SYSTEM OF TAXATION. * 453 than twelve pataks in the most fertile districts, and from six to eight in the inferior. On the destruction of the Beys, a tax of thirteen or fourteen pataks per fedan was levied throughout the country; except in the neighbourhood of the large towns, where, the land being of greater value, was taxed at the rate of sixteen pataks per fedan. But from the fields round Cairo, and the rice grounds of the Delta, eighteen, and twenty-six pataks per fedan, were respectively levied. DCXCIX. The principle, however, recognised in this mode of levying the taxes is perfectly just; operating like an income-tax on a properly graduated scale. But, in pursuing his plan into its various ramifications, his Highness exhibited an utter incapacity for inventing and carrying into effect a rational system of finance; though it is not uncommon for persons, ignorant of human nature, to attribute the evil consequences of this incapacity to a malignant delight in oppression. Perhaps the Pasha himself, were he consulted on the point, would prefer the charge of wickedness to that of incompetence; but the question is not, what is most agreeable to Mohammed Ali, but, what is true? Neither do I mean to infer from his failure in this important branch of state-science, a general incapacity, or meanness of intellect,-for I regard the Pasha as a man of genius,-but the entire absence of that knowledge, theoretical and The patak, merely a nominal coin, consists of 90 paras; or 21 piastres. 454 MACCHIAVELLI'S "PRINCE." practical, which nothing but a political education can bestow. Yet his Highness considers himself a great statesman; and, from an anecdote related to me at Alexandria, it is clear that he still prefers the Oriental style of ruling. Salt, formerly British Consul-General in Egypt, wishing to ingratiate himself with the Pasha, by instructing him more deeply in the arts of tyranny, procured a Turkish translation to be made of Macchiavelli's "Prince," and presented it to his Highness. After allowing the spell a sufficient time to operate, and finding in his various audiences no allusion made to the translation, he one day ventured to introduce the subject, by directly demanding of the Pasha his opinion of Macchiavelli. My opinion of him," replied Mohammed Ali, “is, that he was a mere babbler. We have, in Turkish, two words worth more than his whole book!" this termination of his courtier-like adventure, Salt was so much confounded, that he omitted to enquire the nature of this brief vocabulary of tyranny; but we may venture to supply the omission with plunder" and "kill." After all, however, the Pasha's secret opinion of the "Prince" may not be so unfavourable; unless we suppose that the grave irony of the republican writer, unmasking the arts of despotism while pretending to furnish it with arms, may not have escaped Mohammed Ali, though it imposed upon Salt. 66 66 At DCC. To proceed, however, with the taxes.-No ingenuity was exhibited in the partition of the burden ERRORS OF THE PASHA. 455 upon the various members of the body politic, though by this means, as in the case of the human body, almost any weight could have been supported. The greatest pressure fell upon the weak, and ruin, consternation, and famine were the necessary consequences. Little or no attention was paid to the nature of the articles cultivated by the husbandman,- though some are much more productive than others, or to the quality of the soil, which, in different parts of the valley, exhibits many different degrees of fertility. On the contrary, excepting as regarded the greater or less proximity to the large cities, the country having been duly partitioned into a certain number of fedans, an equal tax was levied on the whole. In this his Highness was only an imitator of the East India Company, who have thus, throughout a large portion of Hindoostan, thrown many millions of acres out of cultivation, the ryots abandoning, of course, all but the best land. But he quickly showed himself more able than his masters; for, while the company, by their injudicious mode of taxing, actually lose the revenue which a more statesmanlike system of finance would produce, he boldly pronounced all the lands of Egypt to be of equal value, and taxed them accordingly. The peasant had still, as in the case of the salt, the liberty of making use of his lands or not, as he pleased; but with the understanding that, under all circumstances, the tax must be paid. In one district of Upper Egypt, several hundred fedans of inferior land were divided among the peasantry, in proportion to their supposed means of cultivating them; and these they 456 PROGRESS OF THE PASHA'S SYSTEM. were compelled to till, to sow, to water with great labour and expense, merely for the purpose of paying the land-tax, which frequently consumed nearly the whole produce. In some cases the peasants paid the tax, but left the lands fallow, calculating that the cost of culture would exceed the value of the harvest. DCCI. By degrees, however, the Pasha proceeded, like Pharaoh in the days of Joseph, to consummate his grand scheme of appropriating the whole land of Egypt to himself. The first step was made by seizing, in the most fertile districts, a number of fields, for which the proprietors were indemnified by the grant of an equal extent of ground elsewhere; and these government possessions were cultivated by corvées. The example of the Pasha was immediately followed by the Mamoors, Kaimakans, and Sheïkhs; who, on a smaller scale, were each ambitious of rivalling their lord. To this succeeded the system of universal monopoly, which has been already described. The revenue of every villages in Egypt had hitherto been divided into twenty-four kyrats, or nominal parts, each of which might, in most villages, be purchased by private individuals, either from the Defterdar Bey, acting as principal agent to the Porte, or from the Pasha himself. Persons who thus purchased a portion of the village revenues, were denominated Moultezims, or "proprietors ;" and they constituted, throughout the country, a very large and respectable class. This purchase, however, included not the VILLAGE PROPRIETORS. 457 miri, or land-tax, which, in every part of the Turkish empire, is regarded as due to the Sultan; but the miri, amounting, in Egypt, to one hundred and eighteen paras per fedan, being deducted, the remainder, called faiz, - which five or six times exceeded the miri, -became the property of the Moultezims, or of the Pasha. sons. DCCII. Immediately on the expulsion of the Mamalooks, his Highness appropriated to himself the revenues of all the villages which had belonged to them, or any of their partisans; yet the number of Moultezims not comprised in this prescription was still considerable; but numerous shares of the village revenues belonged to a totally different class of perFrom various passages in classical history, we learn that, among the ancient kings of Persia, it was customary to reward public services, or gratify domestic favourites, by a transfer of the revenue of a town or city, as in the case of Themistocles. cisely the same is the practice of the Porte which, in token of gratitude or favour, had conferred upon various individuals certain portions of the faiz in Egypt; and these donations of the sovereign had been invariably respected by the most rebellious Beys. Nevertheless, the confusion arising out of the pretensions of so many claimants, offered considerable obstacles to the collection of the revenue. This must be admitted, even by the most prejudiced. Some * Two piastres and thirty-eight paras. Pre |