Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-08-05
EGYPT UNDER EGYPTIAN RULE.

he is the Spokesman of real national
party in Egypt, and - those who have not
examined the subject may possibly believe
that assertion, we propose to show how
Egypt has prospered under native rule,
and what probabilities there are for .
national movement in that country. And
first q word must be said as to the char.
acter of the Egyptian people. The popu.
lation is mixed, though the Fellaheen, or
settled Arabs, constitute about four. fifths
of it. 1t has been estimated at 5. SOC, 600,
which is probably but an uncomfortable
decline from the population in the time Of
the Pharaohs. OF this number about
$500. 600 are Fellaheen, 300, 600 Bedouin
Arabs, 500, 600 Copts, 10000 Nubiars
and Soudanis, 10000 Turks, 10000
Rayah Greeks, 10000 Armenians,
and about 1901 of other foreign
nations of ali kinds The Fellaheen
constitute the great masses of the Egyp-
tian people. They are, according to Nc.
Coan, the most patient, the most pacific,
the most home-loving, and withal the
"merriest race in the world" In spite of
six or eight thousand years of oppression
they are still physically very fine race
the men tall. well.formed, handsome and
stately; the women often very beautiful,
and always shapely and graceful in their
youth. No race in the world is so riveted
to the SOIL Every Fellah demands piece
of land, however small, for his own. The
arabic land of the Nile valley is about
5000, 600 acres, and it is subdivided in the
most minute way. There is no landless
class in Egypt. 1t is a nation of peasant
proprietors, or rather it was until recently.
Everything in Egypt depends upon the
| Nile, since there is no rain. 1t is there.
fore necessary that all the Fellaheen
should be at liberty to tend their crops
when the inundation comes, for if they are
not at hand to do this they lose their
crops for that year. 1t has long been the
custom for the lords OF Egypt to exact
forced labor from the people /; the practice
is identical with that of the feudal co,uees
of personal---very. France. The father
of the present Khedive, Ismail, had
passion to become great land owner, and
tivated land of Egypt, or upwards of
100000 acres. He obtained much of
this land in the following way He would
issue orders for the Fellaheen of a certain
district to come up and labor on his land,
| and ne would issue these orders just when
the people were needed on their own land.
They thus had to abandon their own crops,
which were ruined. But this was only the
beginning OF oppression. The tax gatherer
next appeared, demanding large proper
ton of the unreaped crop, and as this
could not De given, recourse to the money
lender was inevitable. Seven and eight
per cent. month interest soon ruined
the Fellaheen, when added to demand
for taxes six months in advance and the
people who are most passionately attached
to their land were thus literally forced to
sell it. In this way Ismail Pasha dispos-
sessed million of peasant proprietors.
And yet this was only one item in the
long catalogue of that rulers misdeeds
In fourteen years he incurred debts to the
amount of more than $500, 600, 900. Some
of the money was expended on public
works, canals, railroads, public buildings,
and so on. But one fourth of the whole
amount was lavished on personal ex-
travagance of the kind which leaves no
traces. The result of this reckless pro-
fusion and constant borrowing was that
the finances of Egypt became almost hope.
lessly involved, and as his financial embar.
easements grew, Ismail's struggles to
squeeze more money out of his unhappy
subjects produced an absolutely intolera.
BILE condition of things. 1t has been es-
timated that Egypt can pay an annual
revenue of about $50, 600, 600; but Ismail
extorted probable $40, 900, 900 or SIS, 0OO,.
900 more than this, and at the same time
he was steadily decreasing the productive
power of his country by his monopolies.
He had a passion to keep everything in his
own hands. He built cotton mills, he
went into farming on a great scale, he be.
came a merchant and manufacturer and
he at the same time undertook to accom-.
modate the laws of trade to his own enter.
prises, to the injury of his people. All
his undertakings failed, moreover. His
enormous farm was not properly cultivated.
No farm can be properly cultivated by
forced, unpaid labor. He had too many
irons in the fire, and some of them were
continually getting cold. The oppression
Of the people however waxed more cruel az
his debts grew, and it was apparent at last
that unless something was done Egypt
would be bankrupted in few years, and
the people reduced to famine.
This was the beginning of that European
Intervention which has at length led to an
English occupation of Egypt. Ismail was
deposed by decree of the Porte, because,
after being urged to an European financial
controllership of his revenues, he undertook
to throw this of, and return to his old
plundering and borrowing methods. All the
troubles which have arisen during the
reign of Tewfk, the present Khedive, are
directly attributable to the resentment and
greed of the old Turkish Pashas of Ismail's
| type, who could not endure to see the
Fellaheen contented and prosperous,
who yearned to be at their Threats once
more, and who ragged against the Eoglish
and French because they had supplanted