This has been the case notwithstanding that a considerable diminution in taxation has been effected; the taxation per head of the population was in 1881 1 25. 2d., and that of the debt £14 8s. 9d.; in 1897 the corresponding figures were 17s. 9d. and £10 os. 2d. (Mr. Dawkins, in Milner, England in Egypt, p. 384). Further reductions in taxation were made in 1898 and 1899, amounting together to about £244,000. The following, taken from the Parliamentary Papers (1896, No. 1, p. 3, etc.), will show the amounts of surplus and deficit since 1883

The financial situation in 1899 may be thus summarised :

The

The National Debt amounted to £E.103,049,00c, but £E.7,494,000 of this sum was held by the Commissioners of the Public Debt. There is no floating debt. General Reserve Fund amounted to £E.3,523,000; the Special Reserve Fund to £E. 243,000; and the accumulated Conversion Economies amounted to £E.3,565,coo. The Economies Fund "is invested in Egyptian bonds, and Egypt is therefore becoming pro tanto the holder of her own debt. But to buy up your debts at a premium of 8 per cent., instead of paying them off at par, a premium continually forced up by further obligatory purchases on your own part, is extravagant finance. It is an extravagance forced on Egypt by international conventions, for which, in the present case, the word 'France' might be used"

(Dawkins, op. cit., p. 302). The sum of £E.2,500,000 which was spent on the Sûdân Expedition in 1896-98 may be regarded as a good investment, for as assets Egypt has 760 miles of railway, with an adequate number of engines, rolling-stock, etc.; 2,000 miles of telegraph line, six new gun-boats, barges, etc., and the whole Sûdân (Kitchener's speech in London, Nov. 4, 1898). Railways in 1899 brought in E.2,112,000, the largest amount ever received from this source, but the cost of the repairs to the Embâbeh Bridge swallowed up much of the profit. The bridge was built by a French firm for E.80,000, but £E.43,000 (!) more will have to be spent upon it before it is safe for traffic. Telegraphs brought in £E.59,000; salt, under the new regulations, brought in £E. 147,710; customs E. 2,093,000, being £53,000 in excess of the revenue in 1898. The revenue from this last source has, therefore, doubled in ten years, for the amount collected in 1889 only amounted to E. 1,027,000. The value of the Imports in 1899 was £E.10,909,000, which is

E.415,coo more than the figure for 1898; and the value of the Exports was £E.15,351,000, an increase of

E.3,546,000 over 1898. The Post Office yields a net revenue to the Government of E.20,000. The total number of persons confined in prisons in 1899 was 9,221; 11 cases of prosecution for slave dealing were carried on in the year; 22,894 cases were treated in the Government hospitals; 357,000 successful vaccinations were made; 80,011 legal cases were brought before Native Tribunals; the system of Village Justice evolved by Lord Cromer and his legal advisers has proved to be a great success; the powers of the Mixed Tribunals have been modified, and considerable alterations have been made in the application of Muḥammadan Law. In Education great strides have made. In 1887 only 1,919 pupils were under the

nagement of the Department of Public Instruction;

in 1898 the number had grown to 19,684, and in 1899 to 23,390. The school fees in 1887 were £E.9,000, and in 1899 £E.36,000. It is a remarkable fact that the percentage of Muḥammadan pupils in schools and colleges under the Department is less than the percentage of the Muḥammadans in the total population, while the percentage of Coptic pupils in the same schools is almost treble the percentage of Copts throughout Egypt. Thus Muḥammadans form 92 per cent. of the total population, and the number of their children in the schools forms 78 per cent. of the pupils; the Copts form 6 per cent. of the total population, but the number of their children in the schools forms 17 per cent. of the pupils. At the beginning of the British occupation of Egypt the principal European language taught in the Government schools was French; English was either altogether neglected or was very badly taught. The schools of the American Missionaries were the only places where English was taught, and the splendid services rendered by these institutions in this respect must not be forgotten. Until the last few years nearly every railway, postal, or telegraph official in Egypt who possessed any competent knowledge of the English language owed his instruction to the American missionaries. The following figures illustrate the growth of the study of English in Government schools:

:

Thus in 1899 about 78 per cent. of the pupils were

studying English and 22 per cent. French; in 1889 the figures were 26 per cent. and 74 per cent. respectively. In 1884 about 360,000 tons of coal were imported at Alexandria, and 726,000 at Port Sa'id; in 1899 these numbers had risen to 842,501 and 1,002,402 tons respectively. In January, 1882, "Egyptian Unifieds " were quoted at 61, and in January, 1899, at 107. Worthy of mention too is the success of the societies which have been established in Cairo, Alexandria, and Port Sa'îd for the prevention of cruelty to animals. In Cairo 1,178 animals were treated in the infirmary, in Alexandria 2,384, and in Port Sa'îd 159; it is most satisfactory to learn that Lord Cromer thinks the action of these societies is causing a steady improvement in the condition of the animals employed in the towns where the societies exist. The productive and recuperative powers of Egypt have been proverbial from time out of mind, but the most sanguine reformer of Egypt in 1883 could never have expected that the last year of the century would have witnessed such a state of prosperity in the country as now exists. This is due entirely to the fidelity with which the civil and military officials have performed their duties, and to the carrying out of the consistent and wise policy which was inaugurated by Viscount Cromer, whose strong hand has ceaselessly guided and supported every work which tended to the welfare and prosperity of Egypt.

THE COUNTRY OF EGYPT.

Geology. In ancient days Egypt proper terminated at Aswân (Syene), but now the term Egypt includes that portion of the Nile valley which lies between the Mediterranean and Wâdî Ḥalfa, i.e., between 22° and 31° 30' N. latitude. According to Major H. G. Lyons,* DirectorGeneral of Surveys of Egypt, the country consists chiefly of a series of sedimentary deposits of Cretaceous and Tertiary ages, which have been laid down upon the uneven and eroded surface of a great mass of crystalline rocks, which come to the surface on the edge of the eastern desert and also cover large areas of it. The direction of the Nile Valley is generally north and south, and is due to the great earth movements which took place in Miocene times; indeed, the Nile Valley itself has been determined by a line of fracture which is traceable from the sea nearly to the First Cataract. Into this valley in late Miocene or early Pliocene times the sea penetrated at least as far as Esneh, and laid down thick deposits of sand and gravel on the floor of the valley and up to the foot of the cliffs bounding it, while the tributary streams, fed by a rainfall much heavier than that of to-day, brought down masses of detritus from the limestone plateaux and piled them up along the margins of the valley. A subsequent rise of the area converted this "fiord" into a river valley, and the deposition of the Nile mud and the formation of cultivable land began. The crystalline rocks occur at Aswân, Kalâbsheh, Wâdî Ḥalfa, and other points further south, forming cataracts and gorges. East and north-east of Keneh

*

I quote from his description of the geology of Egypt written for Major Willcocks, C.M.G., and printed in Egyptian Irrigation, 2nd edition, London, 1899.