EGYPT UNDER LIQUIDATION. 239 fortune valued at over ;5oo,ooo ; and as his children were still minors, he appointed as his executor a certain Hafez Pasha, The interests of the children were placed under the protection of the Mekemeh, the Mahometan tribunal, which, in accordance with the sacred law of Islam, adjudicates in all civil matters affecting the followers of the Prophet. The decree exiling the Mufettish to the Soudan did not ordain the confiscation of his property. It was only after his death that the Chamber of Notables was convoked by Ismail Pasha to sanction a decree declaring that the deceased ministers property had been forfeited to the State by the fact of his having been engaged in a criminal conspiracy against the Khedivial dynasty.

This Chamber, which has often been represented abroad as being the germ of a constitutional Parliament, was in reality a mere court of record, designed to give a certain fictitious authority to the arbitrary acts of the Sovereign. Its members were nominated by the Khedive ; it only met when convoked by the Khedive ; and its one legislative function was to approve any proposal the Khedive might condescend to make. It is reported that at the first sitting of this assembly under the reign of Ismail, the President, by the instructions of his Highness, explained to the members of the body the mode of procedure usual in European Parliaments, and asked them to divide into two parties : one, the majority, representing the Government ; the other, the minority, representing the Opposition. Without a moments hesitation every /