LORD DUFFERIN'S REPORT. 329 single European financial adviser, it being understood that this adviser should be an Englishman, recommended by the British Government. This advice was of course adopted. The Dual Control was abolished by a decree of the Khedive, and Mr. Auckland Colvin was appointed to be his Highness s financial counsellor. Again, Lord Dufferin rendered a signal service to England and Egypt by opposing a view which had found favour with the Liberal party at home, and which was said to number some adherents within the Cabinet, that an army was a luxury which Egypt did not require, and could not afford. The absurdity of this theory is patent to any one acquainted with the geographical conditions of the country. Egypt is, in fact, a vast oasis, surrounded on every side, except its northern sea-coast frontier, by the desert, and occupied by an agricultural population of a singularly unwarlike and unadventurous disposition. The desert, however, is not a barren solitude, but a space dotted over with any number of small oases, inhabited by Bedouin tribes, who from time immemorial have raided the peaceful and fertile lands of Egpt, whenever the country was not protected by a strong Government, supported by a powerful army. A great deal of false sentiment has been uttered about the Bedouin Arabs. They are, physically and morally, a superior race to the fellaheen, who, I suspect, were originally Copts, converted to Islam after the Mahometan conquest of Egypt. I can easily understand that Englishmen, familiar with desert life, such as my friend, the late