tor; and the honors bestowed upon him-knighthood first, then a barony and peerage, and finally the viscountship-but inadequately discharge the debt that his government owes him. So determined is he to carry his administration of Egypt to a triumphant termination that an offer of the viceroyship of India, or a cabinet position in London, has awakened no desire to leave Cairo. Lord Cromer is de facto ruler of Egypt, the visible but unclassified representative of the majesty of Great Britain, with almost unlimited power and authority. De jure he is Britain's diplomatic representative,—nothing more,—and his exequatur issues from the Sublime Porte in exactly the same form as that of the representative of any other government at the court of the khedive. This is but one of the paradoxes incident to present-day Egypt. Possessing little aptitude for accepted formulæ of diplomacy, perhaps, Lord Cromer makes a thoroughly reliable doyen of the diplomatic corps, which he is because his appointment antedates that of any of his colleagues. He cares nothing for display, detests shams, is a keen judge of men, and selects his assistants with such discernment that his judgment seldom errs. Devoid of a sense of humor, and unimaginative, Lord Cromer analyzes with great care a question in which the interests of others are concerned; and, an opinion formed, his conclusion is bound to prevail. Viscount Cromer is a man of marvelous industry. He reads Homer, learns a language,-even Turkish, and plays tennis or whist with the same --- energy, and with the same object-to win. Since the demise of Lady Cromer he toils harder than In conversation one feels that he is more preoccupied with what he intends to say than with his manner of expressing it. This is but a sketchy description of an interesting man and his character; but it is sufficient, possibly, to explain the success of England's rule in Egypt. CHAPTER V THE EXPANSION OF PRODUCTIVE EGYPT BY IRRIGATION THE HE most interesting page in the modern history of Egypt is that which records the development of scientific irrigation. Coincident with the preparation of this volume for publication, one of the most stupendous engineering feats ever undertaken by man is being executed on the Egyptian frontier, having for its purpose the ponding back into Nubia of a body of water perhaps a hundred and fifty miles long, crossing the tropic of Cancer, and extending southward nearly to Korosko,-a goodly step on the journey to Abu-Simbel and Wady-Halfa,-by means of a great dam across the Nile at Assuan. The Pyramids and the Sphinx have borne testimony through the centuries to the grandeur and power of execution which dwelt within the Nile valley; and what more fitting now than that the same valley should be the theater of a gigantic engineering exploit, audacious perhaps, but certain of success, and ministering to man's necessities, rather than to his vanity? As a wholesale rearrangement of nature's surface the project outranks anything hitherto attempted |