of rent would hardly change places with some I know in England. It is admitted, however, by the Ministry of Finance that this tax is very arbitrarily imposed—which, they say, is a thing which must be taken in hand. The sooner, I should say, the better.

But taxes may be relaxed or remitted, as the Government will; the fellah remains in debt. It is his nature. The Greek, or Jewish, or Armenian usurer lives in his village; at seed-time the fellah goes to him, and borrows a little money for seeds, at 20 or 30, or even 50 per cent. Then he borrows a little more for a new spade, and a little more to buy a donkey. The security is the crop. If there is a satisfactory Nile and a good harvest, the fellah is in a position to pay the usurer off, which he does-all but a little he would not feel comfortable if he were quite free of debt. Perhaps it has been a really good year; then he buys wood to make doors and windows for his honse, he buys a cheap French bedstead instead of his mud-bank, and smokes

THE VILLAGE USURER.

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more cigarettes than before. These are his luxuries; and the Customs returns in these articles of import show a steady rise in the fellah's standard of comfort. Even then, perhaps, he still has a fair sum in hand; but does he lay it by against next seed-time? Not he! He marries a new wife, and gives what he calls a "fantasia". a great feast to all his friends and neighbours, with music and dancing, and joyously blues it all. Next seed-time it suddenly occurs to him that he wants seed; he goes back to the usurer and borrows

for it at 20, and 30, and 50.

Then why not give the fellah a decent bank, you ask? It is easy to ask, but not so easy to do. The usurer lives in the village, and knows the circumstances, abilities, characters, of every one of his clients. He knows exactly; he lives by knowing. Could the Government put such an agent into every village to do the same? complexity, and the expense, and the multiplication of small officials would be endless.

The

Or suppose private banking firms were found to go into the business: they would hardly do so without getting an assurance from the Government that their debts should rank first for recovery after taxes, and the Government would be placed in the position of collecting for the money-lender - a horrible thing to contemplate.

It is possible that private enterprise may some day do something to fill its own pockets, while helping to save the fellah from his own improvidence. In the meantime, the Egyptian Treasury has done one piece of good work by going into the usury business in competition with the usurers. Into one district, where the Greeks and Armenians were peculiarly extortionate, it sent an official with £10,000 in cash, and lent it to the fellahin at 6 per cent. They borrowed gladly and repaid punctually, but that was not all. The moneylenders, not of that district only but for many miles around, took fright. If the Government is to bring round pounds at 6 per cent, reas

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oned they, our occupation's gone. Down went the rate of interest all round.

But the fellah continues to borrow from them when he is short; and when he is flush he marries more wives and gives fantasias.

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XV.

ALEXANDRIA.

A BUSINESS TOWN-THE WHARVES THE ONION MARKET QUEEN CITY OF THE LEVANT-STATISTICS OF COMMERCE-ARAB LABOUR AT THE DOCKS NECESSITY FOR AN EXTENDED HARBOUR.

January 11.-Dang, deng, ding, dong; deng, dang, dong, ding; boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Where on earth was I? I thought for a moment I must be home in Russell Square: it was just the tone of the chimes; but I do not keep myself inside mosquito - curtains in Russell Square. Of course, yes; I was in Alexandria. And it was not at all unnatural, really, to hear Christian chimes in Alexandria, nor yet to hear any sound, or voice, or language that the earth knows. In Alexandria nothing is foreign.