THE ROAD TO RUIN. 9> pleasure in solving arithmetical puzzles. To such I would recommend the investigation of the abortive measure which gave birth to the law of the Moukabala. I only allude to the law in question as" illustrating the extreme straits to which, as early as / 1 871, Isnail was brought by his financial embarrass-/ ments. 'the Council of State — whose members werel mere nominees — passed a decree at the instigation of V the Government/ permittingnative landowners to free I their lands from all further taxation by paying forth- I with an amount equal to six years of the land-tax due/ on their estates' In the East, a decree issued by the Government, and permitting its subjects to do certain things, is understood, and meant to be understood, as tantamount to an order enjoining upon its subjects the duty of doing the things in question. Thus, in reality, the Moukabala was regarded as a law under which the landowners were to be compelled to make a forced loan to the Government by purchasing at apparently moderate prices the freehold of their properties on condition of paying at once an amount equal to six years of the land-tax, subject to which they held their leases. The decree, however, failedN to produce the return expected. The native land-/ owners entertained a well-founded suspicion that whatl the Khedive gave, the Khedive could take away, and \ were therefore reluctant to enter into a compact, how- 1 ever advantageous its terms might be, which could ♦ be revoked at any moment at the good pleasure of j the Effendina, On the other hand, the European