There is no doubt that the fellaheen do appreciate the benefits of British rule; it would be strange if they did not. The corvée is gone. Not only has taxation been enormously reduced in amount, but its method of collection has been made equitable and regular. Whereas in former days the tax-collector was in league with the money-lender, and contrived to demand his payments at times when it was certain that the cultivator of the soil would have no money, and would have to pledge his growing crops to raise the amount, now the time of payment is adjusted to suit the harvests. Moreover, the new Agricultural Bank lends to the fellaheen at a rate far below that demanded by the Syrian, Greek, or Coptic usurers; the State gives a small guarantee, and the Government tax-collectors collect the interest and instalments of the loans at the same time as the taxes. The Egyptians are naturally a thrifty people; they are taking advantage of this plan, and are very punctual in their repayments. When the scheme was first started, it was met with grave disapproval by the professed economists. The fellaheen, they said, will borrow first from the Bank, and will then execute a second mortgage, and borrow more on the same exorbitant terms from their old blood-suckers. But Lord Cromer’s keen insight into the character of the people has once again been justified. It is true that a generation is growing up that knew not Ismail. These have lived only in the new order of things, and have no personal reminiscences to sharpen their enjoyment of the present; but even so the number of those actually discontented must be few, and the number of those who would carry their discontent into action still fewer. More than this, perhaps, it would be foolish to expect. In the East a reforming nation could not be really popular, except among fighters. And the Egyptians are no fighters—they are peaceable people, who love their homes; no one joins the army except by the necessity of conscription. Even the reformatory school-boy cannot be induced to volunteer for so much as the band. Honour and glory are nothing to them; they seek no bubble reputation at the cannon’s mouth. Again, the Englishman endeavours to establish impartial justice in the Courts. That is all very well if your opponent is a richer man than you; but what if you could have outbid him quite easily? It is a good thing to be free from the fear of being bastinadoed and fined because your neighbour has given false evidence against you, or because he has influence with the police. But if you, which is at least as likely, wish to do the same to him, how do you profit by the reform?