458 PROVISION OF BORROWING FACILITIES. 



property, and when the demands of the tax-gatherer were not merely 

 excessive, but also uncertain and capricious. But any one who has 

 seen much of the fellaheen population can bear testimony to the fact 

 that they are a very hard-working and industrious race, who are 

 keenly alive to such matters affecting their own interests as they 

 clearly understand. 



I know of no reason for holding that, as a class, they are 

 irretrievably thriftless. In any case, no harm can be done by 

 affording them a fair opportunity for shaking themselves free of the 

 debts by which they are but too often burthened, and thus giving 

 them a starting-point for the exercise of economy in the future. 

 Without, therefore, taking a more sanguine view than would be 

 justified by the present facts of the situation, it is permissible to hope 

 that the arrangements now made will be productive of some real 

 benefit to the mass of the cultivators in Egypt. 



Should the operations conducted during the present year afford 

 sufficient encouragement in that direction, it is to be hoped that 

 the sphere of petty loan operation* will be gradually extended. In 

 that case, as the sums advanced will be locked up, it will be 

 necessary for the National Bank to increase its capital. 



