bank, and these poor lit
tie wretches have been requisitioned from
the villages and suburbs to carry the soil
from one side of the road to the other.
They are paid microscopic sum-at
least it is paid to the taskmaster- land
you hope against hope that they ever get
any of it In the hot midday you pass
by the scene Of labor and see them at
work, and after sunset you hear the sad
chant Of the morning and see the same
/ processlohs, without the canes, going
home. 1t is shocking to see young girls
carrying huge burdens of earth or baskets
of lime for the builders, or running up
and down to the Nile for water for the
workers, their feet and even their bare
shoulders bleeding. Their lives are "bit-
ter with hard bondage, in mortar and
| brick, and in all manner of sci vice in the
field" as Moses wrote of the lsraelites;
| only that now it is the Egyptians them
selves who suffer at the hands of the
| Turks.
Forced labor is still the rule through
Egypt as it probably was thirty centuries
ago. All the great works have been per-
formed by it. At the sugar factories in Up
per Egyp', at the Canal works, at the rail-
ways, and, above all, at the palaces of the
Khedive, the 1aborers are driven to their
tasks, and are paid as their masters plea
In the sugar factories they receive a por-I
tion OF treacle, valued at the highest mar
ket price, for their wages; and, if they like,
can sell it back again at the lowest price
| j ust as we may suppose the great Pyramids
| on the long line of hills above the ancient
Memphis to be symbolical OF .ne tyranny
which afflicted the laboring population of
the vast city SO many centuries ago, SO the
| earthworks, the long walls, the high road
ways, and the palaces of the Khedive are
signs OF the affl lctions which English money
enables the Turkish rulers to lay upon
Cairo and all Egypt.
To say that the Vice-regal Government
is unpopular with the lower orders would |
be to speak too favordby of it, as we un-
derstand the unpopulality of an English |
Minister. recent traveller had occasion j,
to ask Fellah il he could say to whom |
one OF the suburban mansions belonged |
alt is, of course" was the reply, "a palace |
of the Knedive now, but it was built by the |
man who has gone to open the gates of |
Gehenna for him. Thus prosperous man, |
as the Egyptians count prosperity, spoke |
of his Sovereign an1 the late Finance Min |
lister "But." he was asked again, ''Sadyk |
Pasha was banshed, not put to DEATH" |
"Well, it comes to the same thing" was the |
answer she went to Dongola, and there |
IT, coffee did not agree with him." Every |
traveller who has come into contact with
the lower orders in Egypt can tell similar
stories If he likes; aud it may be asserted |
broadly that the Turk is quite as much dis.
liked by the Egyptian, be the Copt or Arab,
as by tue Greeks or he Amenians. He Of
fends their religious prejudices as well as
their sense of justice.
Ore of the first objects seen onlarrival at |
Cairo is statue representing, i'll bronze OF
colossal zs, Mehemet Ali on horseback
70 make statues is crime OF great magul-
tude to the Moslem mind. 1t is character
stic of the bastard civilization grated upon
Egypt by its present rulers, that, though
the statue is bronze and fiue work OF art,
the lofty pedestal is OF wood, painted in inn
initiation of stone. similar aud equally
typical example of the way in which public
1
mosque in the citadel. 1he walls are lined
with slabs of alabaster for about twenty
feet from the ground, and above that height
are painted and grained in inmitation. In
mediately below this monstrous monument
ofTurkish taste is the mosque of Sultan
Hassan, an edlfice contemporary with S dis
bury cathedral, and worthy of careful study
by every lover of simplicity and beauty in
architecture. and here, while countless sums
have been laid oat on French Alhambra
kind of mosque close by, The whole build
ing is going to des ructIon from neglect; LIS
exquisite fretwork OF precious nlays drop
ping from the walls. the roof of the central
kiosque stripped off in great patches, the
beautiful Syrian lamps, SO much praised IN
the guide books, all gone, aud the vane of
the graceful mlnaret bowling to its fall. Yet
it may be safely predicted that something
of Sultan Hassans building will remain
long after every palace OF the Khedive has
disappeared. English bondholders may
wonder where their money has gone, but
few days in Cairo would soon settle their
minds. Let them look at the palaces as
aforesaid let them walk past two or three
OF the vast barracks, each filled with black