EGYPT.

Woodville Examiner, Volume XXVI, Issue 4469, 8 September 1911, Page 1 (Supplement)

EGYPT.

HOW POLITICAL KNOTS WERE CUT WITH THE ASSASSIN’S KNIFE. Baring the six arid a half centuries ol Egyptian independence after .the Arab conquest (8(38-1517) 15 of the severaigna were murdered and four ware deposed and then murdered. Twenty-nine other depositions and six voluntary or compulsory abdications also Mark thin period —that is to' say, ■ that enoo in every 12 years upon an arerigo the monarch fell a victim to a successful rebellion or a . p'.iaco conspiracy. Nor were tho Ministers cf Ho Grown more happy. During the two centuries (;.'f&-1171) of tho Fatainit© Cal>>lu.to no fewer than 13 Premiers (Grand-Viziers) perished by violent deaths. Of these, three were executed by tho Caliphs, one being 'crucified together with his brothers, four wero murdered at the instigation of the Caliphs, and six were assassin atod by political opponents This happened when. Egypt was “ entirely freed’ Tho tendency to cut political kno.s w ith tho assassin’s knife (says ' l The Times ”), is manifest in modern Egypt, and deposition ■is • no eriipty menace. Tho present Khedive's great -grandfather was murdered,, by eunuchs in 1854. his grandfather was deposed in ]879, and Jiis own. Premier, Boutros Pr.ahn Ghali, was assassinated in 1910, amid the frenzied of political adversaries. , . •, What the Army, of QLcupation cannot entirely restrain it at, least holds m cheek. Under the Caliphate, a Vizier was murdered, roughly .'speaking, every 15 years; under the ’ Occupation only one'has perished in thiff way during a generation. ' » ’ , . That strong government is tho primeneed "of Egypt. abundantly throughout its later' history, and tho census no loss tbap, thd Nilometer is a criterion of its internal prosperity. In 1800. after neariy ; two centuries of anarchy, whan Turk ’arid .‘Mameluke disputed the mastery a nd'thc revenues of the conntry, the population .had sunk to a bare two millions'arid a half. Peace and strong government, coupled even , with Mphemot rAli’s(' Wnmorcial arid political despotismi liV® a tonic on the distracted kingdon),. and' - at the end of'his roign bis subjects hod increased ■ by two millions,; -J>uring tho next generation a less increase took place, arid it is Occupation that the population of'Egypt has been restored (1907) to ,tlio traditional numbers of tho ancient "monarchy over n;«eo, 000.