82 Egypt
way would make it more profitable to employ the
Sudanese for raising cattle and cotton, which latter was
selling for two dollars at Khartum and for sixteen at
Cairo. So the first section of a railway from Wady Haifa
to Khartum (one thousand one hundred miles) was be-
gun. This enterprise was stopped, after £400,000 had
been spent, by the financial crisis ; and thereafter fol-
lowed the surrender of the Sudan to another twenty
years of slavery.
Egypt, as personified by Ismail, has been generally
regarded by us as a spendthrift, so ruined by senseless
extravagance as to require reconstruction by England
on behalf of European creditors, and for the benefit of
Egyptian civilisation. But this is not fair either to Ismail
or to Egypt. Had Ismail been such a worthless waster
as he is represented, Egypt would have got rid of him
itself as it did of his predecessor Abbas, or as Turkey
did of his contemporary, Abdul Aziz, As a matter of
fact, putting aside for the moment the price paid, the
progress achieved during this reign of twelve years was
really a very creditable performance. Thus, Egypt's
railways were increased by thirteen hundred, its roads
by several thousand miles. The telegraphs, some six
hundred miles in 1862, were nearly six thousand miles in
1878 ; and a postal service was organised with over two
hundred offices. Some five hundred bridges were built,
and fifteen lighthouses. Port Said was founded,
Alexandria supplied with a harbour, and, with Cairo,
provided with gas, water, and drainage. The Nile got a
steamboat service, and a Mediterranean line was started.
There were two hundred new canals, and an increase of
irrigation channels from forty-four thousand to fifty-two
thousand four hundred miles, while the whole irrigation
system was reorganised. Land-banks were established