THE ACCESSION OF ISMAIL PASHA. 49 without any adequate remuneration. The lands of private individuals were confiscated in exchange for annuities, whose amount was fixed by the Government.

These annuities were irregularly paid, and in any case were to terminate with the life of the annuitant. The Wakf lands, belonging to the Mosques, were taken possession of by the State, or, in other words, by the Viceroy. The taxes were raised to the highest point, consistent with the cultivators of the soil being left sufficient to provide the necessities of existence. No doubt the Mahmoudieh Canal and the many other improvements introduced during Mahomet Ali's reign, improvements which were all paid for by the contributions of the fellaheen, either in forced labour or in money, increased the productive fertility of Egypt. But the profit derived from these improvements benefited the tax-imposer rather than the tax-payer. Amidst the fellaheen, the general sentiment of the time in respect of the rule of the Mamelukes and of Mahomet AH was, to paraphrase the saying of Rehoboam to the children of Israel, "that while the former had scourged them with whips, the latter had scourged them with scorpions.*' During the reigns of Abbas and Said the system of government remained the same in theory, though its execution was somewhat alleviated in practice by the coarse debauchery of the one, and the ill-health, as well as the indolence, of the other.

Thus, when Ismail succeeded to the throne, the theory of Egyptian government — if such a thing as j theory can be said to exist — was that the Viceroy had / E