tural population,
who lived by borrowing, and were accustomed to settle their debts
by haggling, aggravated the misery of the fellaheen, and led to that
universal despair which was to give strength and significance to
the Arabist revolt. It was no uncommon procedure for the Levantine
money-lender to accompany the tax-gatherer into the provinces with
a chest of money. He paid the taxes of the assembled and destitute
fellaheen, who in return were obliged to give mortgages on their crops
or holdings.

The desperate state of Egyptian finance, which led to the sale of the
precious Suez Canal shares, at last opened the eyes of the bondholders.
Mr. G. T. Goschen (Viscount Goschen) and M. Joubert were deputed to
Egypt on behalf of the foreign creditors. The accounts were found to be
in a state of wild confusion, with little or no chance of learning
the actual facts controlling the financial situation. The minister of
finance, or "Mufet-tish," Ismail Pasha Sadeck, was now arrested and
banished to Dongola.

There was an immediate prospect of a dual control by England and France.
Commissioners were appointed to constitute a caisse, or court, for
receiving the interest due to the bondholders. The great mass of the
debt was then unified, but the Goschen and Joubert arrangement was found
to be too severe for the impoverished country. A low Nile and a famine
resulted in a demand for an investigation into the administration,
and the following year Ismail was obliged to authorise a commission
of inquiry. The waste, extravagance, and wholesale extortion from the
peasantry revealed by this report made a deep impression upon Europe,
and Ismail was forced to disgorge the estates which he had received from
the fellaheen.

In the meantime, the khedive was not inactive in taking measures
to prevent the advent of a confirmed foreign control. He created a
constitutional ministry, upon whom the responsibility rested for the
different branches of the administration. He likewise fomented an
outburst of feeling among the Moslems against the foreign element in
the constitutional ministry. This was intended to strengthen the
pro-Egyptian element in the government, and Ismail thus hoped to
demonstrate to the European Powers the uselessness of attempting to
subordinate the Egyptians to foreign methods of finance and control.
Ismail subsequently dismissed the ministry, and soon afterwards the
controllers themselves. Knowing well the jealousy which ex