The revenue consists of the ordinary taxes, and in the levy of custom duties, but these are never exacted in proper proportion, or after a fixed scale; for when a contribution is ordered to be levied from Cairo, the country is generally forced to contribute double the amount,—a very natural consequence, when we consider that all the government situations are held by officers, who purchase their commissions from the governor. It is, of course, an understood thing, that one functionary endeavours to outbid the other, in which practice he is encouraged by the knowledge, that he will in time be able to make good his outlay. They certainly cannot reckon on enjoying their privileges for any length of time; for if a person present himself, and pay a few purses of money more, the colonel is not long in finding a cause for turning one of his former employes out of office, and conferring the vacant situation on the new candidate. Every officer, therefore, endeavours to extort as much as he possibly can by oppression, in the shortest possible time, in order to reimburse himself for his expenditure, and to gain something by his bargain. Each casheff, or captain of a district, is provided with a few subordinate officers, who are distributed in the distant localities. These subalterns, and the Sheikhs el Belled, or village magistrates, must occasionally make presents to the casheffs. The sheikhs are by no means thoughtless of themselves; and lastly, the copts, who perform the duties of secretaries, all and every one prey upon the small gains of the poor inhabitants, so that we may easily conceive what the unfortunate people have to suffer. Mehemed Ali, acquainted with the arbitrary proceedings of the governors, and subordinate functionaries, notwithstanding the great distance from the scene of their rapacity, has done everything in his power to put a limit to these impositions. Thus, in the years 1838 and 1839, a greater part of the _employés_ were summoned before a commission of enquiry, and sent into different provinces,—in short, everything was done to bring about a just administration, but all in vain. With the best intentions, the Viceroy was incapable of curing the cancer which preyed upon the bowels of the land; and although, indeed, much of the property, which had been unjustly scraped together,—or we should rather say, the plunder of the government functionaries,—was confiscated; the Viceroy was, in the end, the gainer, not the people. To the latter, nothing is returned; and this restitution, indeed, would be no easy undertaking, inasmuch as the individual sufferers could not be readily found, and Mehemed Ali, moreover, does not trouble himself in the slightest about the matter. It is true that the country swarms with spies, who observe every action of the government officers with great accuracy, and make their reports in a higher quarter; but the state, in these cases, confiscates the plunder, as I have before mentioned, and the poor