Sunnee form of the Moslem faith would | duced to poverty and impotence by the be an unjust tyranny of one among many Turks. Such is the pious and respected minorities. To hope that all Christian Bek of the Tokân family at Nablus, sects would combine for common action such are the sheikhs of the Beni Jerrâr, against the Turk is as vain as it is, on of the Jeiyûsi, the Lehhâm, and other old the other hand, to suppose that the sul families, the survivors in Galilee of the tan can rally the Arab, the Fellah, the proud race of Dhahr el Amr, and many Druze, the Anseireh, and Metawileh in others. Their children are, it is true, common defence against the power of the sinking gradually to the condition of mere West, and against the intrigue and brib- fellâhin, but among these families, which ery which is so cynically patent through- once led the Syrians in their struggle out his Syrian provinces. against Turkish power, a few at least may be found who are comparatively well educated, honest, and respected. They might, it is true, soon deteriorate in char acter if they gained power under a corrupt system; but the only hope of improving the native race in Syria (and not less also in Egypt) lies in giving to the Arab the responsibility of power, and in banishing the official class of the Turks. They must long be nursed by superiors of character and influence, appointed by Western powers; their institutions must be modelled not on Western custom but on the just law of the Koran; their system must resemble rather that of the Crusaders-a semi-feudal condition of subjection, tempered (as in the mediaval native courts) by the admission of natives to councils over which a European presides; but the Arab is neither so unintel ligent nor so devoid of ideas of right as to make it a hopeless task to undertake his education.

The fate of Syria is bound up with much larger questions of high politics in the East. The religious claims of the Sultan, the restless Russian advance on the Mediterranean, the ambition of France, are the great factors in the future of the country. British interests will no doubt render it impossible for us to look on calmly at any struggle for the possession of a country bordering Egypt and the Canal, which is now the nucleus of our anxieties. The history of Syria shows that the land must fall to either the northern or the southern power, to the modern Seleucus or Ptolemy, according as the one, the Turk, or the other, in Egypt, is the stronger; unless, as in Crusading days, an invasion from the West should for a time—and only for a time destroy the balance of contending forces in Asia itself and in Africa. France might hold Syria for a century or more, but the laws of climate would probably again, as in the Middle Ages, finally enable the fierce native races, Kurdish or Turkish, to regain ascendency over the peaceful peasantry of Arab race.

But let us for a moment suppose that political circumstances rendered it expedient that a strong protected State should be built up in Syria. It is perhaps an entirely hypothetical case, and certainly there is no immediate indication of any interest in the fate of Palestine being felt among English politicians.

In the first place, the native population is unfit for any such institutions as we now possess at home, and has indeed no desire to govern itself, asking only to be saved from a lawless military tyranny. In the second place, no government can meet the wishes of the Syrians which entirely consists of foreign elements. The Turkish, or Kurdish, or Circassian pasha must be removed, and the unimprovable class of officials, bred in bribery and indelibly stained with corrupt custom, must be dismissed from the land. There are not wanting men who are honored and respected by the people, though re

It is, in fact, an extension of the system which has proved so successful in Lebanon which is required for the future prosperity of Syria, with such modifications as are rendered necessary by two circumstances in which the rest of Syria differs from the Lebanon. The first of these is, that the Moslem population largely predominates over the Christian in Palestine, but is in a minority in Lebanon; the second is, that the Moslem peasantry are less educated and have been more degraded by oppression than the Druze or the Maronite ever became. They are therefore less able at first to govern themselves than are the inhabi tants of the mountain.

If such a scheme could be realized; if a Moslem governor could be appointed with full powers by the sultan, subject to the approval of at least two out of three guaranteeing European powers; if the Turk were unable to compete with the Arab under unfair advantages for government employ; if the Porte were forbidden to raise a single penny of tax without consent of the guaranteeing powers; if,

on

above all, an honest man could be found to execute the mandate of the powers as impartially as Rustem Pasha has done, but, unlike him, with the conviction that his efforts would be appreciated, and that he would be supported rather than left a prey to his enemies,- then indeed we might have some hope of prosperity in Syria, and some solid foundation which honest capitalists might build, in developing the agricultural and commer cial resources of a land which is richer than it appears to be. It is not colonization, whether Jewish, German, or English, nor annexation by France, nor invasion by Russia, which can make the land fertile and the people happy. It is a just government on the simplest principles of Moslem rule, under the watchful eye of civilizing powers. The Jews threaten to pauperize Syria; the Turk has already ruined it; the French nation spread a web of intrigue over the whole land; the Germans are intolerant and unpopular; the Russian would bring in his train all the horrors of war, which are most appreciated by those who have seen what war really is to the poor of a country, and after that he would establish a system of rule which cannot be considered_more civilized or honest than that of the Turks. It is England, if any nation, which should fulfil the really wise policy of building up a strong native State between the Canal and the northern danger; and it is difficult to see on what good grounds other powers could object to co-operation in the same good work.

From All The Year Round.

ALONG THE SILVER STREAK.

CONTANGO did his duty well that day. The milestones spun away behind him. To be sure, they only marked kilomètres, nine little ones in between to mark each hundred mètres, and the tenth on a larger scale, where the distances to different places had been carefully marked on, and as carefully knocked off by some travel. ling enthusiast, some Old Mortality whose ideas had become reversed, and who had devoted himself, with cold chisel and mallet, to the disfigurement of these local records. Disfigured they were, any. how, with remarkable completeness, and the want of any authentic record of our progress caused a little discord among us. Originally we were the most charmingly united party you can imagine. The di rector's wife, the shock of separation from Alphonse once over, threw herself into the enjoyment of the hour like a schoolgirl just released from class. The day was fine, the road smooth and shaded with trees. We caught glimpses here and there of the blue sparkling sea glimpses now through the branches of apple-trees studded with young fruit, or crowning the vista of some shady lane almost equal to a Devonshire lane in beauty; and every now and then, as a wider prospect opened out from the summit of some trifling eminence, we gained a view of the whole bay, dotted with white sails, and could make out the graceful

That such a scheme will ever be realized it is perhaps vain to hope; meantime we see all that is good about to be endangered or sacrificed in the Lebanon; we see the forerunners of Russian armies mapping Armenia, penetrating even into Anatolia and Syria; we see the Turk desperately tightening his hold on a spiritual" Sea-Mew" steaming along in a leisurely no less than a temporal possession. The name of Syria has been kept out of the Eastern question of which Syrian politics form a part, but if a Syrian question is precipitated into the arena of "practical politics by French action, it will be found to be one of the most knotty and dangerous yet dealt with by Europe. Meantime a helpless Moslem peasantry, and a rich Maronite community who know not what is for their good, are eager to plunge their country into the horrors of war; and the Turk, however roughly and to their detriment, acts as the policeman among the rival creeds and sects, which so soon as his hand is withdrawn will

fashion. Once or twice Stéphanie thought she could make out her director anxiously gazing landwards, and waved her handkerchief zealously, on the chance of his being on the look-out our way, at that particular moment, with binoculars of extraordinary power. Altogether, we were as happy and contented as people could well be, Contango slashing along at a pace that should have troubled the repose of people who intended to bet against him, Tom making all kinds of fun with Justine on the back seat, while the pair in front were more soberly employed in comparing impressions on what was passing. Now, Tom had set out very carefully to

world talking their loudest, and the bellsing his oats with great relish in the sta clanging out from the tower of the fine bles below them. We had determined old church: a bewildering, maddening that if we found that Hilda and her father turmoil. The din is not to be escaped had driven on to Bayeux, as there was from either in the inns, which are crammed with market-people eating, drinking, and bargaining over their cups: stout men with mealy voices discussing fat beeves, and oily dames with funny, stunted-looking lace caps degenerate successors these last of the ancient towering head-gear. Everywhere about are bundles of live poultry, carried unceremoniously by their legs, protesting loudly in their shrillest voices; but the people who carry them are as much unconcerned as though they were so many bunches of onions.

But already the crowd is ebbing away from the market-place; the market-women are counting up their stockingsful of five-franc pieces; and the buyers with their loads are scrambling into their carts, into the diligence, or filing away in long procession to the railway-station. In the midst of all this hubbub, in which we have been wandering a little dazed and bewildered, somebody touches Tom on the shoulder. This somebody wears a blue blouse, a rough three-sous straw hat, bound with an end of scarlet braid; he is bronzed and burly, with something of the keen, good-humored air of the Norman horse-dealer.

"Well, Tom, old man!" he cries, "what are you doing along here?"

Tom stares at him for a moment in

Why, it is Redmond," he cries at last; "Redmond disguised as a French peasant. Have you come to meet your father and Hilda ?"

Redmond changed color at this. "No," he cried in an alarmed tone. "Are they here?"

"We are expecting to come across them any minute," replied Tom.

"Oh, I say, hide me up somewhere," cried Redmond; "I could not face the old governor just now on any account."

now no pressing need to follow them, Contango should be spared any further work, and that Tom should remain at Carentan for the night, and drive quietly over to Bayeux next day, while the rest of us went on by train this same afternoon. We should be there as soon as the Chudleighs, no doubt, if they were going to drive the distance, and as the train did not leave for a couple of hours, we could spare an hour to Redmond with easy minds. As for Redmond, he was too full of his own affairs to take much interest in ours. It seems that he had been living at Caen, a second Beau Brummell, idle and out at elbows, pretty well supplied with money, however, by his sister, who must have devoted most of the income left her by the late Miss Chudleigh, of Weymouth, to his benefit. Of a more stirring nature than the unfortunate Brummell, however, he had struck out a line for himself. It was buying poultry, and pigs, and horses, anything he came across, and selling them again for a profit. That was his programme, at least; hitherto he had been rather unfortunate. He had begun with horses, and had lost money over them; had come down to pigs, and still lost money. Now he was reduced to poultry, but was always sanguine of eventual results. To-day, for instance, he had bought a hundred turkeys at five francs each; these he should take back to Caen, and sell for about double the money.

Tom took in all this with wonder and amazement. Was this the glass of fash ion and the mould of form, the Adonis of the Guards' Club, the arbiter of Pall Mall? Had he come down to this? In the prime of his days, too, and of his manly beauty, for he was handsome handsomer than ever, perhaps, in the easy, unstudied garb of Gaul, in the blue tunic that Vercingetorix might have worn with just such an air. He was too proud, evidently, to build any expectations upon his Raymond, however, insisted that we sister's marriage. Tom gently touched should follow him to his own house-of-upon this point, and to his surprise Redcall, a little auberge "Au Bouche d'Or," mond seemed quite in the dark as to the where, through a labyrinth of market- whole matter. Hilda had certainly writ carts, he led us to a little café and salle-à-ten to him once or twice lately, but he had manger, redolent of rum, and cognac, and garlic.

"Don't be frightened," said Tom dryly; your old nurse wouldn't know you

even."

We had left madame la directrice and Justine at the hotel to repose during the noontide heat, and Contango was discuss

given over reading letters; he no longer took any interest in home matters. Hilda might marry whom she pleased. Tom suggested that this indifference was rather unkind, seeing that Hilda's marriage had

"Now we're off," said Redmond, jump-itself. ing into the cart, Tom clambering up on the other side, and away they went at full speed.

For the first few moments not one of the turkeys stirred; they could not feel their legs, perhaps, just at first, or realize the unaccustomed liberty they enjoyed. But just as they cleared the porte cochère of the inn, the ostler running after them to claim the gratuity that Redmond had forgotten, the trap gave a lurch, and a fine