. The rulers of the Mediterranean. gh ; but there was alsoan enormous sum given in backsheesh to Turkeyto gain the consent of the Porte to a proposedchange in the line of succession and the estab-lishment of the rule of primogeniture. Up tothat time the eldest male member of the rulingfamily had always succeeded to power, but Ismailobtained a firman from the Sultan allowing hisson to follow him. The gratification of this nat-ural vanity or love of family was not obtainedfor the asking, and cost his people dear. Theywere already groaning under a multitude oftaxes; the army was unpaid ; the bure
. The rulers of the Mediterranean. gh ; but there was alsoan enormous sum given in backsheesh to Turkeyto gain the consent of the Porte to a proposedchange in the line of succession and the estab-lishment of the rule of primogeniture. Up tothat time the eldest male member of the rulingfamily had always succeeded to power, but Ismailobtained a firman from the Sultan allowing hisson to follow him. The gratification of this nat-ural vanity or love of family was not obtainedfor the asking, and cost his people dear. Theywere already groaning under a multitude oftaxes; the army was unpaid ; the bureaucracywas rotten throughout; bribery and extortion,unfair taxation, and open seizure of the propertyof others had reduced the country almost tobankruptcy. Ismail in sixteen years had broughtabout a state of things that threatened utter ruin,to not only the native, but to the strangers withinand without the gates. The strangers made themove for reform. I have told this much of Ismailnot because it is new or unfamiliar, but because. AN KGVrilAN LA.\ChK THE ENGLISHMEN IN EGYPT 151 it shows how, through his misrule, the foreignelement was able to obtain a footing upon theshore of Egypt, which footing has now grown toa trampling under foot of what is native andproperly Egyptian. This entering wedge wascalled the Dual Control, and France and Englandwere appointed receivers for Egypt, just as weappoint receivers for a badly managed railroad,and Ismail was deposed, his son Tewfik takinghis place. But although this was the first important andmost official recognition of the right of thestranger to dictate to Egypt, he had already ob-tained peculiar rights in Egypt through capitula-tions, or those privileges granted in the past toforeign residents in Turkey and its dependentstate of Egypt. In the sixteenth century theforeigners who traded in these Oriental countriesstood in actual need of protection from the na-tives. Because they were foreigners they wereregarded with such lack of cons
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublisherharper, bookyear189
