subject of Mustapha Pasha Fehmy, I may mention that during his illness he firmly believed that an attempt would be made to poison him. For some days, he refused to take any food unless it had been prepared by my French cook and sent to his house in sealed packets or bottles.

No incidents excite greater interest in the unregenerated East than those cases of patriarchal and capricious justice on the part of despots of which history records so many examples. There is no more characteristically Oriental episode related in the Bible than the story of the judgment of Solomon. Creasy tells us that a poor woman once complained to Bajazet I that a man in his employment had stolen some milk which belonged to her and had just drunk it. That dreaded Sultan had sworn a mighty oath that justice should be dealt out 'indiscriminately to every man or woman within his dominions.' He accordingly directed that the stomach of the accused man should be cut open to see if the milk was there. The woman's story turned out to be true. If this convincing proof of the presence of the milk had not been adduced she would herself have been killed. As it was the Sultan dismissed her with the words: 'Thou hadst just cause of complaint, now go thy way, for the injury done thee has been punished.' The curious part of these incidents is that, whether in the case of Bajazet or others, a large number of Easterns would probably be more struck by the acuteness of the method adopted for arriving at the truth than by its injustice and cruelty.

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The stories about Abbas I are very numerous. one occasion he told a European adventurer, named Bravet, upon whose career M. Alphonse Daudet's work entitled 'Le Nabob' is founded, to procure for him a service of solid silver plate which he wished to give to the Sherif of Mecca. The plate was purchased in Italy and paid for at the price of solid silver. Abbas, however, was so pleased with it that, instead of sending it to the Sherif, he kept it for himself. Shortly afterwards,

The Ottoman Turks,' p. 42. A similar process was adopted by Defherdar Mohammed Bey, who, in Mehemet Ali's time, governed the Soudan, (Curzon's 'Monasteries in the Levant,' ch. vi.)

one of the branches of a chandelier was broken, and it then appeared that the plate was not solid silver but electro-plate. Abbas was furious, and sent for M. Bravet. The latter, having an inkling of what was about to happen, went straight up to the indignant Khedive and said: Eh bien! Votre Altesse m'a trompé.' How could this be? asked Abbas. M. Bravet then explained that, of course, if the Khedive had told him that he wanted a service of plate for himself he would have got solid silver, but that he thought electro-plate was good enough for the Sherif of Mecca. Abbas was so pleased with the ingenuity of the defence that he let the matter drop. M. Bravet himself, after amassing a fortune of about a million sterling, eventually died without leaving enough money to pay his funeral expenses.

The Oriental method of administering justice has this advantage, that it occasionally enables a matter to be settled summarily which would puzzle the most acute judicial authorities in the West. I once had to pay a matter of 101. for the hire of some tents which had been pitched in my garden on the occasion of my giving a ball. I gave the money to my butler, who was a Madrassi, and told him to hand it on to the Egyptian to whom it was due. Shortly afterwards, I noticed a man hanging about the door of my house and asked him what he wanted. He said he had come to receive his 107. I told him that I had already paid it. He denied ever having received it. I then confronted him with the Madrassi. The one said that the money had been paid; the other stoutly denied that it had been received. I had not the least idea which was telling the truth, so I asked the Egyptian Governor, who had a wider experience than myself in dealing with such matters, to enquire into the subject and let me know the result. Shortly afterwards he informed me that he had 'made a thorough enquiry' and that the Madrassi had really paid the money. I subsequently learned what was the nature of the proceedings at the 'thorough enquiry.' The Governor summoned the two men concerned. He asked the Madrassi whether he had paid the money, to which the reply was 'Yes.' He then asked the Egyptian whether he had received it, and the reply was 'No.' The Governor then said to the Egyptian: 'You're a liar; go away and get it,' an order Vol. 226.-No. 448.

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which was at once obeyed. I am inclined to think that in this case what is generally called 'substantial justice,' which is often no justice at all, was done, but I am not at all sure.

In spite of the apparent advance of civilisation in Egypt, many dark deeds are sometimes performed, or at all events until recently were performed, in the recesses of the harem. I give one instance that came within my personal experience. In 1885, an English lady, whom I will call Mrs X., and who was an ardent politician and fervent humanitarian, invoked my aid on behalf of a Circassian slave girl who was in the harem of a near relative of the Khedive (Tewfik Pasha) and was said to be grossly maltreated. I was at the time rather unwilling to take up the slavery question seriously as the whole Egyptian administration was in a state of chaos. The Soudan crisis, which culminated in the death of General Gordon, was at its height. I was overwhelmed with work, and I should have been rather glad to postpone dealing with the slavery question until other and more pressing matters had been settled. However, I recognised that, if I did nothing, I should be told that my inaction was due to unwillingness to come into collision with a member of the Khedivial family, and that, therefore, it was clear that, in spite of the presence of the English in Egypt, there was one law for the rich and another for the poor. I accordingly called on the Khedive and requested that the slave girl who was alleged to have been illtreated should be sent to my house. This was accordingly done. She arrived between 9 and 10 o'clock one evening, accompanied by an eunuch and an older woman. The moment was rather inopportune, for a few hours previously the news had arrived of the fall of Khartoum and Gordon's death. I was giving a fancy ball that night, which, on purely political grounds, I did not think it desirable to put off by reason of the tragic event which had just happened, though I should have greatly preferred to do so. I saw the girl without the presence of those who had accompanied her and asked if she was illtreated. She replied with a decided negative. I strongly suspected that she was not telling the truth, and I told her that if she would speak out then I would see that no harm came to her, but that, if once she returned to the harem, I

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would not be responsible for what happened. She replied that she fully understood, but that she wished to go back to the harem, and that she was quite unaware why she had been brought to my house.

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Not content, however, with this enquiry, I sent her to the house of the Consul and at the same time sent a message to Mrs X. asking her to come and see me. On that lady's arrival I told her what had happened and I begged her to ascertain whether there were any marks of ill-usage upon the woman's body. She returned in a short time somewhat crestfallen and told me that she was convinced that the woman had undergone no illtreatment and that she had therefore allowed her to go back to the harem. She had not examined her body, and I expressed my regret that she had not done so. the following day, I saw the Khedive, and he triumphantly remarked that I had been apparently misinformed. Shortly afterwards, I left Egypt for England. On my return a few months later, Mrs X. paid me a visit and burst into tears. 'I am responsible,' she said, 'for the death of that poor girl.' She then told me that nothing had been done until I had left the country, and that then the girl had been beaten to death. I believe this story was quite true. It appears that the girl had been promised 500l. if she would conceal the truth from me, and that what was most feared in the harem was that I should wish to ascertain whether her body showed any marks of violence. It was, however, thought that I should never dare to conduct the enquiry myself, and it appears not to have occurred to those concerned that I should adopt the simple expedient of asking some woman to act as my deputy.

Individual slavery cases often gave me a great deal of trouble when I was in Egypt. I give one amongst many other instances that remain in my memory. Circassian girl escaped from the harem of the Minister of Justice and went to a Home which had been instituted for released slaves. Its functions were to keep them for a short time until they could obtain employment or be otherwise settled in life. The next day the matron of the institution took the girl to the Governor's office in order to get her manumission papers, to which, under a Convention with the British Government, she

was entitled. Whilst she was there, a closed carriage drove up. The eunuch on the box got down, seized the girl, hustled her into the carriage and drove off with her to the house of her late master. I called on him upon the following morning and requested that the girl should be given up to me again. He replied that this was quite impossible. I rejoined that unless the girl was delivered at my house within twenty-four hours he could no longer remain Minister of Justice. Accordingly, the following morning the girl came, accompanied by an older woman. By that time I spoke Turkish fairly well and was able to cross-examine her without the intervention of an interpreter. I asked her whether she wished to go back to the harem. She asked, in reply, whether, if she went to the Home, she would be obliged to stay there. I told her, of course, that she was at perfect liberty to do anything she pleased. She then expressed a wish to go to the Home. I then called in the woman who had accompanied her and made her repeat what she had said to me. The older woman was in a furious rage and reproached her with having promised to return to the harem. The girl replied that she had done so in order to make her escape easier, but that she had no sort of intention of fulfilling her promise. She was then taken in my carriage to the Home. She disappeared in a few days, and I do not doubt that some admirer was lurking in the background to receive her.

I have occasionally heard it stated in connexion with some European whom it was proposed to employ in the East that the appointment would be singularly suitable because the individual in question was so like an Eastern himself.' There cannot be a greater mistake. The European who endeavours to meet Eastern intrigue with counter-intrigue is doomed to failure. The qualities most required for dealing successfully with Eastern affairs are absolute honesty and straightforwardness, great patience, a careful abstention from the extremes either of effusive friendship on the one hand or want of courtesy on the other, and occasionally careful attention to small points of detail which often loom larger in the eyes of Easterns than in those of Westerns. As regards the latter point, I may mention one or two instances within my own