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had been occupied by Major Marchand, the head of a French expedition, who sought to claim as a right a position on the Nile on behalf of France. 1899.* In January General Kitchener set out to catch the Khalifa, who had fled towards Kordofân, but his expedition failed for want of water. In November it was said that the Khalifa was at Gebel Geddîr, which lay to the north-west of Fashôda, on the west bank of the Nile, and about 160 miles from the river. The Sirdar pursued with a large force, but the Khalifa fled towards Khartûm. On November 22 Colonel (now Sir) F. R. Wingate (now Sirdar of the Egyptian army) pursued him to Abba Island on the Nile, and learning that he was encamped at Umm Dabrikât, attacked him on the 24th. After a fierce but short fight in the early morning, Colonel Wingate defeated the Khalifa, killing over 1,000 of his men, and taking prisoners 3,000. The Khalifa met his fate like a man, and seeing that all was lost, seated himself upon a sheepskin with his chief Emîrs, and with them fell riddled with bullets. The Egyptian loss was 15 killed and wounded. The death of the Khalifa was the death-blow to Mahdism.

*On March 4 of this year, Mr. John M. Cook, the late head of the firm of Thomas Cook and Son, died at Walton-onThames. The services which he rendered to the Egyptian Government were very considerable. In the Gordon Relief Expedition his firm transported from Asyût to Wâdî Ḥalfa, a distance of about 550 miles, Lord Wolseley's entire force, which consisted of 11,000 British and 7,000 Egyptian troops, Soo whalers, and 130,000 tons of stores and war materials. In 1885, 1886, and 1896 his firm again rendered invaluable services to the Government, and one is tempted to regret,

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1900. Early in January Osman Dikna was reported to be in hiding near Tokar, and at length Muḥammad 'Ali, the loyal Gamilab Shêkh, found that he had entered his country. Major Burges and Aḥmad Bey, a police official, left Suâkin on January 8 and Io respectively, and pursued Osman, travelling in a south-westerly direction. A few days later they arrived at a spur of a mountain of the Warriba range which lies about 90 miles to the south-west of Suâkin, and there Osman was seen apparently waiting to partake of a meal from a recently killed sheep. At the sight of his pursuers he fled up a hill, but was soon caught, and was despatched from Suâkin in the S.S. "Behera,” and arrived at Suez on January 25, en route for Rosetta, where he now lies in prison. On September 25 the appointment of Slatin Pâsha as British Inspector of the Sûdân was announced. On November 2 Major Hobbs opened a branch of the Bank of Egypt at Kharțûm.

with Mr. Royle (The Egyptian Campaigns, p. 554), that, in view of the melancholy failure of the Gordon Relief Expedition, his contract did not include the rescue of Gordon and the Sûdân garrisons. He transported the wounded to Cairo by water after the battle of Tell el-Kebîr, and when the British Army in Egypt was decimated with enteric fever, conveyed the convalescents by special steamers up the Nile, and made no charge in either case except the actual cost of running the steamers. He was greatly beloved by the natives, and the Luxor Hospital, which he founded, is one of the many evidences of the interest which he took in their welfare. Thousands of natives were employed in his service, and it would be difficult to estimate the benefits which accrued indirectly to hundreds of families in all parts of the country through his energy and foresight.

E

PROGRESS IN EGYPT UNDER BRITISH RULE.

The progress made in Egypt since the country passed under the rule of the British is astonishing, even to those who knew its wonderfully recuperative powers. Its material prosperity is so great and advances with such rapid strides that it is difficult to understand its miserable and bankrupt condition at the time of Arabi Pâsha's rebellion. A journey through the country reveals the fact that for one beast seen in the fields at that time, ten may now be counted, for the peasant farmer need not now fear the sudden descent of arbitrary tax-gatherers who would carry off the occupants of his fields and byres. In the towns and villages the houses are better built and kept in better repair, for their owners need not fear that the laying on of a coat of paint or whitewash will be taken as evidence that they possess superfluous cash, and so bring down upon themselves a visit from the local revenue officer and increased taxation. The water supply is regulated with justice, and the peasant obtains his due as surely and as regularly as the Pâsha, and it is now impossible for any large landowner to irrigate his garden at the expense of the parched plots of his poor neighbours. One of the greatest boons which Britain has conferred upon the Egyptian is the abolition of the Corvée. The work to be done by the corvée was of two kinds, viz., (1) to make and upkeep earthworks, i.e., to cut and clean canals, etc., (2) to protect the river banks during the inundation. The liability of the Egyptian male to be called upon to do work of the former class was abolished in 1889, and although it costs Egypt £420,000 per annum to do without forced labour, it is admitted on all hands that the expenditure is justified. Under the old system the most shameful abuses crept in, and hundreds of the official

classes had their houses built, canals cut and cleaned, and estates watered entirely by the corvée. The iniquity of the system was that it pressed hardest upon the poorest classes. Mr. Willcocks, of the Egyptian Irrigation Department, first showed that by adopting improved methods the necessity for much of the labour was done away with, and its abolition is one of Viscount Cromer's most brilliant achievements. It must not be forgotten that men have to be called out each year to protect the river banks in time of flood, and that all the inhabitants may be called out in any sudden emergency, but no more men are now called out than the exigencies of the Nile flood demand.

The following figures give the numbers for the last few years of those called out :—

* Parliamentary Papers, Egypt No. 1, 1898, p. 16; Egypt No. 1,

1900, p. 19.