others, like Ibrahim Pasha, with marked native military
ability; but one and all were as unsystematic and incompe-
tent in public affairs as they were ambitious and impro-
vident. They increased the governmental expenses and
expanded their territorial possessions, -- even to distant
Dar-Fur and the Bahr-el-Ghazal, with the aid of Baker
and Gordon, -- but gave little attention to increasing the
material wealth and productiveness of their realm. Expan-
sion they understood, but "conservation" was a term un-
known to their vocabulary.

Said Pasha loaded an already heavily burdened country
with an immense debt in connection with the launching of
the Suez Canal project; but the spendthrift of the family
was Ismail Pasha, who ruled from 1868 to 1879. He spent
enormous sums on wars with Abyssinia, conquests in the
Sudan, and unproductive public works such as railways,
administration buildings, and schools, which were of little
real advantage to the country because of their expensive
upkeep and the poverty of the Government. His reforms
were too rapid and too ill-advised to reap at once the suc-
cess they would otherwise have deserved, and the well-in-
tentioned efforts of the Khedive were too often thwarted
through the incapacity and corruption of his agents. Hon-
est and able administrators were almost impossible to find,
and the whole public service, including the courts, was
tainted with graft, due to the small salaries and the uncer-
tainty of the tenure of office. In fact, the entire state ma-
chinery was suffering from "ignorance, dishonesty, waste,
extravagance, and corruption"; and, as Romola Gessi wrote
to Gordon, "the whole strength of the Government is turned
on amassing money, on outward forms of state, and on ruin-
ing the country by taxes and burdensome charges."

At length the day of reckoning came; and Ismail Pasha,
under whose wizard touch the public debt had risen be-

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