30 GOVERNMENT.

make presents to the casheifs. The sheikhs are by

no means thoughtless of themselves ; and lastly, the

copts, who perform the duties of secretaries, all and

every one prey upon the small gains of the poor

inhabitants, so that we may easily conceive what

the unfortunate people have to suffer. Mehemed

Ali, acquainted with the arbitrary proceedings of the

governors, and subordinate functionaries, notwith-

standing the great distance from the scene of their

rapacity, has done everything in his power to put a

limit to these impositions. Thus, in the years 1838

and 1839, a greater part of the employes were sum- moned before a commission of enquiry, and sent

into different provinces,—in short, everything was done to bring about a just administration, but all in

vain. With the best intentions, the Viceroy was

incapable of curing the cancer which preyed upon

the bowels of the land ; and although, indeed, much of the property, which had been unjustly

scraped together, — or we should rather say, the

plunder of the government functionaries,—was con-

fiscated ; the Viceroy was, in the end, the gainer,

not the people. To the latter, nothing is returned

;

and this restitution, indeed, would be no easy un-

dertaking, inasmuch as the individual sufferers

could not be readily found, and Mehemed Ali,

moreover, does not trouble himself in the slischtest

about the matter. It is true that the country

swarms with spies, who observe every action of the

government officers with great accuracy, and make