THE REV. MONTAGUE FOWLER, M.A. 249
Church to come to her aid, constitutes an interesting feature of the book. According to this, the Rev. Henry Tattam visited Egypt before the middle of the last century, and reported to Archbishop Howley, of Canterbury, that both priests and people were in a very low and fallen condition as a Christian Church. " They have a form of Christianity among them," the report proceeded, " but of its spiritual nature they appear to have no notion whatever. Still, there are many things of a pleasing character, which lead me to believe they will one day arise from the dust and return to a pure faith." Not long after the receipt of this report by the Archbishop, a training college was established, in order that those seeking Holy Orders in the Coptic Church might be educated for the ministry. When, however, the Church Missionary Society withdrew their mission in 1848 the scheme fell through, though its influence had undoubtedly been felt in the Coptic Church. Meanwhile, other bodies had become active in Egypt among them, the Roman Catholics and the American Presbyterians. A curious state of things then arose. So suspicious of the methods of the Anglican Church was the Patriarch that he even refused to see Dr Blyth, to whom, in 1887, had been committed episcopal jurisdiction over the Anglican congregations in Egypt and the Soudan. "Since then," says Mr Fowler, "the patriarch has learnt to realise that the Church
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