of his predecessor. The doctor at the sick-bed, the servants, the operators of the English telegraph, made known every turn of the malady. The story is still told that the operator who hurried away to his palace, after midnight, to address the Khedive as "your Highness the Viceroy of Egypt," was not meanly rewarded. Not long after his administration made it clear that he was the wisest monarch Egypt had known in modern times, plots to murder him were freely canvassed. Finally, as he was riding through the streets of Alexandria one day, a vicious bomb was thrown at his carriage. Twenty-four hours afterward Mustapha Pacha had fled Egypt. Next to the desire to harm his person, the Khedive is pursued even to this day, by people who would harm his purse. That is to say, almost every man who stops a month in Cairo, who lives at "Shepard's," and is not overwhelmed with the toggery of travel, has a claim against the Viceroy. It is popular to have "claims " against his Highness. It is also profitable. makes no difference how just they are; he, as a rich man, doesn't care to be bothered; and the chances are that the shrewd scoundrel who works up a case of injured feelings or rejected contracts, can filch

It

enough money to pay for a liberal debauch in Europe. The Viceroy liquidates on the same principle that a man had rather pay a swindling cocher an extra half franc, than expend an extra half hour in wrangling before a police court. But the real, fine art of getting money from his Highness, was practiced by the manager of a theatre in Cairo. An unloaded bomb was placed under the Viceroy's chair, and was suddenly discovered by the manager; but the trick was too transparent, and the executive of the green-room retired from the Viceroy's dominions, to travel and reflect in other and more appreciative lands. During the early years of his reign, the Khedive was forced to be very discreet with his person. Even now it is said he never eats any thing when he goes to Constantinople, not cooked by the hand of his mother, who watches over his life with a mother's fidelity. It seems that the day of drugs and venomous distillations has not yet gone by in the East, though there is much exaggeration about the use of poisons. In the morning the Viceroy's attendants do not know where he may sleep at night; and he moves about from palace to palace according to the whim of the moment. His personal habits may be

called good. He is up at daylight-often beforeand from that time till long after midnight he is attending to his gigantic estates; figuring at the complex finances of his nation; working at his diplomatic relations with Constantinople and the world; directing his interior affairs; doing every thing, even to the minutest degree, for his family of 5,000,000 of people; receiving his ministers, officers, and distinguished foreigners and consuls; an hour on the road; a scene at the opera; a glance at the circus-such is the compound of business and recreation in the daily life of this extraordinary man. His character is not easy to portray, because it has been shaped and moulded by so many peculiar circumstances. A life-time arrayed, by necessity, against the intrigues of a deft and powerful brother, is not apt to sweeten any man's nature; yet that of the Viceroy has not greatly changed from its original frank and manly cast. He has made for himself a position, where dissimulation and humility would mean baseness and dishonor. He, therefore, prefers the reputation of being truthful to the stigma of being false, and the name of a proud monarch to that of a supplicating prince. It is because he is inherently honest that he is so

outspoken to those in whom he seeks a confidence, and to them, and such as they, he explains his embarrassments, and details his lofty purposes. He would never have been what he is to-day, had he not have been educated in Europe. His best recognition of this fact is, that his children are receiving the best instruction of England and France.

As an administrator he excels. His executive faculty is the same that characterizes the prefecture system throughout France-police, police, police. His organization is bounded only by insurmounta able barriers. The telegraph has supplied him a weapon, and the smallest circumstance is laid before him. If a traveler be lost up the Nile, the Viceroy knows all about it, and directs what action may ensue. Every visitor present in Egypt is described to him, and he knows their aims and furthers them, if he judges it expedient so to do. He is particular about minutiae; knows, for instance, how the parts in an opera should be dressed, and dictates himself what changes are desirable in the cast. He is the manager of his own household, his own army, navy and foreign concerns, and, while his ministers are able men, their duties are dictated by himself.

His government is vice-regal and paternal; and, while both, is personal in the most absolute sense of the term. No minister ever offends Ismaïl Pacha needlessly (twice). I am told that the Viceroy is very imperious, while meaning to be very kind. This comes from his capacity for quick judgment and ready invention. His energy renders him impatient of delay, and his keen perceptions make him fatigued by the eminent snails who prolong minutes into hours. Cairo, for a European or an American, is the closest approximation to lazy laziness, hence it is a pleasure to find that there is one man in the capital who notes the rising and setting of the sun; and that man is the Viceroy. Six years ago he ordered an officer to survey a caravan route between Kennah on the Nile and Cossier on the Red Sea. The officer went to that region and did as he was ordered. The report was presented to the Viceroy; he reflected a moment; "Build a telegraph from Kennah to the Red Sea, in six weeks; report to me at the end of that time."

The wires were in working order before the day appointed. This is his manner of doing business. To-morrow he might decide upon cutting the Sahara desert in twain by a railway; if so, the work would