It is, however, understood that the Premier was the only one of his Cabinet who took this view.  Mr. Robert Stephenson, C.E., certainly regretted before his death the opinion which he had been induced to express by desire. [FN#40] There are at present about eighteen influential Shaykhs at Cairo, too fanatic to listen to reason.  These it would be necessary to banish.  Good information about what goes on in each Mosque, especially on Fridays, when the priests preach to the people, and a guard of honour placed at the gates of the Kazi, the three Muftis, and the Shaykh of the Azhar, are simple precautions sufficient to keep the Olema in order. [FN#41] These Rakaiz Al-’Usab, as they are called, are the most influential part of the immense mass of dark intrigue which Cairo, like most Oriental cities, conceals beneath the light surface.  They generally appear in the ostensible state of barbers and dyers.  Secretly, they preside over their different factions, and form a kind of small Vehm.  The French used to pay these men, but Napoleon, detecting them in stirring up the people, whilst appearing to maintain public tranquillity, shot eighteen or twenty (about half their number), and thereby improved the conduct of the rest.  They are to be managed, as Sir Charles Napier governed Sind,-by keeping a watchful eye upon them, a free administration of military law, disarming the population, and forbidding large bodies of men to assemble.

[p.115]Chapter VII.

Preparations to quit Cairo.

At length the slow “month of blessings” passed away.  We rejoiced like Romans finishing their Quaresima, when a salvo of artillery from the citadel announced the end of our Lenten woes.  On the last day of Ramazan all gave alms to the poor, at the rate of a piastre and a half for each member of the household-slave, servant, and master.  The next day, first of the three composing the Bayram or Id[FN#1] (the Lesser Festival), we arose before dawn, performed our ablutions, and repaired to the Mosque, to recite the peculiar prayer of the season, and to hear the sermon which bade us be “merry and wise.”  After which we ate and drank heartily; then, with pipes and tobacco-pouches in hand, we sauntered out to enjoy the contemplation of smiling faces and street scenery.

The favourite resort on this occasion is the large cemetery beyond the Bab al-Nasr[FN#2]-that stern, old, massive gateway which opens upon the Suez road.  There we found a scene of jollity.  Tents and ambulant coffee-houses were full of men equipped in their-anglice