hands of the Egyptians, they are responsible for their prosperity, and are bound to see that efficient and honest persons only are employed by them.

The National party of Egypt is a political, not a religious, party. It includes within its ranks men of various races and various creeds. It is principally Mohammedan, because nine-tenths of the Egyptians are Mohammedans; but it has the support of the mass of the Coptic Christians, of the Jews, and others who cultivate the soil and speak the language of Egypt. Between these it makes no distinctions whatever, holding all men to be brothers and to have equal rights, both political and before the law. This principle is accepted by all the chief Sheykhs of the Azhar who support the party, holding the true law of Islam to forbid religious hatred and religious disabilities. With Europeans resident in Egypt the National party has no quarrel, either as Christians or as strangers, so long as these shall live conformably with the laws and bear their share of the burdens of the State.

I should be glad to see him employed on the present occasion in the interests of England and Egypt, for it would serve to bring back the one man who might be the means of extricating us from our Egyptian troubles. The good opinion I formed of him is shared by all who know him in Ceylon, where he is universally liked and respected by Europeans and by natives, and where his influence has been so strong that he has healed a long and deep-seated feud between two sections of his co-religionists.

I have never, though I have often written publicly about Egyptian affairs, used a disrespectful word as regards the Khedive. Accusations have been made against him that he was privy to the disturbances in Alexandria which culminated in massacre, that he has promoted and honoured men who were engaged in these disturbances, and that he disgraced the men who were foremost in preserving the lives and property of Christians at the time of the European flight from Egypt. So many stories against Arabi, notoriously false, have been constantly circulated and believed that I have not allowed these accusations against the Khedive to weigh on my mind in considering his position. If the Government has either reliable information or moral proof that he by his acts has rendered himself unfit to rule, his deposition would be a comparatively easy matter; but if they consider him beyond reproach, there is doubtless great difficulty in abandoning a man who, however unacceptable to his own subjects, is supposed to have acted loyally with us.

I should think that by this time most Englishmen are heartily sorry that we ever engaged ourselves in this Egyptian perplexity, and most Englishmen would be heartily glad if we were out of the country. I am not an advocate of the 'scuttling' policy, but I am for retiring as soon as ever we can do so with honour to ourselves, and with some forethought for the interests of the population. But how can we even think of getting away, and of leaving behind us any hope of stable government? The person of the Khedive would not be safe one hour after the last flash of English bayonets had ceased to be visible from Cairo; and then would follow revolution, pillage, and

massacre.

We must have someone not unacceptable to the nation as ruler of the country when we leave it. The choice might fall on Halim, the legitimate heir, or on little Abbas, the son of Tewfik, with a regency; but certainly not on Ismail, the author of all the trouble and miseries of Egypt; nor on Prince Hassan, whose exploits in Bulgaria and Abyssinia are pretty well known by Egyptians, although apparently not by English rulers, or he would hardly have been appointed to a responsible command. The present Khedive sleeps on no bed of roses; and if, for State reasons, his retirement should be considered unavoidable, I daresay he would not unwillingly accept a position of grandeur and wealth, but without the uneasiness of the Vice-crown.

Twist and turn it as we may, we cannot retire from Egypt leaving Tewfik as Khedive behind us. If we stay, he can undoubtedly stay; if we go, he must go too. I believe and hope that the present Government are anxious to go, and that they will be supported in that policy with the voice of England.

How much more easy would the policy of retirement become if we knew that we left a Government behind us supported by the confidence and love of the Egyptians, instead of one regarded with aversion! The restoration of the National leaders to Egypt, and as a consequence their restoration to power, can be but a matter of time. Is it not worth the while of our Ministers to consider whether the employment of Arabi in the mission I have suggested may not pave the way for one indispensable step in the future government of Egypt-namely, the confidence in it of the people of the country? This confidence they would feel were they once again to see in a position of eminence The One,'' El Wahad' the only one whom they ever learned to love and to trust.

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WILLIAM H. Gregory.

THE HIGHLAND CROFTERS:

A VINDICATION OF THE REPORT OF THE CROFTERS' COMMISSION.

In an article in this Review for the month of November, entitled 'A Corrected Picture of the Highlands,' the Duke of Argyll has produced an indictment against the Report of the Crofters' Commission. He has imputed to the Report that it conveys an erroneous impression concerning the distribution of the tenure of land and the condition of the rural population in the Highlands in two ways, by presenting the case of certain exceptional and selected districts as representative of all, and by failing to offer a comparative view of Highland tenancies in connection with the tenancies in other parts of Scotland, and especially with those of the Southern Highlands,' as exemplified by the upper ward of Lanarkshire and the border districts.

Having assumed that the Report is guilty of misrepresentation and omission, the Duke proceeds to achieve an easy victory over imaginary misconceptions and alleged suppressions by showing that the distribution of tenancies in the Highlands is, on the whole, not unfavourable to humble industry, and that all the phenomena of clearance and consolidation have been developed on a more comprehensive scale and with more relentless effects in the southern than in the northern provinces.

In the following strictures on the argument submitted by the Duke of Argyll, and in the subsequent vindication of certain views and suggestions embodied in the Report of the Crofters' Commission, the reader will understand that I speak for myself alone, and that the gentlemen with whom I had the honour of being associated in an arduous and congenial duty are in no degree implicated in this expression of my personal sentiments.

In connection with the first contention of the Duke of Argyll, I have to state that the Report of the Commission was never intended to contain, and does not contain, any general view of the repartition of tenancies in the Highlands. The Report deals with the tenancies of the crofters and cottars, and even with these on restricted and localised areas, selected because those areas discover in the most intense, inveterate, and enduring forms the symptoms of social distress and discontent which have caused so much debate and still create so

much anxiety. Many districts of the Highlands both extensive and interesting remained unvisited or lightly touched, where the sufferings and complaints familiar to a crofting population exist sporadically or in a mitigated shape, or are subject to compensatory influences or remedial tendencies apparently of a progressive character. The region selected by the Commission as the object of their special study is that which the caprice of nature has stricken with so many disabilities and invested with so deep a charm, the Northern Hebrides, the Long Island and the coast-line from the borders of Argyleshire to the boundary of Caithness, with all its profound indentations and winding shores. Within these limits there is much that is homogeneous in the physical aspect of the country as well as in the industrial pursuits, material condition, and moral disposition of the people, and much that divides them from the remainder of their countrymen.

The Report of the Commission, in dealing with this portion of its subject-matter, indicates as one of the principal causes of the depression of the population the excessive comminution of holdings on the one hand, and the excessive extension of holdings on the other, with the absence of intermediary tenancies of graduated dimensions accessible to the industrious poor. In illustration of this position the cases of four parishes are analysed—one in Sutherland, one in Lewis, one in Skye, and one in South Uist; a fifth parish, that of Bracadale in Skye, was added as an example in which small tenancy had disappeared altogether, and in which depopulation to a considerable extent had occurred within a recent period. The four parishes referred to above are presented as examples of what is characteristic and familiar, not over the whole area of the Highlands, but over the districts with which they are associated. On this point the language of the Report is not subject to misconception. It runs as follows:—

Taking the four parishes together we believe that the conditions of tenancy which they reveal may be regarded as fairly representative of the state of the seaboard on the mainland, and of all the islands from Ardnamurchan in Argyleshire on the south to the borders of Caithness on the north. A similar repartition of tenancy exists in some districts of the central Highlands in Ross and Inverness, and it prevails over nearly the whole of Sutherland. The evils attached to excessive subdivision and consolidation are less felt in the Southern Hebrides, in certain parts of Argyleshire, on the eastern seaboard generally, and in Orkney, in all of which the small holdings are, as a rule, of greater dimensions, are more graduated, and are associated in some degree with small farms not inaccessible to the crofting class.

In the presence of a declaration so distinct as that which is conveyed in the foregoing sentences, it is difficult to imagine that any candid controversialist should affirm that the Report is fitted to convey to the minds of ordinary readers an impression that economical conditions explicitly identified with the western coast and islands are common to all the Highlands. The whole of Caithness, the whole

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of Orkney, the whole of the eastern seaboard, the immense interior areas of Ross and Inverness, with some exceptions, the Southern Hebrides, certain parts of Argyleshire and part of Sutherland, are all placed by the Report upon a different footing from that western territory which forms at once the capital domain of the crofters, and contains the volcanic centre of their agitation. The Duke of Argyll does not indeed impute to the Commissioners either the liability to conceive or the intention to propagate an illusion such as that to which I have referred. The character, position, studies, experience, and employments of the Commissioners render such a hypothesis impossible. But the apprehension expressed by the Duke that they may by the terms of their Report become the unwitting authors of a similar misconception is equally baseless. The Commissioners have uttered no' Picture of the Highlands' which renders it necessary for the Duke to frame his 'Corrected Picture.' I do not say that the picture drawn by the Duke is incorrect, unnecessary, or unprofitable for other reasons. What I allege is simply this, that it is not a counter-statement or correction provoked by anything that the Commission has submitted to the public.

I now pass from the general to a particular issue. The Duke of Argyll is justly solicitous for the credit of the Highlands as a whole, and is particularly jealous of the honour of his own county. He considers that the language used by the Commissioners in regard to the repartition of tenancies in the Central and Eastern Highlands, and in the county of Argyle, is inaccurate and incommensurate to the facts of the case. By reference to Parliamentary returns and the valuation rolls, he demonstrates that in Inverness-shire there is an abundant provision of moderate tenancies between 300l. and 30l. in annual rental, while a greater number still range from 30l. to 10l., holdings distinctly accessible to the crofting class; in regard to Argyleshire, it is shown that there are tenancies of graduated values descending from 500l. to 50l. rental, representing in the aggregate about 1,500 'possessions,' of which a very large proportion are available for enterprising tenants starting from a humbler level. If the language of the Report is cautious and guarded in treating incidentally of the areas referred to, which are distinctly excluded from the field of its main argument, it must be remembered that the interior parts of Inverness are the scene of immense consolidations and clearances, both for the purposes of farm and forest, while it would have been unjustifiable if the Report had made an unreserved admission that the abuse of subdivision and consolidation is unfelt in any part of Argyleshire. The Duke of Argyll has himself called the attention of the Commissioners to the fact that, in Morvern and Mull, the lands disposed of by the Argyll family to new proprietors in the beginning of the present [1 century have been cleared of their inhabitants, and that in Lismore unjustifiable consolidations had been effected before the island was