abusing the underlings for past neglect, ordering the
streets to be swept, and the town to be thoroughly
cleansed; he visits the market-place, examines the
quality of the bread at the bakers’ stalls, and the meat
at the butchers’. He tests the accuracy of the weights
and scales; fines and imprisons the impostors, and
institutes a complete reform, concluding his sanitary
and philanthropic arrangements by the imposition of
some local taxes.
The town is comparatively sweet; the bread is of
fair weight and size, and the new governor, like a new
broom, has swept all clean. A few weeks glide away,
and the nose again recalls the savoury old times when
streets were never swept, and filth once more reigns
paramount. The town relapses into its former state,
again the false weights usurp the place of honest
measures, and the only permanent and visible sign of
the new administration is the local tax.
From the highest to the lowest official, dishonesty
and deceit are the rule—and each robs in proportion
to his grade in the Government employ—the onus of
extortion falling upon the natives; thus, exorbitant
taxes are levied upon the agriculturists, and the
industry of the inhabitants is disheartened by oppression.
The taxes are collected by the soldiery, who
naturally extort by violence an excess of the actual
impost; accordingly the Arabs limit their cultivation
to their bare necessities, fearing that a productive farm
woidd entail an extortionate demand. The heaviest
and most unjust tax is that upon the “ sageer/’ or
water-wheel, by which the farmer irrigates his otherwise
barren soil.
The erection of the sageer is the first step Joecessary
to cultivation. On the borders of the river there is
much land available for agriculture; but from an
almost total want of rain the ground must be constantly
irrigated by artificial means. No sooner does an enterprising
fellow erect a water-wheel, than he is taxed,
not only for his wheel, but he brings upon himself a
perfect curse, as the soldiers employed for the collection
of taxes fasten upon his garden, and insist upon a
variety of extras in the shape of butter, corn, vegetables,
sheep, &c. for themselves, which almost ruin the proprietor.
Any government but that of Egypt and
Turkey would offer a bonus for the erection of irrigating
machinery that would give a stimulus to cultivation,
and multiply the produce of the country; but
the only rule without an exception, is that of Turkish
extortion. I have never met with any Turkish official
who would take the slightest interest in plans for the
improvement of the country, unless he discovered a
means of filling his private purse. Thus in a country