Bankrupts and Brokers 77
have no fondness for an extra-territorial jurisdiction, and
would hail with the utmost satisfaction such an improve-
ment in the judicial system as would justify their alto-
gether renouncing any judicial action in Egypt.M And
after dwelling on the '' great abuses and encroachments
of extra-territorial jurisdiction," the despatch goes on:
c< His Majesty's Government is certainly not inclined to
hold out for a jurisdiction to which they have no Treaty
right, which they admit to be a usurpation, though
brought about by force of circumstances, and which is as
injurious to British interests as it is derogatory to the
character and wellbeing of Egyptian administration."
It is, on the other hand, melancholy to record that it was
Ismail and his British successors in Egyptian reform who
had most to regret the opening given to foreign inter-
ference by this international institution—that still exists
and still exposes Egypt to foreign interventions. As a
Judge of these Tribunals has himself admitted (L* Egypt
et I'Europe,, p. 21), " Leur justice a merveilleusement
servi la coalition etr anger e qui exploitait le pays/' It is
all the more regrettable that the reform of the native Civil
Court, with the coincident restriction of the Sheriat
Courts to matters of Moslem concern, that would in time
have made the Mixed Tribunals unnecessary and that
was initiated by Ismail, was unfortunately interrupted by
his deposition.
In education the energies of Ismail's regime were re-
markable. The system of primary, secondary, and
technical schools, organised under the Law of 1868,
would have done credit to any European State. The
number of schools was increased from one hundred and
eighty-five in 1862 to five thousand eight hundred and
twenty in 1878, with an attendance of over a hundred
thousand scholars. Only a year later the financial