ation, and internal disturbances induced by
Khedive Ismail's follies, the law had not been applied, and the 6000
recruits collected at Cairo in January 1883 represented the biggest and
strongest peasants who could not purchase exemption by bribing the
officials concerned. The difficulties experienced in applying the 1880
decree were great, but the perseverance of British officers gave the
oppressed peasants, in 1885, an equitable law, which has been since
improved by the decree of 1900. General considerations later caused the
sirdar to allow exemption by payment of (Badalia) L20 before ballot.
This tax, which is popular amongst the peasantry, produced in 1906
LE.150,000, and over L250,000 in 1908. This is a marked indication of
the increasing prosperity of the fellahin. A portion of the badalia is
expended in the betterment of the soldier's position. He is no longer
drafted into the police on completing his army service, but goes free at
the end of five years with a gift of LE.20. The sirdar is allowed,
moreover, to use L20,000 per annum of the badalia for the improvement of
the education of the rank and file. As an experiment the police is now a
voluntary service, except in Alexandria and Cairo, for which cities
peasants are conscripted for the police under army conditions. The
recruiting superintending committee, travelling through districts,
supervise every ballot, and work under stringent rules which render
systematic bribery difficult. The recruits who draw unlucky numbers at
19 years of age are seldom called up till they are 23, when they are
summoned by name and escorted by a policeman to Cairo. To prevent
substitution on the journey each recruit wears a string girdle sealed in
lead. The periods of service are: with the colours, 5 years; in the
reserve, 5 years, during which time they may be called up for police
service, manoeuvres, &c. The pay is LE.3, 14s. per annum for all
services, and the liberal scale of rations of meat, bread and rice
remains as before in theory, but in practice the value of pay and food
received is greatly enhanced. So also with the pension and promotion
regulations. They were in 1882 sufficiently liberal on paper, but had
never been carried into effect.

The efforts of 48 American officers, who under Gen. C. P. Stone
zealously served Ismail, had entirely failed to overcome Egyptian
venality and intrigue; and in spite of the military schools, with a
comprehensive syllabus, the only percep