THE BEGINNING OF A NEW ERA. 127 Egyptian public, native as well as foreign, for a quarter of a century. Every five years their mandate has been renewed without serious objection on either side. Through the establishment of these courts, the first object of Nubar's policy was achieved ; and from 1875 the law in Egypt has possessed an authority independent of the will of the Sovereign, however autocratic his power might be in all other respects.

The permanence of this authority is further guaranteed by the fact that the International courts are virtually under the protection of the Great Powers of Christendom.

It was agreed further that the laws by which the International tribunals were to exercise their jurisdiction should be based on the Code Napoleon. As th fundamental principles of this digest are those in use, in almost every important Continental country, the decision was equitable at the time. Indeed the British Government not only made no attempt to have the code modified, so as to be in conformity with our British ideas of law, but consented without a protest to the proposal, that the Jaogiiage in use at the new courts should be .either Arabic, French or Italian.

The net result was that in a country, destined within a few years' time to become an outpost of the British Empire, English suitors, engaged in legal proceedings before these International courts, had, and still have, to plead their case in French, and to be represented by lawyers conversant with French law. A committee, however, was appointed to introduce such