NUBAR PASHA.
THE dispute between Nubar Pasha and Mr. Clifford Lloyd has been pacified for a moment, but it is important, as showing that the make-believe method of government in Egypt cannot go on for long. Three Egyptian Premiers have now been tried, and they have rebelled one after another. Riaz Pasha, the best representative of the old governing class, was the first. He is a proud and determined Mussulman, very able, though eccentric, and entirely free from the taint of pecuniary corruption. He tried to govern under general European direction, but when he found that the British would not execute Arabi, and that an arrangement was made about the leaders of the rebellion without consulting him, he resigned. His notion of governing is the old Asiatic one,—that a rebel if defeated should be shot, and mercy seemed to him to endanger the very existence of authority. Then we tried Cherif Pasha, a pleasant bon vivant, who did not mind interference particularly ; and, being good- natured, thought he could get along without executions. He did so ; but when the English ordered him to evacuate the Soudan, his temper also gave way. Give up dominion, and possible tribute, and an immense field for patronage 1—that is not governing to the Asiatic mind ; and Cherif also resigned. Finally, as a last resort, Nubar Pasha was selected. Nubar possessed what, under the circumstances, was the great advan- tage of belonging to the only race in Asia which, though Christian, is accepted by Asiatics as Asiatic ; and is not only understood by them, but is fairly trusted and liked. Armenians may be promoted in any Asiatic country with- out popular disapproval, for although their creed is con- temned, they are not classed with the wearers of round hats; Nnbar, moreover, is an able administrator, has acquired many European ideas, and believed that he could bring himself to carry out English general instructions. He expected, however, that, subject to those instructions, he should be ruler ; and when he found that the Under-Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr. Clifford Lloyd, in his zeal for justice, interfered in "details "—cleared the prisons, for instance, of all prisoners whose detention had been cruelly protracted, prohibited the Prefects from using torture, and at last claimed to select Pre- fects of his own—he also revolted, declaring that he would not be responsible for orders he did not sanction, and the list of possible Egyptian Premiers seemed to be used up. Nubar Pasha, when he consented to act as nominal Premier, and cover Mr. Lloyd's orders with his name—for he certainly consented once—probably forgot a difficulty in his way which is certainly forgotten in England. An Asiatic holds the non- use of power to be quite as bad as the abuse of it. He quite understands that a Sovereign may be a roi fainéant, and may suffer a subordinate to exercise his powers ; but if he does, he holds him to be a bad Sovereign, hates him more than he hates a tyrant, and if he gets a chance, punishes him like one. He has no idea of Constitutional fictions, and insists that true responsibility shall in the last resort attach to nominal power. If a man is King, yet will not give an order, he is a con- temptible King, who should give place at once to someone who will. Nubar Pasha found, therefore, that Egyptians held him as responsible as if he had been independent ; and when Mr. Clifford Lloyd began to arouse the fierce hatreds which, in a country like Egypt, are excited by any true reformer, he had to bear the brunt of all those enmities which, whenever the English departed, would become active. He would then be the mark for vengeance, both from the dismissed officials and the mob, his property might be seized, and even his person might be in serious danger. This fear is described on all hands as dominating Nubar, and it is probable that his pride also was seriously wounded by Mr. Lloyd's readiness to act without superior sanction. Armenians are supple, but, like Jews, they are fond of personal distinction, believe most men stupid beside themselves, and are extremely fond of high political or social position. Nubar, therefore, found life intolerable, and at last expressed a decided intention to resign. His resigna- tion was not accepted, and after Mr. Clifford Lloyd had been cautioned to consult him more frequently, he consented to remain for a time ; but it is evident that the quarrel must recur. Its cause is inherent in the condition of things, and cannot be removed, except by the European consenting to let affairs drift, which is exactly what he thinks himself bound not to do. The Asiatic ruler, in fact, however good, will tolerate tyranny in his subordinates, and the European will not; and if tyranny is to be suppressed, the two cannot work together on any equal footing.
It is said that they do work together in the Indian Native States, where the Resident guides and the King rules, but this is a misconception. The Resident in a large Native State gives no orders, interferes in no Department, removes no agent in the interior, is to all outward appearance as apart from the Administration as a Foreign Ambassador is in London. His mode of action when he acts is to confer with the Premier, or if the Sovereign is a working man, with the Sovereign, and leave them to carry out his suggestions, which rarely, if ever, extend to general proposals. It is not his function to introduce Codes, or methods of legal procedure, or even changes in taxation, but only to see that the general machine goes on en- durably well. The Resident at Hyderabad does not even know what the revenue of the State really is, and would as soon think of interfering with the Revenue Officer, or of appointing or removing any judicial officer, as of doing the same things in a British Province. All he does is to insist that there shall be order, however obtained—and it is con- stantly obtained by very stern repression—that gross scandals shall be prevented, and that the Premier shall be a person of whom in a general way the British Government can approve. For the rest, the Administration is Native, and if the Nizam of Hyderabad orders an arrest or an execution on colourabla grounds, the Resident would no more censure than the Emperor of Germany would censure the King of Bavaria for the same acts. The native Government must be very bad indeed before it is upset, and has once or twice become bad; as in Baroda, beyond all Asiatic precedent, without drawing down on it a sentence which, in that case, was provoked rather by the suspicions as to the poisoning of the Resident than by the oppressions of the ruler. This is not the kind of control which is possible on the Nile. While we occupy Egypt, Europe is too watchful, the resident Europeans too numerous, and Parliament is too near. The onlookers demand, very properly, as we think, that Egypt shall be governed like an Indian Province, and not like an Indian protected State,— that is, shall be governed without tyranny ; and to fulfil that demand, direct • European administration is indispen- sable. No Egyptian is as yet ready to govern for European ends by European means, and the effort to make him do it without direct orders, ends in an insuper-
able passive resistance and bitter personal hatreds. The greatest Indian Resident would decline altogether to work his system if his State were full of Europeans, infested with Eng- lish correspondents, and placed daily under the European microscope, and would report at once that direct European administration—in other words, annexation—was indispensable, if the conflict of the two sets of ideas was not to produce anarchy. It is producing anarchy in Egypt, and will continue to do so, until Englishmen can make up their minds either to administer for themselves, or to harden their consciences against the inevitable incidents of native rule.
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