THE MASSACRES OF ALEXANDRIA. 281 the Christians in their midst. Amongst the humbler class of Moslems, their religion is part and parcel of their everyday life, to an extent which foreigners, who have not lived in the East, or, living there, have kept their eyes closed, find it hard to realize. The followers of the Prophet may be, and often are, on the most friendly relations with their Christian neighbours ; but at the bottom of their hearts they never quite forget that their neighbours are Giaours, whom Allah, for some inscrutable reason, allows to flourish and multiply, but whose extermination is declared by his words, as expounded by his Prophet, "to be the duty incumbent on every true believer." Happily, mankind is never as fanatical as its creeds would lead us to expect, and as its convictions would justify it in being.

The circumstances connected with the Alexandria riots point to the conclusion that they were not due to any unforeseen outburst of fanatic zeal. In Oriental countries government is mainly conducted by secret information. It is the duty and the interest of every police officer, who desires promotion, to let his superiors know beforehand the reports current in the bazaars.

I find it therefore utterly impossible to suppose that an organized conspiracy could have been arranged in Alexandria for an attack on the Christians without its being known to the police, and through them to the local authorities — military, as well as civil. The day and the hour selected for the outbreak seem to imply the connivance of these authorities. On a midsummer