The land-tax is now got in with certainty, whereas formerly the Government never knew what to estimate for arrears; the post-office revenue is improving; exports and imports have gone up by about two millions; the cotton-crops are better; the sugar industry is rapidly increasing in Upper Egypt; the railway receipts are the highest on record; railway extension is going on, and plans and surveys for light railways are well advanced; agricultural roads are constructed; there are electric tramways and lighting in Cairo. The light dues will be decreased this year. The only relic of forced labour is a yearly diminishing amount for the protection of the Nile banks during the period of flood. Crime is diminishing, and sanitary reform is progressing. Education is advancing as far as possible, considering the deficiency of funds, and slavery is kept under.
As to the question when our work shall be done, and we English shall retire from Cairo, it is impossible, says Sir A. Milner, to give a definite answer. It would be difficult to over-estimate what that work owes to the sagacity, patience, and fortitude of the British Ambassador. The contrast between the Egypt of to-day and the Egypt as it was when he first took it in hand is the best testimony to his efficiency and wisdom. All writers on Egypt agree in this. ‘There is not a native,’ writes Mr. Wood, ‘that does not recognise at heart the benefits of the British occupation’—a remark which seemed to be to a certain extent true; but not quite to the extent Mr. Wood suggests. ‘It is quite an anachronism,’ Sir A. Milner remarks, ‘to suppose that the interest of Egyptian finance centres in the debt, and that the financial authorities of the country are the mere bailiffs of the bondholders.’ As a matter of fact, now that it has been established that the resources of Egypt can bear the interest of the debt at its present rate, the last people whom an Egyptian Finance Minister need trouble himself about are the bondholders. Except when an occasion presents itself to reduce the interest by the legitimate method of conversion, the debt need no longer have a foremost place in his mind. ‘Even the Commissioners of the Caisse,’ writes Sir A. Milner, ‘who only meet to protect the creditors, and who from time to time, to justify their existence, get up a little fuss about some supposed danger to interests which in their hearts they know to be perfectly secure—even the Commissioners of the Caisse, I say, are more occupied now-a-days with employing their reserve fund in developing the wealth of the country than with needless anxieties about the coupon.’ Sir A. Milner has no doubt well weighed his words. Of all the romances of finance there are few to be compared with the borrowings of Ismail, to whom is due the honour of having originated the Egyptian National Debt.
CHAPTER XV.
THE PYRAMIDS AND THE SPHINX.
There are two things in Egypt which amply repay the traveller for his trouble. One is the museum at Gizeh, and the other the pyramids, especially the Great Pyramid of Cheops. I did them both in one day. It is a pleasant ride from Cairo, on a road broad, well watered, and shaded all the way by large acacia-trees. I did the museum first, though it will be a matter of regret to me that I had only an hour to visit a collection where one might usefully spend weeks, and that our guide indulged in an English almost as unintelligible to us as
‘The heathen Greek
That Helen spoke when Paris wooed.’
The palace which shelters the museum is said to have been built at a cost of nearly 5,000,000 sterling. The edifice is placed in spacious grounds close to the river, just opposite the spot on the other side where Pharaoh’s daughter is said to have come to bathe when she discovered Moses. It was opened by the Khedive in 1890. The section devoted to the exhibition of papyri is remarkably interesting, but to most of us the gem of the collection is the splendid sarcophagus which contains the body of Rameses II., the persecutor of the Israelites. The features of his face are well preserved, but his head does not give you any idea of any special intellectual capacity; and the face of his father, who lies close by, is almost that of a pure negro—that is, as far as I could make it out. On one of the papyri is an inscription, of which I copy a portion, in order to
‘When thou makest an offering to God, offer not that which He abominateth. Dispute not concerning His mysteries. The God of the world is in the light above the heavens, and His emblems are upon earth. It is unto these that worship is paid daily. When thou hast arrived at years of maturity, and art married and hast a house, forget never the pains which thou hast cost thy mother, nor the care which she has bestowed upon thee. Never give her cause to complain of thee, lest she lift up her hand to God in heaven to complain of thee, and He listen to her complaint.’
It seems to me that we have a good deal to learn of the ancient Egyptians yet.