What then can we look forward to as the hope of improvement of such a people? In the first place, a strong and just government, with a sufficient amount of an incorruptible European element to crush out bribery and ensure justice; this, in a couple of generations, would go far to alter the national character. To trust one’s money to the care of the government at the post-office, is the idea which astounds a fellah more than anything else he can learn of England. An education in which the Koran is but incidental, and not a crushing load on the memory, is another necessity. A spread of some sanitary ideas, and a cheap supply of some staple medicines for the commonest ailments, would be a great step: the utter ignorance and lack of all common sense in such matters is appalling. Probably improved dwellings, on some large estates, would be the most powerful means for changing their notions; only such must not be Europeanised, but thoroughly native houses reasonably arranged as to ventilation, dryness, and disposal of all refuse; thus they might lead to imitation; and a small premium on well-built houses would push the subject. The only class yet appreciably affected for the better by foreign influence is the Coptic community; and in that the energy of the American missionaries, and the good example of their followers, has produced a healthy awakening amid the body of the race, which is perhaps the most promising sight in the country at present. The enterprise of the Copt in education and improvement, with the advantage of the higher standard of Christianity above the ethics of the Koran, may now develop a better moral fibre in the nation, without which its advance is hopeless. The great snare to be avoided is the foreign character of improvements; so long as speaking a foreign language, wearing foreign clothes, and aping foreign manners are thought to be the objects of a change, we cannot expect to see a real progress in the character of a nation. That English influence has a vast field for philanthropic enterprise in this six millions of people is obvious; but the best intentions may be too easily nullified by ignorance of the conditions of the case, and by the incapacity and resistance of the average native official, by whom it is useless to expect any serious change or solid advance to be carried out to order. CHAPTER XIV. THE ACTIVE TRIPPER IN EGYPT.