New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1885-11-29
ISMAIL AND THIRTEEN.
A STORY OF EGYPTIAN CRIME.

In the Moslem calendar! a sort of dies irG upon
which no good can como to person or thing Ill
which the unlucky symbol occurs. The khedlVe
would not sit, for example, at table with thirteen
persons would grow pale with fright II thirteen
persons sEoud happen to find themselves III MS
audience chamber an accident against WHICH,
however his master Of ceremonies was carelu 10
provide. Had the representatives OF the great
Powers who demanded his abdication on the Zotl
of June 1879, fixed the 18th OF that mon'h win
aeferarcs 10 this Moloch of the Khcdval mind,
ysmail would have accepted the fact as an mex
orabe fat of Fate against which it was useless to
strnpplr. The diplomatic agents of the Powers IN
terested On We evidence of positive want of tact
I'm failing TO understand the immense potency III
the Oriental mind of the mystic thirteen.
Jsuail has been called the roi des JUfs, not only
because be possessed in a maximum degree tie
THIRST of gain and greed of god commonly ac-
credited to the Israelte but because according to
Abon Naddorak 1.-THE man with spectaclesl, the ARAB
sdltor of a journal of that name Published III
Paris Ismail Is the issue of an acquaintance cult
GATED by the Princess mother with her humble
gardener at the palace-a Syrian Jew, who found
favor III her eyes.
When IsInail assembled the throne his fortune
was insignificant. When he was dethroned the
European control found that he had appropriated
70 himself 500 900 acres of the best lands of Egypt,
vrung from the fellah peasant COR from Prince
Hahn, whom he had driven into exiieh aud beside
he had distributed among the princes of his family
an additional 1929 acres. Thirteen years of
rroaipal expenditure had increased the pary State
dent Of e3 900 OOo left by the Good Said. 10 tho
enormous sum of s1O5, OOOO 900, with an annual ex-
renditure of 1854, 900, over and above the
arnn nj income of the country. And yet there are
fow who claim that his return TO the Khediviat is
necessary 1t is said that he is man of expansive
ideas. And so 1t appears from these undisputed
feures--arithmetiodlly.
General Gordon said that Nubar once summed
mn Ismail as man of no principle. but capable of
very chivalrous impulses, and that If he was with
a better entourage ne would do we'll" But then
Nnbar was himself the chief of this very enoardQe
and Gordou IN turn added, "Nubar is corrupt and
aware of. if indeed he is not the author of all the
rascalit,es committed" fact well known in Egypt
and in Europe.
Let us turn back to the year 1858. Said Pacha
was Kbedlve, but feeble IN health. Prince Achmet
and Ismail, the sons of Ibrahm Pacha, were the
next in the line of succession. Achmet the eldest
according to the Koranie law being the heir appar
emit to the throne.
On the 10Th of January, Said gave grand fete
At Alexandria to which the two brothers were in
yited I>mail was ill and could not attend. After
the festivities special train, carrying Prince
Achmet aud Hahn left Alexandria, returning to
Cairo. On went the special flashing through the
darkness of the night with lightning speed 1T
reached Kafr-el-Azzayat the midway station. where
the Nile is spanned by a magnificent drawbrdge.
The tram Numbered along. passed upon tho bridge
unyarped and then-a whistle of danger, enough
TO startle the royal inmates. Hahn agile as cat
leapel from the open door into the river. as the
carriages. one upon the other, topped into the
abyss, fifty feet below. Hahn swan ashore In
safety but the burly, obese Achmet unable to fol-
low. was lost in the wreck. Tho friends Of Prince
Aehmet and other wicked people in Cairo basely
ins,nuated that if Prince Isnail had been upon the
train the accident had not happened. BE this az II
NAV. Isnail could not close his mind, naturally
sensitive TO supersitious influences to the fact that
his brothers funeral day and his consequent sue
ceasion as the heir apparent fell upon the dreaded
18th of the month. IL was an omen of evil.
Ismail. as fled by the hand of some demon fate,
came 10 power on the 18th. He had burst of
spendor in the fetes which he organized to ccle-
brate the opening of the Suez Canal The eyes of
the world we're upon the prOdigal prince who had
invited all Europe to partake of hospitality such as
the world had never seen, and which outriyalled
the spleudor of the Caliphs. TIC Suez Canal
ruined Egypt ana ruined ISmalL From this mo-
~
abe had been great earepOt of trade. il made her
also the centre of the r1varics of Europe, point
where the ba ties of the future are to be fought
lsmail drunk With the dream of empire which
had been Instied into him by association with his
royal cousins, set ont upon system of costly ex-
plOratiOns and prod gal cXpcndl uTes which could
be maintained only by a resort 10 usurlOns loans
contracted thrOugh Greek, Armenian and Jewish
agents az interest which aggregated 30 per cent.
In 1876. the State was practically bankruDt. In
the interest of Egypt, az we'll as the creditors,
Europe instituted a financial control. lsmail. It
was discovered, found means 10 divert from the
public Coisss the sum of f4, 100000 and this fact
was cor trmed by the minister of finance himself,
who made 10 secret of his active opposition TO
European interference. Ismai Sadvk Pacha,
familiarv known the Moufetich mInister of
fnance). from humble feilah, without education,
but by sheer force Of remarkable financial ability
had rlsen from the PEASANTS hut to the palace.
Charged with the collection of rents. his cruel ey
TO the simple people whom he knew better than an
other As BOWfedch he was as re entless az TIE
Mudr, il was the COuTbaich, always the Coarbdtch,
which brought tie refractory tributary to terms
The MOuietch was III fact indispensable to ISmaii
ne was Ills alter ego. Like his master. he had
smase ed great wealth, but unlike the Khedive his
wealth cumulative, whilst the formers was
subjected to expense which tTeatened him with
ruin. The MOuffetlch failed him at the supreme
moment. had p1ached upon him. and worse, had
secretly sought toobtain the protection of foreign
power to place himself beyond his reach as alien
as Nubar before him had done. who had be-
come n German subject, and as many of his rich
subjects had done, who purchasing consular
agency IN some village, thus placed themse YES
beyond his government. and were exempted from
al claims of whatever nature
The case was urgent and required heroic treat
ment. What that treatment was may be inferred
from the official dispatch sent by Mr.. VIVIAN the
English COneul-General, to his Governments 1t
said: The Khediv resolved TO finish by bne of
those dramatic incidents which one may sec only
In history and in Oriental life"
On the sth of November, 1876, after a gtormy
sessiOn of the Privy Council, convened by the
Khedive, in winch the young princes engaged in
recrimnation against the disgraced Minister.
Ismaii Sodyk resigned his portfolio. In an inter
view wi h the Khedve lie is reported to have said :
"U0usegHeT, you have committed grave fault in
obliging me 70 resign. and eraver still to succeed
me bv vour without being learned in history.
Am told that there is no record of the king who
had saved himself by sacrificing his minister The
responsibility OF the prince, mere infant will be
notorious. NV unpoDularity which has covered