428 THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATE.

sincerity of our Government in making declarations to the above effect. But I am convinced that the policy thus adopted was one certain to frustrate the intentions of its authors.

Up to the present day we have maintained the fiction that the British officials in the Egyptian service are only coadjutors of the native Ministers, and that their sole duty is to give the benefit of their experience in the form of advice. As a matter of fact, from the days when the British officials assumed their functions, they became the real administrators, and their native colleagues were reduced to the position of subordinates. Taking into account the racial characteristics of the British and native oflficials, and the exceptional conditions of a country under military occupation, no other result could have been anticipated. A number of active-minded, able British administrators — imbued with a desire to introduce reforms and to abolish abuses, indifferent to local prejudices, careless of local interests, deeming it their duty to set things straight, and conscious that by so doing they would promote their own repute and advancement — could not reasonably be expected to allow their energies to be hampered and thwarted by the intense conservatism, the hatred of change, and the innate dislike to reform, which characterize the Oriental.

I shall have something more to say on this matter when I endeavour to sum up the net results of our una vowed Protectorate. For the presfent, it is enough