An interesting letter from Mr. D. B. Macdonald on Lord
Cromer and the Egyptian peasantry appeared in the American Nation of May 26th. It included a quotation from a recently published strongly Nationalist sketch of Egyptian history. The historian, after compaining that Lord Cromer had placed young men from his own country in posts which should have been held by natives, says that he " succeeded, by his guile and astuteness, in drawing to his side the hearts of the peasantry, and of the simple-minded among the country governors and sheikhs, who used to write to him reports and complaints and lying desires." That is a delicious piece of naivete. It represents a fact. The peasants knew they had a true friend in "the man Krahmer," and that he would protect them from the classes above them, who looked upon their pillage as an hereditary perquisite.
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