EGYPT. Egypt is nominally a province of the Ottoman Empire, but maintains an autonomous government, under the rule of the Khedive, subject to the annual payment of a tribute of £682,092. The title of khedive, which is hereditary, was given by a firman of the Sultan of May 14, 1847. The intervention and practical occupation by Great Britain began with the revolt of Arabi Pasha, which the Khedive was unable to subdue. The revolution headed by Mohammed Ahmed, who proclaimed himself a mahdi, resulted in the extension and confirmation of the British power. In October, 1892, the British army of occupation had about 3,500 men. It was increased in January, 1893, by two battalions. There appears to be a local military and police force of about 16,000 men. In 1896 the public revenue was upward of £10,500,000. The public expenditure amounted to nearly £10,000,000. The consolidated debt at the end of December, 1896, amounted to nearly £94,000,000. In 1875 the British Government acquired by purchase something less than a majority of the shares in the Suez Canal. by a convention signed at Constantinople October 29, 1888, an agreement was made between the principal European powers to exempt the canal from blockade, and to secure to the vessels of all the signatories, whether armed or not, the right of passage in war as well as in peace. The Statesman's Year Book 1898 says that, by a firman of May 27, 1866, obtained on the condition of the sovereign of Egypt raising his annual tribute to the Sultan's civil fund from £376,000 to £720,000, the succession to the throne of Egypt was made direct from father to son instead of descending, after the Turkish law, to the eldest heir. By a firman issued June 8, 1873, the Sultan granted to Ismail I the rights of concluding commercial treaties with foreign powers, and of maintaining armies. The administration of Egypt is carried on by native ministers, subject to the rule of the Khedive, but from 1879 to 1883 two comptrollersgeneral, appointed by France and England, exercised considerable powers in the direction of the affairs of the country. (See Khedivial decree, November 10, 1879.) The intervention of England in 1882 was not participated in by France, and on January 18, 1883, the Khedive signed a decree abolishing the joint control of England and France. In place of this control the Khedive, on the recommendation of England, appointed an English financial adviser, without whose concurrence no financial decision can be taken. The Egyptian ministry is composed of six members: (1) The president, who has the department of the interior; (2) the minister of finance; (3) justice; (4) war; (5) public works and public instruction; (6) foreign affairs. By an organic law of May 1, 1883, representative institutions were created, including a legislative council, a general assembly, and provincial boards. The legislative council is a consultative body, consisting of 30 members, of whom 14 are nominated by the Government. It meets once a month and examines the budget and all proposed administrative laws, but it can not initiate legislation, and the Government is not obliged to act on its advice. Of its members, 15 residing in Cairo receive an allowance of £90 a year for carriage expenses, and 15, being delegates from the provinces and provincial towns, receive £250 a year for residential expenses in Cairo, besides traveling expenses to and from Cairo once a month. The general assembly, which consists of the members of the legisla tive council, with the addition of the 6 ministers and 46 members popu larly elected, has no legislative functions, but no new direct personal or land tax can be imposed without its consent. It has to be summoned at least once every two years. The members, when convoked, receive an eight days' allowance at £1 a day, with railway expenses. The council of ministers, with the Khedive, is the ultimate legislative authority. Since 1887 an Ottoman high commissioner has resided in Cairo. Egypt proper is administratively divided into six governorships (moafzas) of principal towns, and fourteen mudiriehs, or provinces, subdivided into districts or kisms. There are four judicial systems in Egypt: 1. The courts of the religious law, concerned chiefly with the personal status of Mohammedans. 2. The mixed courts instituted in 1875, dealing with civil actions between persons of different nationalities and to some extent with criminal offenses. 3. The consular courts, wherein foreigners accused of crime are tried. 4. The native courts for civil actions between natives, or crimes by natives. The Statesman's Year-Book, referring to these courts, says: The native courts, instituted 1884-1889, with both foreign and native judges, now consists of 6 courts of first instance, an appeal court at Cairo, and 42 summary courts for cases of moderate importance. With special reference to these tribunals a British adviser was appointed in 1891. A committee of judicial surveillance watches the workings of the courts of first instance and the summary courts, and endeavors by letters and discussion to maintain purity and sound law. There is an Egyptian procureur-général, who, with other duties, is intrusted with criminal prosecutions. The police service, which has been subject to frequent modification, was, in 1895, put under the orders of the ministry of the interior, to which an English adviser and English inspectors were attached. The provincial police is under the direction of the local authorities, the mudirs or governors of provinces, and the omdehs or village headmen. To the latter, who are responsible for the good order of the villages, a limited criminal jurisdiction has been intrusted. On April 5, 1880, the Khedive issued a decree appointing an international commission of liquidation to examine the financial situation of Egypt and to draft a law regulating the relations between Egypt and her creditors. The debt of Egypt is now administered by this commission. The United States, while not represented in the commission, is always consulted in the arrangements respecting the debt, and has so far given a formal assent to whatever changes have been proposed with the concurrence of the powers represented in the commission. The United States, besides maintaining consular courts in Egypt, is a party to, and is represented in, the mixed tribunals. It has two judges in those tribunals. In 1882 the Egyptian army was disbanded by a decree of the Kedive, and in December of that year the organization of a new army was intrusted to a British general officer, to whom was given the title of sirdar. The present sirdar is Maj. Gen. Sir Herbert Kitchener. It is said that there are about one hundred English officers serving at present in the Egyptian army, which has a total strength of 18,000. As has been above stated, an English army of occupation has remained in Egypt since 1882. Its strength is over 4,000. The Egyptian Government contributes £87,000 annually to meet the cost of the army of occupation. Egypt has practically no navy. TONKING. This territory, annexed to France in 1884, has an area of 34,740 square miles and is divided into fourteen provinces, with 8,000 villages and a population estimated at 9,000,000. There are 400,000 Roman Catholics. The King of Annam was formerly represented in Tonking by a viceroy, but in July, 1897, he consented to the suppression of the viceroyalty and the creation of a French residency in its place. Chief town, Hanoi, an agglomeration of many villages, with a population of 150,000. Includ ing the region formerly claimed by Siam, but annexed in 1893, the total area is about 122,000 square miles and the population is estimated at 12,000,000. There were 18,555 troops in 1892, including 6,500 native soldiers. The chief crop is rice, exported mostly to Hongkong. Other products are sugar cane, silk tree, cotton, various fruit trees, and tobacco. There are copper and iron mines of good quality. French companies work coal mines at Hongay, near Haiphong, and at Kebao. The chief industries are silk, cotton, sugar, pepper, and oils. In 1896 the imports of merchandise into Tonking amounted to 25,204,013 francs; exports, 7,560,898 francs. Chief imports are metals and metal tools and machinery, yarn, tissues, and beverages; chief exports, rice (2,301,000 francs) and animal products. The transit trade to and from Yunnan amounts to about 5,000,000 and 3,200,000 francs, respectively. In 1896 there entered 1,407 vessels, of 461,454 tons. The Phulang-ThuongLangson Railway is 64 miles long. It is proposed to extend it to Nacham, on the Chinese frontier. In Annam and Tonking in 1895 there were 79 post-offices. Local revenue of Annam and Tonking (Budget of 1897), $7,962,000. The expenditure of France for Tonking in the Budget of 1898 was 24,450,000 francs. BULGARIA. Bulgaria is a protected State in the true sense, viz, it is a State which intrinsically is not strong enough to maintain its independence against the neighboring Ottoman Empire, and which owes its separate existence to an act of the powers, the object of which was to secure general tranquillity. The treaty of Berlin (1878) provided that Bulgaria should be an autonomous and tributary principality under the suzerainty of the Sultan, having a Christian government and a national militia. The Ottoman army should no longer remain in it. The executive was to have the title of prince, and to be elected by the people and confirmed by the Sublime Porte, with the assent of the powers. No member of any reigning European house was to be eligible for the princeship. An assembly of notables was to draw up the constitution prior to the election of the first prince. In the interim the principality was to be provisionally governed by an imperial Russian commissary with the assistance of an imperial Turkish commissary and consuls delegated by the other powers. After the election of the prince the principality was to enjoy full autonomy except in the following particulars: (a) Its annual tribute to the Porte. (b) Its obligation to assume part of the Ottoman debt. (c) Its being bound by the subsisting treaties between Turkey and other powers. (d) Its obligation to protect religious liberty in its constitution. (e) The prohibition to levy transit dues. In nearly all other respects Bulgaria was to be on the footing of an independent State. The treaty also provided for a separate government for Eastern Roumelia, which was to be a "province" "under the direct political and military authority" of the Sultan, "under conditions of administra tive autonomy." It was to have a Christian governor-general, nominated by the Porte, with the assent of the powers, every five years. He was to have the power of summoning the Ottoman troops when necessary, etc. Thus Eastern Roumelia was not a protected State, but simply a province with a certain amount of home rule in matters of civil administration. In September, 1885, the government of Eastern Roumelia was overthrown by a revolution, and the province became, for all purposes, a part of Bulgaria. NOTE.—The other "Danubian principalities," namely, Roumania, Servia, and Montenegro, present features of interest only in so far as they are cases of progress from the "protected" stage to absolute independence, instead of from the protected stage to that of complete colonialism-a reversal, in short, of the usual order of things. From very early times Moldavia, Wallachia, Servia, and Montenegro had been among the most unruly of the possessions of the Turkish Crown, and long and bitter struggles were frequently necessary to maintain even the semblance of the Imperial authority there. As early as 1829 Turkey had been obliged to recognize the separate existence of Servia, at least as a protected state; and Montenegro was certainly no more than a protected state after Russia, in 1851, had recognized Danilo I as Gospodar, or Prince. The whole Danubian question, as to the exact extent of the protectorate exercised by the Porte, was in a very unsettled condition until, by the Treaty of Berlin (1878), the absolute independence of Servia, Montenegro, and Wallachia-Moldavia, joined together as Roumania, was recognized. THE DUTCH EAST INDIES. Before 1798 the Dutch possessions in the far East were governed by the Dutch East India Company. In that year the East India Company was dissolved. At present the supreme law or constitution of the Dutch colonies is the "Regulations for the Government of NetherlandsIndia," passed by the King and States-General in 1854. Under this organic law the chief executive or governor general is assisted by an advisory council of five. He has residuary governmental powers, and may consequently make any law not specially reserved to the province of the legislature of the mother country or forbidden by the Regulations." 66 For purposes of internal administration Dutch East India is divided into residencies, each of which is presided over by a resident, who is accountable to the governor-general. Under each resident are several assistant residents and several contrôleurs. All these officers are appointed as the result of a kind of civil-service examination. Under them is a hierarchy of native officials, some of whom are paid salaries, but perhaps the greater number by percentages on the taxes they can gather from the natives. The Dutch East Indies are sometimes divided into (1) Java and (2) the Outposts. In Java the natives are forced to submit to the "culture system" inaugurated by Van den Bosch in 1832, which amounts practically to forced labor, under Government supervision, in the cultivation of coffee. (Until 1870 the culture system extended also to sugar, indigo, pepper, tea, and tobacco.) The Outposts never had the culture system, with the exception of a few residencies. Religious liberty is provided for by the "Regulations." As to the administration of justice, the laws for Europeans are simiiar to those of the mother country, and are interpreted by European judges. Natives are still governed by their own customs and institutions and are judged largely by their own chiefs. In 1895 the native population was about 32,000,000. There were also about 454,000 Chinese, 24,000 Arabs, and 27,000 other Orientals. The Europeans numbered about 62,061. THE FEDERATED MALAY STATES-A SKETCH OF THEIR GROWTH AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION, BY FRANCIS B. FORBES. The following sketch has been compiled exclusively from Parliamentary Papers and other English publications, the list of which is given below. It has been my aim, as far as possible, to tell the story in the words of the original reports and dispatches, which have sometimes been reproduced without acknowledgment. If this has entailed. a certain amount of repetition, I hope, on the other hand, that the narrative has gained in interest more than it may have lost in conciseness, through the many side lights thrown upon the curious social system of the Malays and upon the methods by which it has been transformed under foreign influence. LONDON, November 14, 1898. FRANCIS B. FORBES. LIST OF DOCUMENTS CONSULTED. PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS. Correspondence relating to the affairs of certain native states in the C1111. 1874 Further Ditto Ditto Ditto Ditto ditto ditto ditto ditto ditto ditto.. C1320. 1876 ferred to in C1505. 1876) C1505. I. 1876 Straits Settlements. Instructions to the British residents and other |