Algeria . CHAPTER IV. AFRICA. In the vast continent of Africa, two countries alone require any detailed account of the events which have taken place in them: Egypt in the north, and our own colonies in the extreme south. The remaining countries, although disturbed more or less by wars. and rumours of wars, have pursued their course of gradual commercial development without much break. In Algeria, the nomination of a civil Governor-General, M. Albert Grévy, seemed, as it had almost always been the case on previous occasions when the military rule was relaxed, to be the signal for a renewed outbreak on the part of some of the Kabyles. The revolt, however, never assumed a very serious aspect, and it redounded greatly to the praise of the French Government, that the pacification of the Arab tribes on this occasion was unmarked by any of those atrocities and severities which have too frequently accompanied similar repressions. At one moment the rivalry of France and Italy in Tunis threatened to involve the Bey of that country in unpleasant complications, which might have compromised his rule as an independent sovereign. Good sense and calmer counsels however prevailed at Rome and Paris, and whilst the Bey agreed to make every honourable reparation to French speculators who considered the cancelling of certain concessions due to Italian influence, he firmly refused the request of the French Consul to give a public proof of his desire to humiliate the Italian representative. On the West Coast of Africa, the blockade of the kingdom of Dahomey has been maintained with more or less vigour, in consequence of the King's refusal to grant to the English Government the satisfaction demanded for outrages committed on European traders. At various times offers to treat-but upon bases deemed insufficient--have been declined by the British authorities. The French settlements on the same coast have during the year developed more activity than they have shown for many years, possibly with a view of justifying some of the schemes proposed in France for bringing Algiers and Senegal into more direct communication by means of the Trans-Sahara Railway. 1. EGYPT. In Egypt the year 1879 was even more eventful than that which preceded it. In 1878, Ismail Pasha had by foreign pressure been seemingly converted into a constitutional ruler; in 1879 the same force was employed as quietly and as irresistibly to depose and banish him from the country which for sixteen years he had governed, with an exclusive aim to the personal interest and aggrandisement of himself and his family, and with hardly a thought for the happiness of his subjects. At the close of the year, the reign of his son and successor, Mehemet Tewfik, had been inaugurated under what seemed the best auspices. Everything, for the moment at any rate, promised well for the permanent reestablishment of the financial credit of the State; and there was apparently good reason to hope that the prosperity of the people would be restored by the substitution of law for arbitrary power. Extraordinarily good crops of every kind had revived the commerce and the revenue of the country. The danger most apparent in the future was from possible complications in international politics. For Egypt appeared to be becoming every day more “a part of Europe," in a sense which was hardly intended by Ismail Pasha when he used the famous phrase in his speech to Mr. Rivers Wilson, in August, 1878. From the point of view of general history, this was not the least noteworthy consequence of the foreign policy of Lord Beaconsfield. Though the events which immediately preceded the fall of Ismail Pasha were sudden and unexpected, its causes had been long in existence, and long known to those who brought it about. The facts may be compressed into a short compass. On August 28, 1878, the Khedive accepted with an apparent absence of all reserve the conclusions of the Commission of Inquiry, to the appointment of which he had been with such difficulty forced to consent. Nubar Pasha was charged with the formation of a cabinet in which afterwards, first Mr. Rivers Wilson, as Minister of Finance, and then M. de Blignières as Minister of Public Works, sat as his colleagues. It was then somewhat cynically remarked that the "responsibility" which was ascribed to the new Ministers, in fact, consisted in their being "irresponsible" to the Khedive, or indeed to anyone else. And it was foreseen that there was no slight cause for fear that, though the Khedive might be forced, like other despots, to sign away his property and his autocratic power by a single act of concession, it would be almost hopeless to endeavour to make him steadily and actively co-operate with the triumvirate of dictators which had been imposed upon him. If indeed the Ministers could have the tact and self-control to conciliate Ismail Pasha, those who knew him personally hoped that if an outward semblance of influence and predominance were allowed him, he might consent to accept the decisions of his Council of Ministers, and that the reforms necessary for the settlement of the difficulties of the country, might have time to be carried and put into operation. Indeed the really great sacrifices which he had so recently made, seemed to entitle him to some sort at least of confidence; and excuse might have been made for the natural reluctance with which he saw the government of the country pass out of his hands into those of foreigners. Had a conciliatory policy been pursued, it might have been possible for the two Powers most interested to effect all that was essentially necessary in Egypt without further international complications. But unfortunately the character and antecedents of Nubar Pasha prevented the realisation of these hopes. He had returned to Egypt with two fixed ideas, one, that the Khedive was the main cause of all its difficulties-forgetting for how great a portion of his master's policy, system, and conduct he was himself responsible, and how largely he had himself profited by some of the most scandalous jobs of his reign; and the other, that the only hand that could guide the vessel of the State was his own-a pretension which if it were partially justified by his rare gifts of intelligence and self-reliance, was prompted too much by personal ambition, sustained too much by intrigue, and negatived too much by want of self-control and cool judgment, to be accepted without great hesitation. Accordingly he plainly revealed his intention to reduce the Khedive to a mere cipher in the government of the country; and Mr. Rivers Wilson was only too ready to support instead of controlling the Premier. The inevitable result followed. The Khedive became the chief of the Opposition. He fomented the disaffection of the Turkish and Arab officials and pashas whose predominance or privileges were destroyed or threatened by the new Administration, and taking advantage of, if he had not secretly instigated, a tumultuous meeting at Cairo of a large body of officers discharged from the army without settlement of their long-standing arrears of pay, and whose loud and just complaints had been most imprudently disregarded by the Ministry-he forced Nubar Pasha to resign on February 20, 1879. At the same time he demanded to be allowed for himself a more active participation in the Cabinet Council, and specially (i.) to have the right of summoning it and proposing measures to it; (ii.) to have all measures submitted to him by the Minister before being laid before it; (iii.) to be admitted to preside at all its deliberations. The last of these demands was strongly opposed by the two European Ministers, who insisted also on the re-instatement of Nubar Pasha, and invoked the interference of their Governments in support of their views. Mr. Vivian, the English Consul-General, advised his Government against the re-imposition of Nubar Pasha on the Viceroy, and eventually the diplomatic representatives of England and France were directed to inform the Khedive, that the two Governments would not further press the readmission of Nubar Pasha into the Cabinet, in consideration of its being agreed (i.) that the Khedive should not in any case be present at Cabinet Councils, (ii.) that Prince Tewfik should be appointed President of the Council, (iii.) that the two English and French Ministers should possess an absolute right of veto over any proposed measure. These conditions, which were accompanied by a warning of the consequences of refusal, amounting almost to a menace, were formally accepted by the Khedive. Thus for the first time the Cabinet of Lord Beaconsfield, in concert with France, took the direct responsibility of dictating the details of internal government in Egypt. This was an entirely new feature in English policy, and the consequences of it could not but be most serious. There is little doubt that Ismail Pasha during the later period of his rule in Egypt was disposed to rely chiefly on English support and to employ English officials in preference to those of any other nation, and that if the traditional policy had been adhered to, this supremacy might have been maintained. But from the moment that by the Cave Mission and the purchase of the Suez Canal shares, direct official interference was substituted for diplomatic influence, it became impossible to avoid taking France into partnership on every occasion. Thus the other Powers became jealous of the Anglo-French alliance, and Egyptian affairs were made nearly as much a matter of international concern as those of Turkey herself. The Nubar-Wilson Ministry during its short tenure of office, which lasted really only from the return of Mr. Wilson to Egypt, on November 27, 1878, till February 20, 1879, had been able to effect very little actual reform, but it had passed important decrees preparing the way for it in the future, by a reorganisation of some of the Public Departments. It had indeed to contend with great difficulties, and it was not free from internal dissensions. The two European Ministers had some difficulty in inducing Nubar Pasha to consent to the prolongation of the Commission of Inquiry. He contended that the necessity for this extraordinary inquisition had ceased, now that the Government was in the hands of a Constitutional Ministry of enlightened European views. But the opposite view prevailed, and the Commission was charged by a decree, signed on January 17, 1879, to continue its labours, and prepare a project for the definite settlement of the financial difficulties of the country. Between Mr. Rivers Wilson and his French colleague, M. de Blignières, a somewhat similar difference of opinion arose as to the maintenance of the two controllers, Mr. Romaine and Baron de Malaret, appointed under the Goschen decree of November, 1876. According to that decree the former, as Controller-General of receipts, was to superintend and check the collection of all revenues of the State, and their payment into the respective Public Chests, and the latter, as Controller-General of Audit and Public Debt, was to watch the execution of regulations affecting the State Debts, and generally control the Treasury accounts; but they were allowed no voice in the appropriation of the credits assigned in the Budgets to respective heads of service. Much more had been expected from these functionaries in the way of effectual check on expenditure, and the avoidance of fresh liabilities, than they had performed; so that when Mr. Wilson's proposal for suspending them was carried out by a decree, dated December 15, 1878, it was generally felt that the saving of their salaries was more important than the security which they offered for the regularity of the public service. At the same time the authority of the foreign Ministers with the Khedive was weakened by differences of opinion, and rivalry for influence, which inevitably sprung up between them and the diplomatic representatives of Great Britain and France-especially between Mr. R. Wilson and Mr. Vivian the British agent. The most important financial operation for which the NubarWilson ministry was responsible was the contracting in October 1878 a loan with Messrs. Rothschild for 8,500,000l. (nominal) at 7 per cent. on the security of 4,350,000 acres of land which the Khedive had surrendered. This loan was expressly stated to be for the purpose of paying off the floating debt estimated by the Commission of Inquiry at 6,276,000l. But the 8,500,000l., nominal produced only 6,300,000l. effective, and of this sum no less than 1,937,000l. had been diverted for other purposes; 1 whilst from the remaining 4,363,000l. a further sum of nearly a million sterling devolved to the floating creditors, owing to an unfortunate omission on the part of the Government and Messrs. Rothschild to effect legal mortgages for the loan on the ceded lands. This oversight allowed other judgment-creditors to forestall the holders of the floating debt, and eventually caused a loss to the State of the difference-estimated as amounting to 60,000 francs a day-between 7 per cent. the interest payable to Baron Rothschild, and 2 per cent. the interest allowed to the judgment creditors who obtained priority by the decision of the tribunals. A new Cabinet, of which Prince Tewfik Pasha was the nominal chief, and in which the two European ministers still preserved their seats, was formed by the Khedive on March 22, 1879. But it did not last very long. On the 7th April following he abruptly dismissed it, and replaced it by a purely native ministry under his old servant Chérif Pasha. The excuse given for this unexpectedly bold step was the second report of the Commission of Inquiry containing a plan for the provisional regulation of the financial position. For this Mr. Rivers Wilson, as Minister of Finance, made himself responsible. Although at first communicated only confidentially to the Khedive, its contents had transpired and had roused national indignation by representing Egypt as in a state of bankruptcy. His Highness therefore thought it necessary to form a native ministry responsible to the Chamber of Notables, and brought forward a counter-financial project as presented to him by that body.2 1 Coupon of Consolidated Debt, November 1878 £1,225,000 500,000 212,000 £1,937,000 This assembly, revived in 1866 by Ismail Pasha, was nominally elected by the communes of each province, and met every year to deliberate on local and other questions submitted to it by the Government. Its resolutions, inspired by the Khedive, had been used by him before on several occasions, as an excuse for his action-notably in 1876, when its decision against the suppression of the Moukabalah, when proposed by Mr. Cave, was put forward as justifying the maintenance of that impost. It had been quite recently consulted by the European Ministry itself as to the Public Works to be undertaken, but on its showing symptoms of opposition, its sittings had been, at their suggestion, indefinitely adjourned on March 26, 1879. |