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22 intellect of one man. Lord Cromer. The chaos when he took the reins was the antipodes of the glory of ancient Egypt. Her population decimated by insurrection and tyranny, her trade stagnant, her laws conspicuous by their absence, the present state of Egypt is a matter to make one gasp in admiration, a name to conjure with, and a word carved on the Rock of Doom as the result of the united efforts of commerce and civilization. The greatest compliments I have ever seen paid to the British Civil Service were spoken by Americans and Russians. The American compliment was, that when brought into contact with the British Asiatic Civil servants all things paled before their ability. The Russian was, that when Sir Peter Lumsden's expedition to the Pamirs was undertaken to delimit the frontier, the Russians acknowledged themselves outclassed in talent-knowledge of detail and knowledge of language by the British officers. The popular theory is that the Russians are the 13est linguists in the world. I can only say they self-declared themselves beaten, and that by Sir Peter Lumsden and his staff. But the advance of civilization in Egypt under the able administration of the one man I have mentioned does not stop here. In ancient days the sway of Egypt extended from the Equator to the Mediterranean, and from the Red Sea to the Atlantic. The interior of this great country of Africa, the regions of Darfur and Kordofan, and the districts known as Lybia to the Romans, at one time civilized by them, and developed to such an extent as to warrant their being called the Granary of Rome, are now being, after the strenuous ordeal of war, peacefully opened up by the sway of Britain under the Union Jack, throwing her influence and protection over Egypt. The lost civilizations of the ancient tribes and kingdoms in the Soudan and Nigeria are being revived under the energy of British commerce. In these lost and defunct kingdoms in the region of Nigeria and around Lake Chad evidences of a forward commercial organization and a high state of civilization are now being laid bare to the world. In Nigeria have been found advanced