314 THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATE.

would have been regarded, not only by their fellowcountrymen, but by themselves, as a fate justly ' merited. But when the British authorities in Egypt decided that the Khedive could not be permitted to punish officers who had mutinied against himself and his dynasty, they dealt a blow to the Khedivial authority, which it has never recovered. Riaz Pasha, who had been appointed Prime Minister by the Khedive after the abdication of Ismail Pasha, and had been reinstated in power upon the collapse of the Arabi rebellion, felt so strongly about the impolicy and injustice of letting the leaders of the mutiny escape virtually without punishment, that he resigned on learning that he was called upon to sanction the reprieve by which Arabi and his colleagues were remitted the penalty of death. It may be well to say something here of the statesman who, after Nubar, longo intervallo, played a leading part in Egyptian politics.

Riaz Pasha s career is characteristic of the Oriental side of Egyptian life. He begun life in very humble circumstances. Indeed, according to common report, he had been first known as a dancing boy, a report which may have derived some support from the fact that he must always have been very short in stature and spare of 'figure. Be this as it may, Riaz was one of the many Egyptians who, in the old days, rose to high eminence by his own personal ability, aided, no doubt, by the favour of the Court. In his case, as in that of the Mufettish, he was the architect of his L