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, notwithstanding 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 summoned 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 confiscated ; 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 undertaking, 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