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merited meed of praise. In Lord Cromer, better known as Sir Evelyn Baring, we had uncommon genius, by a piece of good luck, to back

common-sense.

"He has realized that the essence of our policy is to help the Egyptians to work out, as far as possible, their own salvation. And not only has he realized it himself, but he has taught others to realize it. By a wise reserve, he has led his countrymen in Egypt to rely upon patience, upon persuasion, and upon personal influence, rather than rougher methods to guide their native colleagues in the path of improved administration. Yet on the rare occasions when his intervention was absolutely necessary, he has intervened with an emphasis which has broken down all resistance. The contrast between Egypt to-day and Egypt as he found it, the enhanced reputation of England in matters Egyptian, are the measure of the signal service he has rendered alike to his own country and to the country were he has laid the foundation of a lasting fame.

one who has even an elementary grasp of the problem can deny that the second task was as absolutely indispensable as the first. It would be absurd to insist upon a literal fulfilment of the pledges we had given to Europe, in all good faith at the time, when we undertook the first and much the most simple operation.

"If there is one thing absolutely certain, it is that the great majority of the Egyptian nation, and especially the peasantry, have benefited enormously by our presence in the country. For the few, the new system has meant loss as well as gain ; for the many, it is all pure gain. At no previous period of his history has the fellah lived under a government so careful to promote his interests or protect his rights.

"The difference between Egypt now and Egypt in the latter days of Ismail is as the difference between light and darkness. Look where you will, at the army, at finance, at agriculture, at the administration of justice, at the everyday life of the In describing how it was that we people, and their relations to their came into Egypt, Mr. Milner ex- rulers, it is always the same tale of presses his conviction very emphati- revival. And this in the place of cally as to its necessity. The emer- almost general ruin and depression, gency which compelled us to despatch of a total distrust in the possibility our expedition was the imminent re- of just government, and a rooted turn of the reign of barbarism. So belief in administrative corruption as the natural and invariable rule of human society. That seems a remarkable revolution to have taken place in ten years. It is doubtful whether in any part of the world the same period can show anything like the same tale of progress. The most absurd experiment in human government has been productive of one of the most remarkable harvests of human improvement."

far from having been exaggerated, the fears of massacre and the general dissolution of society which immediately preceded our advent fall short of the danger which was actually impending. Nothing but our prompt action saved Egypt from anarchy. Had England not intervened, everything that was good in Egypt would have been smashed, and after a destructive reign of terror the revolution would have resulted in the establishment of a newer and severer form of the old slavery.

"We went to Egypt imagining that we had simply to put down a military mutiny. We found that the whole system of government, order, and society had fallen to pieces, and could only be slowly built up again, piece by piece, and step by step. We went to Egypt to do one thing, and stayed there to do another. No

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and Mr. Milner is of opinion that the presence of even one British regiment gives a weight, which they would not otherwise possess, to the counsels of the British ConsulGeneral.

"English influence is not exercised to impose an uncongenial foreign system upon a reluctant people. It is a force making for the triumph of the simplest ideas of honesty, humanity, and justice, to the value of which Egyptians are just as much alive as anybody else. It is a weight, and a decisive weight, cast into the right scale, in the struggle of the better elements of Egyptian society against the worse.

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The Egyptian army has been Anglicized. The troops are properly fed, clothed, and housed, and are looked after when they are ill. The devotion of the English officers in attending to their troops during the cholera was a new idea to the Egyptian mind. When the army was formed there were 27 British officers. There are now 76 to 12,500 men, and there are about 40 British non-commissioned officers besides.

A late number of the Fortnightly Review has the following statements on this subject, by W. T. Marriott :

"The progress that has been made in Egypt during the last seven years is one of the most remarkable events in modern times, and reads more like a transformation scene in a fairy-tale than one of the hard realities of history. Ten years ago-in 1882the condition of the country was almost desperate. Emerging from liquidation by the help of France and England, it appeared again to be on the verge of bankruptcy. Discontent permeated the whole population, and a spirit of revolt was rampant in the army. The finest portion of the chief commercial city, Alexandria, had been burnt to the ground, and the European population that carried on its trade and commerce had fled or been given over to outrage and massacre. Trade and commerce were for a time completely paralyzed. The Khedive Tewfik was à fugitive, and the government, such as it was, was in the hands of rebel

soldiers. The opinion of Egypt was shown at the time by its stock, which went down to 45.

"Now, in 1893, all is changed. The finances of the country are in as sound condition as those of any of the States of Europe. On all sides are to be seen signs of prosperity and content. Alexandria has been rebuilt in so magnificent a style that its people begin to think that its needless burning was not an unmitigated evil; and the opinion of Europe may be grasped by the fact that Egyptian stock is at par.

"The Gladstone Government came into power in 1880 with the sincere determination to interfere as little as possible in such matters. They selected excellent instruments. For extricating a country or a ministry from difficulties, better men could not be found than those selectedLords Dufferin and Northbrook, General Gordon and Sir Evelyn Baring. Sir Evelyn Baring has had the opportunity of showing what he was made of. Facts have proved that he is a man of great ability, a born administrator, with all the financial talents that have distin

guished so many that bear his name.

"In 1882 the deficit for the year was £632,368. In 1883 the deficit on the year was £709,397, and in 1884, £665,444. In 1885, there was a small surplus of £3,979. In 1886, 1887, 1888, and 1889, though the expenditure increased to more than it was in 1884, the surpluses continued till they reached £653,939 in 1890, and £1,100,000 in 1891.

"This result has not been produced by an increase of taxation or by an undue lowering of expenditure. On the contrary, there has been a large increase in the expenditure of money upon useful objects, such as education, the improvement of the prisons, and the furtherance of public works, and with it there has been a large remission of taxation.

“Irrigation is the one thing needful to make Egypt a productive and flourishing country, and to the improvement in the irrigation works, which were completed in 1891, is due more than to any other single cause its present prosperous condition.

"Ten years ago wise prophets would tell you that there were three things that were impossible in Egypt -1st, to make it solvent; 2nd, to collect the taxes without the free use of the kourbash; 3rd, to execute public works without that forced and cruel labour which went under the name of the corvée. Now, not only is Egypt solvent, but the use of the kourbash and the corvée have both been abolished. The taxes are now more easily collected than they ever were in the days when the kourbash was systematically applied to the feet of the wretched fellaheen, and more public works have been executed by labourers who are paid a fair day's wage, and are voluntary workers, than ever were in the same time under the remorseless system of corvée. In addition, slavery has been practically abolished.

"It is no exaggeration to say that, at no period of their known history have the Egyptian people enjoyed anything like the advantages they do at the present time. Their national prosperity has been greatly increased, and they now enjoy rights and privileges to which they have been strangers for thousand of years. Were Egypt left to herself, if that be possible, or were it again to pass under the control of Turkish pashas, the kourbash and the corvée would be quickly revived. Justice would again

become a commodity to be purchased by the rich, and quite out of the reach of those who most require it.

Not merely have the works as they stand added enormously to the material prosperity of the country. which would be injuriously affected by any neglect of maintenance, but they are capable of almost unlimited expansion.

"France and Turkey are the only powers that in any way are jealous of British intervention in Egypt. The other powers of Europe are content that matters should remain as they are.

That they should prefer British control to French is only natural. So long as Egypt is under British control, every power has exactly the same rights and facilities for trading and manufacturing as we have ourselves.

"As for Egypt, it would be the height of cruelty to arrest in any way the beneficial treatment she is now undergoing. The last seven years of good government have improved and benefited her condition far beyond the anticipations of even those who have the strongest faith in the effects of good government. Another seven years of similar government will vastly increase and place on a firm basis those improvements, and Europe and great Britain, as well as Egypt, will reap the great benefit."

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*The History and Principle and Practice of Symbolism in Christian Art. By F. ED. HULME, F. L.S., F.S. A. New York: Macmillan & Co. Toronto: Wm. Briggs. Pp. 234. Price, $1.25; 113 illustrations.

to represent the overthrow of Satan, the triumph of Christ and the glories of the New Jerusalem.

The Primitive Christians, therefore, naturally adopted a similar mode of art expression for conveying religious instruction. They also, as a necessary precaution, in the times of persecution, concealed from the profane gaze of their enemies the mysteries of the faith under a veil of symbolism, which yet revealed their profoundest truths to the hearts of the initiated. That such disguise was not superfluous, is shown by the discovery of a pagan caricature of the crucifixion on a wall beneath the Palatine, and by the recorded desecration of the eucharistic vessels by the apostate Julian. To those who possessed the key to the "Christian hieroglyphics," as Raoul-Rochette has called them, they spoke a language that the most unlettered, as well as the learned, could understand. What to the haughty heathen was an unmeaning scrawl, to the lowly believer was eloquent of loftiest truths and tenderest consolation. Indeed, that old Christian life under repression and persecution created a more imperious necessity for the expression of its deepest emotions and most sacred feelings in religious art. Although occasionally fantastic and far-fetched, this symbolism is generally of a profoundly religious significance, and often of extreme poetic beauty. In perpetual canticle of love, it finds resemblances of the divine object of its devotion throughout all nature. It beholds beyond the shadows of time the eternal verities of the world to come. It is not of the earth, earthy, but is entirely supersensual in its character, and employs material forms only as suggestions of the unseen and spiritual. It addresses the inner vision of the soul, and not the mere outer sense. Its merit consists, therefore, not in artistic beauty of execution, but in appositeness of religious significance-a test lying far too deep for the apprehension of the uninitiated. It is, perhaps, also influenced, as Kugler remarks, in the avoidance of realis

tic representation by the fear which pervaded the Primitive Church of the least approach to idolatry.

Great care must be observed, however, in the interpretation of this religious symbolism, not to strain it beyond its capacity or intention. It should be withdrawn from the sphere of theological controversy, too often the battleground of religious rancour and bitterness, and relegated to that of scientific archæology and dispassionate criticism. An allegorizing mind, if it has any theological dogma to maintain, will discover symbolical evidence in its support where it can be detected by no one else.

The use of pictorial representations appears often to have been a matter of necessity. Many of the Christians could understand no other written language. But by far the larger proportion of these symbols have a religious significance, and refer to the peace and joy of the Christian, and to the holy hopes of a life beyond the grave; and many of them were derived directly from the language of Scripture. They were often of a very simple and rudimentary character, such as could be easily scratched with a trowel on the moist plaster, or traced upon the stone. They were sometimes, however, elaborately represented in excellent frescoes or sculpture.

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The beautiful allusion of St. Paul to the Christian's hope as the anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, is frequently represented in the catacombs by the outline of an anchor, often rudely drawn, but eloquent with profoundest meaning to the mind of the believer. It assured him that, while the anchor of his hope was cast within the veil," his lifebark would outride the fiercest blasts and wildest waves of persecu tion, and at last glide safely into the haven of everlasting rest. This allusion is made more apparent when it is observed how often it is found on the tombstone of those who bear the name Hope, in its Greek or Latin form, as EAПIE, EAHIAIO2, SPES, etc.

Of kindred significance with this is the symbol of a ship, which may

also refer to the soul seeking a country out of sight, as the ship steers to a land beyond the horizon. Sometimes it may be regarded as a type of the church; and in later times it is represented as steered by St. Peter and St. Paul. The symbol of "the heaven-bound ship" is mentioned by Clement of Alexandria as being in vogue in the second century.

The palm and crown are symbols that frequently occur, often in a very rude form. They call to mind that great multitude whom no man can number, with whom faith sees the dear departed walk in white, bearing palms in their hands. The crown is not the wreath of ivy or of laurel, of parsley or of bay, the coveted reward of the ancient games; nor the chaplet of earthly revelry, which, placed upon the heated brow, soon fell in withered garlands to the feet; but the crown of life, starry and unwithering, the immortal wreath of glory which the

saints shall wear forever at the mar

riage supper of the Lamb. They are the emblems of victory over the latest foe, the assurance that

"The struggle and grief are all past; The glory and worth live on."

One of the most beautiful symbols of the catacombs is the dove, the perpetual synonym of peace. Another of the most striking and beautiful of these symbols is that which represents Christ as the Good Shepherd, and believers as the sheep of His fold. While the doves may be regarded as emblematic of the beatified spirits of the departed, the

sheep more appropriately symbolize those who, still in the flesh, go in and out and find pasture. Suggesting the thought of that sweet Hebrew idyl of which the world will never grow tired, the twenty-third Psalm, which, lisped by the pallid lips of the dying throughout the ages, has strengthened their hearts as they entered the dark valley; and to which our Lord lent a deeper pathos by the tender parable of the lost sheep-small wonder that it was a favourite type of that unwearying love that sought the erring and the outcast and brought them to His fold again. With reiterated and manifold treatment, the tender story is repeated over and over again, making the gloomy crypts bright with scenes of idyllic beauty, and hallowed with sacred associations. Many other sacred symbols might also be enumerated.

Mr. Hulme's volume is a very comprehensive treatise on this subject, throughout the entire period of Christian art, as symbolism in colours, symbolism of the Trinity, the sacred monogram and cross, of the Passion, of angels, saints, and martyrs, of the apostles and prophets, and the like. Indeed, no one can understand the meaning of sacred and legendary art who cannot interpret the symbolism through which it speaks. We know no compendious treatise which furnishes such a satisfactory interpretation as Mr. Hulme's. For those who wish to study it more fully, we recommend Mrs. Jameson's and Lady Eastlake's Sacred and Legendary Art, Lübke's History of Art, and Didron's Iconographie Chretienne.

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