From time immemorial the peasantry of Egypt have been liable to the corvée in some form or other. In a country depending for its existence upon the proper maintenance of its dykes, it was only natural that the whole population should turn out to perform the necessary work. But a useful custom very easily degenerated into a galling slavery under Oriental despotism. Rulers with absolute power of life and death over their subjects, who regarded the land they ruled as their own personal property, could not be expected to make much distinction between works carried out for the general good and those designed merely for their own convenience and aggrandisement. The Pyramids and others of the mighty remains of ancient Egypt stand as monuments of the greatness of the Pharaohs, but no less of the miseries of countless generations under the system of forced labour, which is known in our time as the corvée, a term applied sometimes to the forced labour itself, and sometimes to those who perform it. In the early chapters of the Book of Exodus there is a brief but pregnant description of the sufferings of the Israelites when subjected to the burden. ‘And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour: ‘And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.’ ‘And Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying, Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves. And the tale of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish ought thereof. Let there more work be laid upon the men, that they may labour therein.’ ‘And the taskmasters hasted them, saying, Fulfil your works, your daily tasks, as when there was straw. And the officers of the children of Israel, which Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten, and demanded, Wherefore have ye not fulfilled your task in making bricks both yesterday and to-day, as heretofore?’ ‘And the officers of the children of Israel did see that they were in evil case.’ ‘And the Lord said, I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage.’ ‘But the children of Israel hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage.’