364 THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATE.

Premier should be the interpreter of British policy in respect of Egypt, but that he should interpret it in accordance with native ideas and by the instrumentality of officials subject in the first instance to his own authority.

It is impossible to say whether this form of government could ever have worked satisfactorily in Egypt under any conditions. It never had, and never could have had, a fair trial, under the conditions that then existed. Both the British Consul-General and the Egyptian Premier were men of masterful disposition and of marked individuality of character. Neither of them was disposed to efface himself; and neither could have done so, had he wished it. Moreover, the British officials, who entered the Egyptian service after the occupation, were not content to occupy the positions which Nubar would have assigned to them if his ideas had prevailed.

I should be most sorry to say a word of disparagement about a body of men, amongst whom I have many personal friends, and for whom I have the highest respect With very rare and insignificant exceptions, our British officials in Egypt have been singularly honest, able, hard-working men, actuated by a genuine desire to do the best for the country where their services were employed. They were all, however, and especially the Anglo-Indians, imbued with an innate conviction of the superiority of the Briton to the native; and this conviction rendered them naturally prone to assert their importance. If a work had