42 Egypt
very curious anticipations of what we now know as Bol-
shevism. The popular element in his government was
the Asiatic form of franchise—namely, facilities for access
and appeal to the autocrat. Thus he learnt to read and
speak Arabic late in life so as to have direct contact with
petitioners. "The only books I ever read/' said he,
"are men's faces, and they never mislead me/' He
spoke Turkish, the language of the ruling class, and re-
tained the typical virtues and vices of that Albanian race
that has supplied so many statesmen to Europe. In his
prejudices he was a Turk, and he detested the Arabs as
a race as much as he despised the Copts for their religion.
The "Constitution" that he introduced in 1826 was
only the old " Divan " reorganised as a Council of State,
Privy Council, and Cabinet of Ministers. The ancient
Provinces, reduced to twelve, became Governments.
But the Mudir and the Meemur never really assimilated
their new French titles of Governor and Prefect. The
working officials were, as before, the harmless, necessary
Copts. The Government itself remained as it had always
been, mainly fiscal and judicial. The fiscal system was
administered as before, with the kurbash, tempered by
baksheesh. One of the greatest benefits of the new
regime was the substitution of one Mehemet Ali for
twenty thousand Mamelukes.
But if political institutions remained much the same,
there were interesting innovations in economics» Aided
by the- ancient Islamic system that makes no clear dis-
tinction between private and public property, between
the share of profit due to the producer and that due to
the State, Mehemet Ali made himself the sole titular
landlord, the sole tax farmer, and the sole foreign trader
of Egypt, All the produce and property of the country
was centralised in and controlled by the State. And this