ment Budget of £E.505,000; so that it was anticipated that the floating debt on December 31st, 1884, would be :

With a view to extinguishing this floating debt and making the Budgets of future years balance, the English Government proposed to a Conference of the Powers held in London in June and July, 1884, to guarantee a pre-preference loan of 8,000,000l. to the Egyptian Government, with interest and Sinking Fund at the rate of 4 per cent. It further proposed the abolition of existing Sinking Fund and a reduction of per cent. in the interest of the Preference and the Unified, and also on the payment to England on account of the Suez Canal Shares. The Conference separated without coming to a decision. The Earl of Northbrook was sent as High Commissioner to Egypt, in September, 1884, to examine both the finances and the general state of the country, and to report to the English Government. At present (January, 1885) no definite results have followed his report.

The following are the estimates of the receipts and the expenditure of the country for 1884 and 1885 :

In addition to the Preference and United Debts, already mentioned, there are loans guaranteed by the Domains (7,702,3407.) and Daira (8,795,4407.) lands, the deficiency in the interest of which has to be made good by the Government. The total charges upon the Egyptian Revenue on the 31st of December, 1883, on account of Debt of all descriptions, was :

Privileged Debt: interest at 5 per cent. and sinking fund
Unified Debt: interest at 4 per cent.

Suez Canal: 5 per cent. interest until 1894

£stg.

1,188,240

2,239,730

198,828

Moukabala annuity till 1930

153,486

Daira Khassa: annual payment to Daira Sanieh Loan
Commissioners

34,872

Domains Loan: estimated deficit on

interest (5 per

cent.), and sinking fund (per cent.)

138,462

66,666

Daira Sanieh estimated deficit on interest (4 per cent.)

Area and Population.

Prior to 1884 the sovereign of Egypt claimed rule over territories extending almost to the Equator. Within the last three years the inhabitants of the Soudan and the other provinces south of Dongola have rebelled against the authority of the Egyptian Government. As a result (January 1885) these districts have been abandoned, and Wady Halfa, about 800 miles up the Nile from Cairo, has been (provisionally) agreed upon as the boundary of Egypt to the south. But until the conclusion of the present (January 1885) military operations, the final boundaries of the Khedive's dominions cannot be regarded as fixed. The region outside Egypt Proper, including Nubia, Kordofan, Darfur, the Soudan, and the Equatorial Provinces, have an estimated area of 1,026,280 square miles and a population of 11,000,000.

Egypt Proper is divided into two great districts-' Masr-el

Upper Egypt.

Asia

Isthmus

Lower Egypt.

Bahri' or Lower Egypt, and El-Said' or Upper Egypt and these two divisions together are estimated to comprise 394,240 English square miles. The last census was taken on May 3, 1882, the districts comprised in its operations being the Delta and the Nile Valley from the Mediterranean to Wady Halfa, the Isthmus of Suez, the territory of El-Arish in Asia, and the Red Sea coast from Suez to Kosseir. The following table shows the result in detail. Foreigners are separated from natives, and the latter are divided into two classes-those who have fixed residences and those who belong to nomad tribes :

:

If we arrange the above figures by administrative divisions we have the following result:

Of the above total 3,396,308 are males, and 3,410,073 are females. The families number 1,178,564, and the houses 1,084,384. Of the total fixed population, 4,278,451 are adults, and 2,276,123 infants. The agricultural population forms nearly 61 per cent. of the total, and the foreigners about 1.34 per cent. Taken by nationalities, the number of foreigners in Egypt is :-Greeks, 37,301; Italians, 18,665; French, 15,716; Austrians, 8,022; English, 6,118; Germans, 948; other foreign nations, 4,116; total, 90,886. Of this total nearly 90 per cent. reside in Lower Egypt.

The growth of the general population of the country is exhibited by the following figures:

A comparison of the two official returns, 1846 and 1882, shows an average annual increase in the population of about 1.25 per cent.

As regards the area of Egypt Proper the following tabulated statement, which is approximately correct, shows the amount of land in the moudiriehs of the two great divisions of the country, sandy hills and uninhabitable parts being excluded :—

A feddan is nearly equal to an English acre. Kharadji and Ouchouri are fiscal divisions of the land. According to the budget of 1884 the average tax on the latter kind of land is 514 piastres (108.74d.) per feddan, whilst Kharadji has to bear an average tax of 128 piastres (11. 68. 4d.) per feddan. The two figures given above for the land of Upper and Lower Egypt make a total of 5,977,433 feddans. To which has to be added:

The principal towns, with their populations in 1882, are: Cairo, 368,108; Alexandria, 208,755; Damietta, 34,046; Tantab, 33,725 Mansourah, 26,784; Zagazig, 19,046; Rosetta, 16,671; Port Said, 16,560; Suez, 10,913.

Trade and Industry.

The exterior commerce of Egypt, comprising imports and exports of all kinds of merchandise, are given at the following figures for the past five years:

The movement of specie during the same period has been :