THE EGYPTIAN FINANCIAL POSITION. 1 83 The year 18S3 had opened with a floating debt of ,£860,000, and cash in hand ,£396,000, but for that year the expenditure was ,£5,972,000, or ,£1,635,000 in excess; the cost of the army of occupation being estimated at £425,000, the expense for the Soudan expedition at ,£500,000, the awards and expenses of the indemnity commission for sums below .£200 each ,£312,000, and the deficiencies on Domains and Daira revenue ,£260,000; so that loans effected to meet the further deficit amounted to £"2,300,000, against a cash balance of £"200,000. In 1S84 the new administration of Lower Egypt created at the beginning of the year made much progress, and many useful reforms were instituted under the direction of English officials, though Mr. Clifford Lloyd could not work harmoniously with Nubar Pasha, who procured his dismissal from office. Mr. Lloyd then returned to England and published an account of the condition of Egyptian prisons and the gross injustices of which they were made the scenes by persons in power, who incarcerated victims for the purpose of extorting money or for the gratification of private vengeance. It may be understood, however, that these disclosures chiefly referred to the period, already mentioned in these pages, during the investigation by English officers, who, however, had no permanent authority sufficient to prevent the recurrence of some of the evils complained of when once the inquiry demanded at the time of the trial of the prisoners concerned in Arabi's rebellion had been made, and those prisoners had been sentenced or acquitted.

In the beginning of March (1884) the indemnity commission appointed to investigate claims for property destroyed in the burning of Alexandria closed its sittings, the awards amounting in all to above four millions and a quarter. The cost ol the endeavour to hold the Soudan and to suppress the insurrection was estimated at about a million and a half, and the current administrative charges had considerably exceeded the available revenue, while a large increase had been necessary for works ot irrigation. To sum up the situation, the Egyptian government had to provide about £"8,000,000, the accumulated deficits and