dare not claim that there were no abuses in the British lands; but at least it can be claimed that government has always held it to be its duty to safeguard native rights, and to prevent the total break-up of the tribal system which could alone hold these communities together.  The problem was not fully solved; perhaps it is insoluble.  But at least the native populations were not driven to despair, and were generally able to feel that they were justly treated.  ‘Let me tell you,’ a Herero is recorded to have written from British South Africa to his kinsmen under German rule, ’Let me tell you that the land of the English is a good land, since there is no ill-treatment.  White and black stand on the same level.  There is much work and much money, and your overseer does not beat you, or if he does he breaks the law and is punished.’  There was a very striking contrast between the steady peace which has on the whole reigned in all the British dominions, and the incessant warfare which forms the history of the German colonies.  The tradition of protection of native rights, established during the period 1815-78, and the experience then acquired, stood the British in good stead.  During the ordeal of the Great War it has been noteworthy that there has been no serious revolt among these recently conquered subjects; and one of the most touching features of the war has been the eagerness of chiefs and their peoples to help the protecting power, and the innumerable humble gifts which they have spontaneously offered.  Much remains to be done before a perfect solution is found for the problems of these dominions of yesterday.  But it may justly be claimed that trusteeship, not domination, has been the spirit in which they have been administered; and that this is recognised by their subjects, despite all the mistakes and defects to which all human governments must be liable in dealing with a problem so complex.

Administrative problems of a yet more complex kind were raised in the two greatest acquisitions of territory made by Britain during these years, in Egypt and the Soudan, and in South Africa.  The events connected with these two regions have aroused greater controversy than those connected with any other British dominions; the results of these events have been more striking, and in different ways more instructive as to the spirit and methods of British imperialism, than those displayed in almost any other field; and for these reasons we shall not hesitate to dwell upon them at some length.

The establishment of British control over Egypt was due to the most curious chain of unforeseen and unexpected events which even the records of the British Empire contain.  Nominally a part of the Turkish Empire, Egypt had been in fact a practically independent state, paying only a small fixed tribute to the Sultan, ever since the remarkable Albanian adventurer, Mehemet Ali, had established himself as its Pasha in the confusion following the French occupation (1806).  Mehemet