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Nubar Pasha, Evelyn Baring and a Suppressed Article in the Drummond-Wolff Convention

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Byron David Cannon
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin Madison, Wisconsin

Extract

No historical treatment of the first decade of the British occupation of Egypt overlooks the abortive mission of Sir Henry Drummond-Wolff to Cairo and Istanbul from 1885 to the spring of 1887. Most, however, fail to discuss the diverse political interests within Egypt itself, which, in one fashion or another, stood to be affected by the mission and its objectives. Consequently, an entire segment of the negotiations which led to the 22 May 1887 convention setting the conditions for withdrawal, including an original draft article covering the future status of the capitulatory and mixed court regime in Egypt, has all but disappeared from the record. The circumstances behind this forgotten article demonstrate in capsule form the degree to which the issue of judicial reform indirectly dominated London's Egyptian policy in stages from 1876 to the Montreux Convention on the capitulations concluded by Nahhas Pasha in 1937.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

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References

page 468 note 1 The early and standard accounts by Lord Cromer and Charles-Louis de Saulces de Freycinet omit all but the most superficial references to the clash of political interests within Egypt over the Drummond-Wolff mission. More recent monographs based on extensive documentary research, such as Tignor's, RobertModernization and British Colonial Rule in Egypt, 1882–1914 (Princeton, 1966)Google Scholar and Sayyid's, Afaf Lutfi AlEgypt and Cromer (London, 1968),Google Scholar have maintained the tradition of convenient generalizations. Specific studies, most notably Hornik, M. P., ‘The Mission of Sir Henry Drummond Wolff to Constantinople’ (English Historical Review, vol. LV (1940), pp. 598623),CrossRefGoogle Scholar include all the diplomatic details, but overlook the subject of bargaining over capitulatory reforms entirely. Only Sir Colvin, Auckland in The Making of Modern Egypt (London, 1906), pp. 151–2,Google Scholar and Milner's, AlfredEngland in Egypt (London, 1892), pp. 146–51, hint at the ties between the capitulatory and mixed court question and the broader objectives of the abortive Anglo-Ottoman convention.Google Scholar

page 469 note 1 A general survey of the period 1876–91 has been published by the writer in African Historical Studies, vol. V, no. I (1972).Google Scholar The purely technical aspects of the mixed courts and their charter may be seen in Brinton's, Jasper Y.The Mixed Courts of Egypt, originally published in 1930 and now available in the second revised edition (New Haven, 1968).Google Scholar

page 469 note 2 Early misunderstandings over the proper method for updating the mixed codes, especially in the area of bankruptcies, are surveyed in Vercamer, Emile, La Juridiction mixte égyptienne et ses attributions législatives (Brussels, 1911).Google Scholar

page 469 note 3 The only source which reflects the quandary of the dual control powers in dealing with the mixed courts between 1876 and 1882 was published by the Egyptian Ministry of Justice as Procès-verbaux des séances de la sous-commission de la Réforme Judiciaire du 11 décembre 1880 au 4 février 1881 (Cairo, 1881). The British position prior to 1882 is outlined in The Public Record Office (PRO), FO 78/3375, Mr F. S. Reilly's memorandum to the Foreign Office dated 23 April 1880.Google Scholar

page 469 note 4 On the origins and development of the majâlis mahalliyyah in Egypt until their closing in 1883, see Zaghlûl, Ahmad Fathî, Tâ;rîkh al Muhâmâh (Cairo, 1900).Google Scholar

page 469 note 5 PRO, Granville Papers (GP), G & D 29/166, Dufferin to Granville, 2 January 1883; cf. Le Phare d'Alexandrie (hereafter Le Phare), 20 January 1883.Google Scholar

page 470 note 1 Archives du Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, Paris (MAE), Egypte/79, Raindre to Lacour, 9 May 1883; and Egypte/81, Barrère to Jules Ferry, 28 December 1883.Google Scholar

page 470 note 2 PRO, FO 407/41, Sir Julian Pauncefote's memorandum of 20 November 1883.Google Scholar

page 470 note 3 PRO, FO 407/41, Granville to Baring, 18 December 1883.Google Scholar

page 470 note 4 PRO, FO 407/42, Egerton to Granville, 4 June 1884.Google Scholar

page 471 note 1 See Mir'ât al Sharq (Cairo), 18 and 27 January 1885; Al Zamân (Cairo), 28 January, 27 April, and 6 May 1885; and Le Phare, 10 June 1885.Google Scholar

page 471 note 2 ‘Nubdhah fi'l huqûq wa anwâihâ wat târîkh wa fawâidihâ’, Al Huqûq (Cairo), 6 March 1886.Google Scholar

page 471 note 3 Al Zamân, 11 and 12 September 1884.Google Scholar

page 471 note 4 PRO, FO 78/3690, Lord Northbrook's report of 20 November 1884;Google Scholar cf. Lord Granville to Mr Gladstone, 23 December 1884, in Ramm, Agatha, The Political Correspondence of Mr Gladstone and Lord Granville, vol. II (Oxford, 1962), p. 299.Google Scholar

page 472 note 1 See Article 4 of the convention printed in Gélat, Philippe, Répertoire général annoté de la législation et de l'administration égyptiennes, vol. II (Alexandria, 1908), pp. 498500.Google Scholar

page 472 note 2 Al Zamân, 5 November 1885.Google Scholar

page 472 note 3 Le Phare, 11 November 1885.Google Scholar

page 472 note 4 See Nuba's (1867) Note à son Altesse le vice-rol d'Egypte [le vice-roi d'Egypte] sur la régularisation à opérer dans les rapports entre étrangers et indigènes (Cairo, n.d.); also his memorandum of 3 December 1867 in Georges Douin, Histoire du règne du Khédive Ismaïl, vol. II (Rome, 1934), pp. 189–92.Google Scholar

page 472 note 5 See Nubar's, ‘Mulâhazât fi'n nizâm al qadâ'i al misrî’ (1 03 1881), in Makhlûf, Najîb, Nûbâr bâshâ wa mâ tamma ';ala yaddihi (Cairo, 1903), pp. 123–35.Google Scholar

page 472 note 6 PRO, FO 78/3800, Barin to Granville, 9 February 1885, enclosing West's memorandum of 6 February 1885; FO 407/68, Drummond-Wolff to the Earl of Rosebery, 13 March 1886, enclosing West's memorandum of 19 August 1885.Google Scholar

page 473 note 1 See, for example, The Egyptian Gazette (Alexandria), 14 November 1885.Google Scholar

page 473 note 2 Le Phare, 30 January and 2 February 1886.Google Scholar

page 473 note 3 PRO, FO 407/42, Salisbury to Egerton, 6 November 1885.Google Scholar

page 473 note 4 For Sir Evelyn Baring's early views regarding the mixed courts while he was still the British representative on the Caisse de la Dette Publique, see PRO, Cromer Papers (CP), FO 633/5, Baring to Mr Goschen, M.P., 21 and 28 December 1877.Google Scholar

page 473 note 5 PRO, CP, FO 633/6, Baring to Rosebery, 15 February 1886; cf. The Times (London), 15 March 1886.Google Scholar

page 473 note 6 PRO, FO 407/67, Baring to Rosebery, 13 May 1886, enclosing Nubar to Baring, 8 May 1886.Google Scholar

page 473 note 7 On the individually contracted Belgian and Dutch jurists then serving on the ahliyyah courts, see the memoirs of Minnaert, E., Le Caire et la justice internationale en Egypte (Brussels, 1898).Google Scholar

page 474 note 1 Al Huquq, 15 May 1886; MAE, Egypte/100, d'Aunay to de Freycinet, 24 May 1886, enclosing Alfred de Vacher's undated note on the tentative fusion plan.Google Scholar

page 474 note 2 PRO, FO 407/43, Rosebery to Wolff, 24 May 1886; Wolff to Rosebery, 19 June 1886, enclosing Mr Cookson's memorandum of 14 June 1886.Google Scholar

page 474 note 3 PRO, FO 407/68, Rosebery to Baring, 29 June 1886 (telegram).Google Scholar

page 474 note 4 PRO, CP, FO 633/5, Baring to Pauncefote, 26 June 1886.Google Scholar

page 474 note 5 PRO, CP, FO 633/7, Iddesleigh to Baring, 13 October 1886.Google Scholar

page 475 note 1 MAE, Egypte/101, de Beaucaire to de Freycinet, 18 October 1886.Google Scholar

page 475 note 2 PRO, CP, FO 633/6, Baring to Iddesleigh, 24 October 1886; same to same, 31 October 1886.Google Scholar

page 475 note 3 See Le Phare, 26 October 1886 announcing ratification of draft modifications in mixed laws governing guarantees on commercial loans, agricultural bills of exchange, and mortgage procedure; Decree of 5 December 1886, in Recueil de tous les documents officiels du gouvernement égyptien (hereafter RDO), volume for 1886.Google Scholar

page 475 note 4 Legislative Council minutes of 6 and 17 November 1886, and 5 January 1887, in RDO, volumes for 1886 and 1887.Google Scholar

page 476 note 1 Le Phare, 16 November 1886; Al Qahirah (Cairo), 17 November 1886.Google Scholar

page 476 note 2 Decree of 29 December 1886, RDO (1886).Google Scholar

page 476 note 3 Decree of 9 February 1887, RDO (1887); Al Fallah (Cairo), 1 March 1887.Google Scholar

page 476 note 4 Al Huquq, 19 February 1887; Le Phare, 12 February 1887; cf. Al Sadiq (Cairo), 11 January 1887.Google Scholar

page 476 note 5 Al A'lam (Cairo), 25 November 1886.Google Scholar

page 476 note 6 PRO, FO 407/43, Baring to Salisbury, 28 April 1887, enclosing Nubar to Wolff, 30 January 1887.Google Scholar

page 477 note 1 Ibid.

page 477 note 2 Christ Church College, Oxford (CC), Salisbury Papers (SP), A/51, Wolff to Salisbury, 14 February 1887 (telegram).Google Scholar

page 477 note 3 CC, SP, A/51, Salisbury to Wolff, 14 February 1887 (telegram).Google Scholar

page 477 note 4 CC, SP, A/51, Salisbury to Wolff, 15 February 1887 (telegram); ibid., Wolff to Salisbury, 21 February 1887; PRO, FO 407/43, Salisbury to Wolff, 17 February 1887 (telegram).

page 478 note 1 CC, SP, A/52, Baring to Salisbury, 4 March 1887.Google Scholar

page 478 note 2 See CC, SP, A/52, Baring to Wolff, 2 February 1887.Google Scholar

page 478 note 3 Le Phare, 15 March 1887, citing an undated article from La Turquie (Istanbul); cf. ‘Fî wujub tawhîd al qanûn’, Al Huqûq, 26 February 1887.Google Scholar

page 478 note 4 MAE, Egypte/105, d'Aunay to de Freycinet, 20 March 1887.Google Scholar

page 478 note 5 PRO, CP, FO 633/6, Baring to Iddesleigh, 31 December 1886; MAE, Egypte/105, d'Aunay to de Freycinet, 24 March 1887 (telegram).Google Scholar

page 479 note 1 CC, SP, A/51, Wolff to Salisbury, 18 March 1887.Google Scholar

page 479 note 2 Ibid.

page 479 note 3 Egypt no. 7 (1887), C 5050, Wolff to Salisbury, 31 March 1887; and same to same, 5 April 1887.Google Scholar

page 479 note 4 MAE, Egypte/105, D'Aunay to de Freycinet, 27 March 1887.Google Scholar

page 480 note 1 MAE, Egypte/105, d'Aunay to de Freycinet, 2 April 1887; cf. MAE, Egypte/86, Barrère to Ferry, 20 May 1884.Google Scholar

page 480 note 2 PRO, FO 407/43, Baring to Salisbury, 3 April 1887.Google Scholar

page 480 note 3 ‘Fî'l huqûq al wataniyyah wa't ta'ifah al qadaa'iyyah’, Al Huqûq, 9 April 1887.Google Scholar

page 480 note 4 Le Bosphore Egyptien (Cairo), 15 April 1887.Google Scholar

page 481 note 1 PRO, FO 407/70, Baring to Salisbury, 28 April 1887, enclosing Nubar's note of 27 April 1887.Google Scholar

page 481 note 2 Ibid. Among twelve original categories of such by-laws, the most important seem to have been: public administration of land, dikes and canals; public health; press laws; sale and licensing of arms and explosives; policing of ports and navigation ways; and ‘creation of new…. taxes, duties and subsidies… other than those… authorized by international agreements’.

page 482 note 1 CC, SP, A/51, Wolff to Salisbury, 4 April 1887.Google Scholar

page 482 note 2 See Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, Third Series, Volume 314, Col. 241, 28 April 1887; The Times (London), 4 May 1887; Le Phare, 6, 12 and 13 May 1887.Google Scholar

page 482 note 3 MAE, Egypte/106, d'Aunay to de Freycinet, 16 May 1887, and same to same, 22 May and 23 May 1887 (telegram).Google Scholar

page 482 note 4 Ibid.

page 483 note 1 Milner, Alfred, op. cit. p. 151; cf., text of the 22 May 1887 convention in Philippe Gélat, op. cit., vol. II, pp. 503–6.Google Scholar

page 483 note 2 Al Fallah, 3 June 1887.Google Scholar

page 483 note 3 CC, SP, A/52, Baring to Salisbury, 28 May 1887.Google Scholar

page 483 note 4 PRO, FO 407/43, Baring to Salisbury, 30 May 1887; MAE, Egypte/106, d'Aunay to de Freycinet, 9 June 1887 (telegram).Google Scholar