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scattered in the different Moudiriehs which are supported by the Administration of the Wakfs. It is estimated by Yacoub Artin Pasha that about 2,000 pupils annually attend them.

In the chief villages, again, the more wealthy cultivator is generally careful to give instruction to his own children and those of his dependents, by engaging the services. of some poor student of the El-Azhar Mosque, who, like the other village teachers, adds to his small income by filling the duties of public scribe to the community.

The method of tuition in the villages is uniform throughout the country. It consists of making a child learn passages from the Koran by heart, at the same time instructing him in the alphabet and in writing until he is able to read and write the passages which have already been impressed on his memory. The one universal book from which all rudimentary instruction is received is the Koran, and thus the language learnt by each succeeding generation remains pure and unaltered.

Reform and improvement in the education of the mass of the population requires long and careful consideration. The reforms which Ismaïl Pasha endeavoured to introduce, at great expense, all met with failure from the hasty manner in which he insisted on their being carried out. Yacoub Artin Pasha is labouring patiently to bring about improvements adapted to the condition and character of the Egyptian people. He is doing good service by the publication in his Department of cheap books and pamphlets, which find their way into the remotest villages, and prevent the fellah from forgetting, by want of practice, the little learning he has acquired in his childhood,

Conclusion.

In the above narrative of the progress made during the last few years in the welfare of the agricultural population, the broad outlines of reform have alone been shown. All the minor details which serve to give the whole work both strength and substance have been omitted. It would, however, have been difficult to enumerate all the lesser measures passed in the various Departments under English control. The Financial Department, more especially, has undergone thorough reform in all its branches. A system of supervision has been instituted, which has necessarily put a stop to all arbitrary exercise of power on the part of the smaller officials in the provinces. All this has contributed, to a great extent, to do away with former malpractices.

It would, however, be too much to say that bribery and corruption have entirely disappeared. Among the officials connected with the native Law Courts venality is, according to independent accounts, as prevalent as ever, and the fellaheen complain (with cause) that there is one law for the rich and another for the poor.

But with the system of bribery so ingrained in the habits of the people, it is satisfactory to learn that a great improvement has taken place in this direction in the other branches of the Administration. According to the statement of an irrigation officer who is well acquainted with the country, and who is constantly travelling in the provinces, no bribe has ever been offered to an English engineer to induce him to distribute water with it more partially to one than to another.

The reports of men most competent to judge of the present condition of the agricultural population all tend to affirm that the lot of the fellah has been greatly ameliorated in the last few years. He is, according to their accounts, better fed and better clothed. He no longer has to dread the courbash, nor has he such reason to fear the corvée or the military conscription. He knows the amount of taxes he has to pay, and the time at which they will be demanded from him. He has been enabled, to a great extent, to free himself from the usurer. He is, in fact, gradually emerging from the oppression and misery in which he had been plunged from time immemorial.

A great deal of this has been accomplished since the British occupation of the country. The reforms introduced under English influence are the more noteworthy, when it is considered that the first years of our occupation were taken up with military events which naturally diverted the attention of the Government from the internal affairs of the country, and that the year 1884 was marked by unusual depression in trade owing to the heavy fall in the price of cereals. The financial difficulties of that year were also so great that at two distinct periods "the Egyptian Treasury was within 5,000l. of suspending payment." *

It is thus, practically, but three years that the work of reform has been going on. Many other beneficial measures are either on the point of being passed, or are receiving the earnest consideration of the Egyptian Government.

(Signed)

Cairo, June 2, 1888.

*Sir E. Vine nt's Report in 1884.

F. S. CLARKE.

EGYPT. No. 6 (1888).

COPY of a Despatch from Sir E. Baring, inclosing a Report on the Condition of the Agricultural Population in Egypt.

Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command

of Her Majesty. July 1888.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY HARRISON AND SONS.

CORRESPONDENCE

RESPECTING THE

SETTLEMENT OF THE CLAIMS

OF THE

EX-KHEDIVE ISMAIL PASHA

AND

HIS FAMILY.

Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty.

March 1888.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE

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Correspondence respecting the Settlement of the Claims of the

ex-Khedive Ismail Pasha and his Family.

No. 1.

Sir E. Baring to the Marquis of Salisbury.—(Received by telegraph, January 24.) My Lord,

Cairo, January 24, 1888. WITH reference to previous correspondence respecting the claims of the exKhedive, I have had the honour this day to report to your Lordship, by telegraph, that the Egyptian Government has come to an agreement with Mr. Marriott and Prince Hussein (who has Ismaïl Pasha's power of attorney) on the following lines :-

1. Allowances to the extent of £ E. 86,400 a-year to be commuted into Domains lands of the value of £ E. 1,210,000. The prices to be those in the Domains catalogue; £ E. 180,000 to be given in money to buy the live stock and other floating capital now the property of the Domains Administration. Half of Ismaïl Pasha's land and two-thirds of the land given to the other Princes to be placed in trust.

2. The Palace at Constantinople and two Palaces here (Ghezireh and Kasr-e Nil) to be ceded with the gardens, but without the farms (" teftiches") attached to them.

3. £ E. 100,000 to be paid for the harvest and seed claim. The Egyptian Government will, I understand, at once consult the Commissioners of the Public Debt about raising the necessary money.

I have, &c.

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My Lord,

Sir E. Baring to the Marquis of Salisbury.-(Received February 6.)

Cairo, January 27, 1888.

I HAVE already, both by telegraph and in my despatch of the 24th instant, described the nature of the agreement respecting the settlement of the claims of the ex-Khedive and his family, which has been come to by the Egyptian Government, on the one hand, and by Mr. Marriott, Q.C., and Prince Hussein Kiamil Pasha, on the other. I have now the honour to inclose copy of an official letter, dated the 23rd instant, addressed by Mr. Marriott to Nubar Pasha, and of Nubar Pasha's reply, dated the 25th. In these letters the arrangement come to is set forth in detail, and that from Mr. Marriott is supplemented by the formal adherence of Prince Hussein Pasha, both in his own name and in those of His Highness Ismaïl Pasha and their Highnesses Chokrat Hanem, Djenaniar Hanem, Tchesmafat Hanem, Aly Bey, Fuad Bey, Amina and Nemat Hanem, Hassan Pasha and his wife, and Ibrahim Pasha Hilmy, from whom he holds a power of attorney authorizing him to act on their behalf in this

matter.

I have already reported that the allowances to the Khedivial family to the extent of £ E. 86,473 a year are to be commuted into domains lands of the value of £ E. 1,210,000, according to the valuation of the domains "cahier des charges." The [179] B 2

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