Page:On the Desert - Recent Events in Egypt.djvu/24

10 got to the end of his rope. Nobody would lend him a shilling. Then it was that England and France said "We will try to raise you up and set you on your legs again, if you will let us manage the finances. Europe will have confidence in us, but it will not in you." This was a pretty hard bargain, but it was the only one that could be made; and bad as it was in principle, yet anything was better than levying taxes (and double taxes) by the bastinado. The change brought immediate relief; the country began to revive. The burden of taxation was still heavy, but at least the people knew what to depend upon: that they were only to be taxed once a year, and the taxes to be collected at a regular time, and in a regular way. There were no more bastinadoings to extort money. Confidence returned; Egyptian bonds rose in all the markets of Europe. But the Control had to deal not only with an impoverished country, but with an imperious and intractable master. Ismail was quite willing that they should come in to relieve him from embarrassment, and to put such a plausible show on his affairs as should enable him to borrow more money; but he had no idea of their placing a check on his extravagance; and so, after chafing for awhile under the restraint, he finally flew into a passion, and told the Controllers to go about their business, and he would manage the finances himself, upon which they appealed to their Governments, who addressed themselves to the Sultan, who politely told the Khedive to go about his business, who thereupon embarked with his harem for Naples, where for three years he has had abundant leisure to contemplate the situation.

That, in short, is the whole story of the Anglo-French Control. It was certainly an awkward arrangement, but still, as a temporary expedient, it did immense good. But like many other good things, it ran into an abuse. The Egyptians felt that it was pretty hard to have to pay