whose representative he is, he is supreme in his district, possessing the widest powers. Only tried and experienced men have hitherto been appointed, and it may be added, with fairness, that so far no failures have been recorded. It is the Governors who supervise and control the finances of their respective provinces, subject to the financial regulations of the Central Government; they are in direct charge of all public animals, arms, equipment and stores, any and all of which they must be prepared to deliver over in first-class condition at short notice for military purposes; they are responsible for the due observance of all ordinances, orders and regulations by their subordinates; they both administer justice and see it executed, while all official correspondence must pass through their hands. Heavy work is entailed upon them, notwithstanding the valuable assistance which they receive from their staffs, especially at times of assessment and collection of local taxes; while the hearing of numerous appeals, both reasonable and unreasonable, for relief, and the visiting of their outlying districts, which sometimes entails a week or even two weeks of day and night travelling through the desert, together with a multitude of minor duties, leave these hardworked officials, as a rule, but few hours of leisure.

The Senior Inspector ranks next in importance to the Provincial Governor; and it is usually from this class that governors are selected. In many cases the Seniors

serve

as Acting Governors whenever the supreme authority is absent, and thus they receive a practical training in their more responsible duties before being definitely called upon to assume them. In his own department the Senior Inspector is expected to be constantly at headquarters and to ensure uniformity of administrative methods during the absence of the Governor and to act as his right hand when he is present. He ranks as a first-class magistrate and administers both civil and criminal justice. Very often he is placed in complete control of an entire district, such district being, perhaps, as large as England and Wales combined; then he is a 'governor' in all but name.

The Junior and Deputy, or, as they are now officially termed, second' and 'third,' Inspectors are detailed for duty and residence in the various districts into which the

Province is divided, and they are answerable to the Governor for the due discharge of such duties. Under them are the Mamurs, the lowest rank of magistrate; and the Inspectors must supervise their subordinates' duties. They are likewise in charge of the police force in their district. The Mamur, who is generally an Egyptian but occasionally a Sudanese officer and a man of first-class ability and quality, acts as magistrate in small cases, while held responsible generally for the carrying out of all orders and regulations emanating from the Second or Third Inspector's Offices, and for the efficiency and discipline of the police force. In most districts there is a Sub-Mamur engaged, and sometimes more than one; this official assists the Mamur and is subject to his instructions. The Mamur and SubMamurs, moreover, must execute, in their capacity of magistrate, all decrees and judgments issued by the Kadi from the Mohammedan Law Courts under the Civil Justice Ordinance.

In all Provinces, as well as in most districts, there is a separate Mohammedan Court, presided over by a Kadi, who deals with religious matters only. These are usually of a sufficiently numerous and complex nature to keep the judge fully occupied for the greater part of the day. Appeals from his decisions may be, but very seldom are, made to the Court of the Grand Kadi at Khartoum. This Court is judicially independent of the Executive; but, from an administrative point of view, even the Kadis and minor officials of the Mohammedan courts are subordinate to the Legal Secretary of the Sudan Government. The two staffs, however, work together quite harmoniously, and differences of opinion or of policy but seldom arise. Obviously it is the administrative staff which is called upon to execute the decrees and judgments of the religious courts; and this procedure is carried out with commendable tact and discrimination through the Mamurs, who mostly, but not invariably, are Mohammedans. From the very commencement, earnest efforts have been made, and made successfully, to perform the solemn promise given by Lord Cromer to the people of the Sudan, pledging the non-interference of the Government in any shape with religious affairs.

Hostile, and it must be added, unthinking critics

declare that the Moslems of to-day are really little more advanced temperamentally than the Moslems of 1300 years ago. They point, as an evidence of their contention, to the enslaved condition of their women in Egypt and the Sudan. Even if we admit that the doctrine which imposes the veil on Moslem women is out of date-it is, indeed, declared by many Mohammedans themselves to be against the tenets and principles of Islam—there can be no question that institutions like the Gordon Memorial College have helped, and are helping day by day, to assist Moslems along the paths of development and progress. It is undeniable that the present generation of Moslems is superior both intellectually and morally to those of bygone years; and the Egyptian officials, under the tutelage of the British, are proving themselves capable of doing good work in the administration. What the Moslem official has hitherto lacked has been a sufficiently strong and firm hand to control him; he is quite capable of performing good and useful work, but not intuitively. It must be firmly exacted of him, and encouraged by continual example and occasional admonition. Left wholly to himself, there is very little doubt that the average Moslem bureaucrat in the Sudan would speedily fall back into slack ways and attempt to revive many of those discreditable and dishonourable practices which caused the administration of the Turk to stink in the nostrils of the Sudanese only a generation ago. These practices were the primary cause of the long years of misery and oppression which the unhappy people of that country endured. The fifteen years of Mahdi régime which followed were hardly more terrible than their experiences under Egyptian rulers.

One great difficulty with which the Administration of the Sudan has had to contend has been, and is, the widely-practised eastern custom of making gifts, sometimes of great value, to the heads of departments or to minor officials. It is repugnant to the mind of the British ruler to accept presents-which may not inaptly be described as bribes-from those who are subject to their dominion; but in the Sudan the custom is so general that to have swept it out of existence without permitting of some exceptions would have meant deeply offending the native mind and severely wounding the

best-intentioned donors. Certain stringent rules have, however, been laid down to guide officials, and these are generally observed; and the discretion which is allowed to Provincial Governors is, on the whole, wisely exercised. The Governor-General himself is frequently obliged to break away from the principle of the rule imposed, since in his official position he must consent to the exchange of gifts between himself and native chiefs in their ceremonial intercourse; on the other hand, his presents are very frequently of greater intrinsic value than those which he receives. In those cases where presents (unless of trifling worth) are taken by Provincial Governors or their subordinates, they have to be delivered up to the Central Government; from this practice no deviation is permitted without the express sanction of the Governor-General. The Egyptian rulers of old were not only in the habit of freely accepting 'presents' but of cruelly exacting them; under the new régime these officials-now happily almost eliminated from the Administration-found one of their chief sources of enrichment snatched from them. But the ordinance is a thoroughly wholesome one, and being, as indicated, strongly adhered to, it has had an undoubtedly beneficial moral effect upon the minds of the native population. The punishment which may be inflicted upon any public servant for violating this injunction extends to a heavy fine or to three years' imprisonment, or to both. The number of convictions upon record of such offences is infinitesimal.

Much still remains to be done to reform village life in some parts of the Sudan, more especially in regard to a closer supervision of the men who held the offices of Omda and Sheikh. The natives still pay an almost superstitious reverence to their responsible chiefs; and no doubt it would be a highly dangerous expedient upon the part of the Central Government to adopt a policy which would be calculated to lessen this sentiment-of immemorial existence-since it is one which not alone holds villages and communities together but relieves the Government itself of an immense amount of minor work and a great deal of personal responsibility.

The class of men from among whom Omdas and Sheikhs are selected is, on the whole, a respectable one

and worthy of confidence. That petty tyrannies are practised by some among them occasionally may be granted, but these when examined seem but little worse, and hardly less supportable, than the oppressions noticeable in most small communities of the world, those of the most advanced European character included. There can be no doubt that the Omdas occasionally oppress the people and frequently cheat the Government in many ways; and usually they succeed in escaping detection. Even when exposed, the punishment meted out to them is generally quite inadequate; indeed the risks of practising dishonesty and tyranny are so small and the penalty so trifling that it is a matter for surprise that so many honest Omdas are to be found. In some villages the Omdas maintain a number of professional prostitutes, deriving a not inconsiderable revenue from their earnings and protecting them from any attempt which may be made to punish them for robbery or other crimes committed. Evidence came before me which showed that the greater part of the men and boys in one small village were hopelessly syphilitic, as a result of an establishment of this kind, which was openly maintained by the Omda and his elder son. These same individuals who were also owners of the largest merissa distillery-continually cheated and fleeced the poverty-stricken inhabitants by weighing out their dura in false measures, and by compelling them to sell at anything between 20 and 40 per cent. below the market value, and this at a time when grain was commanding a substantial premium on account of its scarcity. Other kinds of petty, and sometimes serious, robbery are perpetrated by district Omdas and their subordinates, the village Sheikhs; and such things will probably continue until a closer observation can be maintained regarding their operations, and until the people themselves strengthen the hands of the Government by making complaints. This they are permitted and encouraged to do, but, from long submission to traditional tyranny, they dare not appear as witnesses against the oppressors.

It is characteristic of the British official, wherever his duties may take him, to make the best of the situation.

* Merissa-a native intoxicating beer.