d;[27] the land tax was reduced 30% in the poorest provinces,
and in spite of this and other measures for lightening the public
burdens, the budgetary surplus constantly increased; the quasi-judicial
special commissions for brigandage, which were at once barbarous and
inefficient, were abolished; the native tribunals were improved, and Mr
(afterwards Sir John) Scott, an Indian judge of great experience and
sound judgment, was appointed judicial adviser to the khedive. This
appointment was opposed by Riaz Pasha, and led to his resignation on the
plea of ill-health. His successor, Mustafa Pasha Fehmi, continued the
work and co-operated cordially with the English officials. The very
necessary reform of the native tribunals was then taken seriously in
hand. The existing procedure was simplified and accelerated; the working
of the courts was greatly improved by a carefully organized system of
inspection and control; the incompetent judges were eliminated and
replaced by men of better education and higher moral character; and for
the future supply of well-qualified judges, barristers, and law
officials, an excellent school of law was established. Later on the
reforming activity was extended to prisons, public health, and
education, and has attained very satisfactory results.

Accession of Abbas.

In January 1892 the khedive Tewfik, who had always maintained cordial
relations with Sir Evelyn Baring, died suddenly, and was succeeded by
his son, Abbas Hilmi, a young man without political experience, who
failed at first to understand the peculiar situation in which a khedive
ruling under British protection is necessarily placed. Aspiring to
liberate himself at once from foreign control, he summarily dismissed
Mustafa Pasha Fehmi (15th January 1893), whom he considered too amenable
to English influence, and appointed in his place Fakhri Pasha, who was
not a _persona grata_ at the British Agency. Such an incident, which
might have constituted a precedent for more important acts of a similar
kind, could hardly be overlooked by the British representative. He had
always maintained that what Egypt most required, and would require for
many years to come, was an order of things which would render
practically impossible any return to that personal system of government
which had well-nigh ruined the country. In this view the British agent
was warmly supported by Lord Rosebery, then secretary of state for
foreign affairs. The young khe