THE ORIGIN OF THE KHEDIVIAL DYNASTY. 13

the custom of the time, the interview was fixed for a very early hour in the morning. On riding past the

Esbekieh Gardens, which was then, and remained even

within my own memory, a sort of no man's land, the

Consul saw forty corpses hanging in rows by the road-

side, with a label affixed to them, stating that their

offence was that they had spoken evil of the Govern-

ment. On arriving at the palace, the British repre-

sentative expressed some surprise to his Highness at so many disaffected persons having been detected,

convicted, and punished in so short a time. Mahomet

Ali's explanation was, I am told, to the following

effect : —

" I sent word last night to the head of the police, that he must hang forty persons by daybreak this morning, and told him to pick out two score of the biggest scoundrels he could think of in the slums of

Cairo. I dare say they had spoken, or would have spoken, disrespectfully of the Government. If they did not, they are a good riddance ; and, at any rate,

we shall hear no more of any popular discontent

under my rule."

In those days justice in Cairo was of the Jedburgh law order. Shortly after the establishment of the

Overland Route, an English doctor, accompanied by

his daughter, a girl of seventeen, passed through Cairo

on his way homewards from India. Strolling about the town, they stopped on the Esbekieh, to look at a troop of dervishes who were going through their weird performances in the open air. The presence