THE ROAD TO RUIN. 89 natives called the Mufettish, or Chief Steward. The Mufettish was a fellah by birth, of humble origin, a man of little education, who, by force of a certain perverted ability, had recommended himself to the favour of the Khedive. He, being a peasant, and knowing the ways of his fellow-peasants, understood far better than the Turks, of whom the Egyptian ministries of the day were mainly • composed, how to get money out of the fellaheen. To Ismail, in his urgent financial straits, such Isnowledge was invaluable. It would be difficult to say that the Mufettish was more unscrupulous than the ordinary Turkish Pashas of his generation, but most assuredly he was not a whit more scrupulous, and he certainly understood his business better. It was on him, therefore, that Ismail chiefly relied to raise money from the fellaheen, whenever money had to be provided at all costs and all hazards. I am convinced that Ismail, being, as I have said, a man of kindly nature, took care -to know as little as might be of the means by which the Mufettish supplied the funds required to meet the constant drains upon the Egyptian Treasury ; but he was far too intelligent not to be aware that these means involved the grossest injustice and oppression. It is enough to say that in the long annals of Egyptian .history, the / common people had seldom experienced so bad a time \ ' as they did during Ismail's later years of reign, f Taxes were raised and imposed without regard to \ any other consideration than the demands of the J /■ ' "