Page:The European Concert in the Eastern Question.djvu/119

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THE INTERNATIONAL COURTS.
103

drawn up by Nubar Pasha in 1867, and communicated to the Powers. Negotiations followed, and commissions of delegates of the Powers sat at Cairo in 1869 and at Constantinople in 1873. The result of their labours was a draft Règlement cV Organisation Judiciaire pour les Procès Mixtes en Égypte, by Art. X of which foreigners are empowered to bring actions against the Egyptian Government and the estates of the Khedive[1]. The French Government gave its adhesion to the Règlement, with certain modifications, in a Protocol signed on behalf of that government and of the Khedive on l0th November, 1874[2]. The Powers which sooner or later became parties to the arrangement were fourteen in number, viz. Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, France, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Sweden and Norway, and the United States.

The New CodesNew Codes, to be administered by the Courts, came into The New operation on i8th October, 1875, and the Courts themselves were opened for business on 1st January, 1876.

The powers of the Courts, originally granted for five years, have been prolonged, by a series of Decrees, to 1st February 1882[3], to 1st February 1883[4], to 1st February 1884[5], and lastly to 1st February 1889[6].

The pressure of debt had already become serious. In November, 1875, the year preceding the opening of the Courts, canal the Khedive sold his Canal shares to the British government, and Mr. Cave was sent out, at the request of Nubar Pasha, to

  1. Annuaire de I'lnstitut de Droit International, 1877, p. 321 (Texts, No. X).
  2. Ibid. p. 337. The Accession of Great Britain to the Convention was on 31st July, 1875 ; ibid., 1878, p. 273 ; Parl. Papers, 1876, Egypt, No. 3 ; N. R.G. 2me Série, ii, 695 (Texts, No. XI).
  3. By a Decree of 6th January, 1881.
  4. By a Decree of 28th January, 1882.
  5. By a Decree of 28th January, 1883.
  6. By a Decree of 19th January, 1884. It was proposed at this time to reconstitute the International Commission, and to consider the expediency of a larger transfer of criminal jurisdiction to these courts. On these Decrees, see Parl. Papers, 1884, Egypt, No. 24.