474 A TROPICAL DEPENDENCY of the amount of the general assessment tax which is to be apportioned to the Native Administration and to the British Government — has, as a matter of fact, given no trouble. The proportion which it has been proposed to take for British purposes has so far been willinglyaccepted by the emirs, and it has been found in those provinces where the system has been put in operation, that, though the burden upon the peasantry has been greatly reduced, the reformed system of collection, byits regularity, and by the abolition which has been effected of the army of tax-gathering middlemen, promises to place the emirs in a secure financial position, which will amply compensate for the loss of slave tribute and of the excessive tolls on trade which were previously imposed.

In connection with the payment of a share of the assessment to the British Administration, the extended use of cash currency is urgently desirable. The assessment will be subject to periodical revision, and it should, as the country develops, show a steady increase. Sums now small may become considerable, and even now the difficulty of payment in kind is obvious.

The satisfactory promise of the new system has of course helped substantially towards the amalgamation of the native with the British rule, and tends happily to remove a cause of discontent which might have placed difficulties in the way of the enforcement of the laws against slave-dealing and slave-raiding. These, under present circumstances, have been loyally accepted by the emirs, and are now in practical application in every province. The slave-trade has been abolished, and the rulers and fief-holders who profited most by it have a fair prospect of enjoying, under the system which has abolished it, more regular incomes than they possessed under the old system. It is proposed that a portion of the general assessment retained by the Native Administration shall be assigned to the fief-holders, and their advantage, like that of the emirs, will be intimately