have been inflicted upon starving weavers, tempted by want or cupidity to infringe upon the government monopolies. I saw a few poor women engaged in spinning. They use for this purpose no other machinery but a spindle, which they twirl very adroitly with the thumb and finger. Spinning was performed in the same simple manner by the ancient Egyptians, as we learn from the tombs of Beni Hassan,

CHAPTER XVIII.

The Government of Mohammed Ali.-Opposite Opinions.-Great Talents of the Pacha.-Difficulties and Success.-His Reforms.-Internal Administration.-Civil Divisions of Egypt.-Moudyrs.-Mamoors.-Nazirs. -Their Functions.-Higher Officers Foreigners.-Their Fidelity to the Pacha and Oppression of the People.-Tyranny of Native Officers.Universal Dread of the Pacha.-Frank Courtesy.-Security of Travellers. Wrongs of the Fellahs.-Their Abjectness.-Conduct of Travellers.-Judiciary.-Bribery and Perjury Universal.-Military System of Egypt.-Albanian Soldiers.-Negro Troops.- Col. Seve. - Mameluke Officers and Camp at Assouan.-Frightful Mortality among the Black Troops.-Impressment of the Fellahs.-The Egyptian Army.-Statistics. -Pressure upon the Country.-Armies of Europe.-The Conscription and its Abuses.-Desperation of the People.-The Fellahs good Soldiers. -Immunities of the Army.-Uniform.-The Pacha's Schools a Part of his Military System.-Branches taught.-Primary Schools.-Their Plan and. Objects.-Opposition of the Parents.-Character of the Elevés.European Officers.-Tariff of Pay.-The French in Egypt.-Solyman Pacha.-Manufactures.-Policy of the Pacha.-Losses.-The Causes.Patriotic Effusion.-Decline of Agriculture.-Financial Talents of Mohammed Ali.-His Revenue.-Its Sources.-Land Tax.-The Pacha the sole Proprietor.-High Taxes.-Various Impositions.-Misconduct of the

Publicans.-Anecdote.-Monopolies.-Enormous Taxation.-Collection of the Revenue.-The Bastinado.-Stupid Obstinacy of the Fellahs.Legal Process.-Opinion of Mohammed Ali's Government.-Effects of his Reforms and Improvements.-Selfishness of his Policy.-His Learned Men.-Demoralization of the People.-Intemperance.-Ibrahim Pacha. -Rapid Progress in Vice.-Influence of Innovation on the Opinions of the People.-Contempt for Christianity.-Causes.-Prospective Advantages.

I HAVE frequently had occasion to refer to Mohammed Ali and his administration, and it may be expected that, be

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fore taking leave of Egypt, I should speak more fully of his political and economical system, and its influence upon the present condition and prospects of that country. If we may judge from the contradictory statements constantly put forth by intelligent men, it is no easy matter to form correct opinions on this subject; and the best informed persons have reasons to distrust those which they have derived from careful observation and inquiry. Intelligent Franks, long resident in the country, and holding responsible official stations there, have arrived at the most opposite conclusions, and· may be said to form two parties: the one unqualified admirers of the pacha and his policy; the other regarding him as a selfish and unscrupulous tyrant, more daring and enterprising, but not a better ruler than the other semi-barbarous despots of the East. All, however, concede to him the possession of great talents and of amazing energy of character; and he will certainly go down to posterity as the most remarkable man of the present age. He has not only raised himself from obscurity to supreme authority-no very uncommon achievement in uncivilized countries--but he has raised Egypt, a remote and secondary province of the Turkish Empire, to be the ruling power of the Levant. He has reduced the grand seignior, with all his vast resources, to the brink of ruin, and produced a crisis in the affairs of the world so momentous as to provoke the great powers of Europe to interpose with their diplomacy and arms. It is but justice to ascribe these grand results to the personal qualities of the pacha, rather than to any concurrence of circumstances peculiarly favourable to the success of an adventurer. From the day of his arrival in Egypt, forty-two years since, a subaltern in the corps of Albanians sent by the Sultan of Turkey to defend that country against the French, he has been thrown upon the resources of his own genius, and no man was ever less indebted to fortune for the attainment of eminent success. He obtained the viceroyalty by the sword, and he has maintained himself in that

elevated position to the present time by a protracted struggle, first with his predecessor and rival, Kourschid Pacha, afterward with England, the Mamelukes, and the Porte; and, finally, against the combined efforts of Europe recently employed to re-establish the dominion of Turkey, by a rare combination of military and political talents.

It is, however, as a statesman and a reformer-as the regenerator of Egypt, that Mohammed Ali claims the admiration of his contemporaries, and seeks to be known to posterity. Before his accession to power, that country had for ages been subject to something more than the ordinary evils of Turkish sway, under the oppressive rule of the Mamelukes, who paid tribute to the sultan, but were left in all things else to the exercise of an unlimited authority over the resources and people of this unhappy country.*

Mohammed Ali had no sooner disposed of the more pressing duties which self-preservation and the establishment of his authority imposed upon him, than he applied himself vigorously to provide for the internal wants of his fruitful, but neglected domain. He replaced the anarchical and inefficient though oppressive system of the Mamelukes by a new organization, not unlike that which prevails in the absolute governments of Europe. Reserving to himself in everything, absolute, untrammelled authority, he called to his aid, in the several departments, ministers and administrative councils, through whose assistance he was able to centralize and combine the various powers of government, which had hitherto been exercised over different parts of the country by beys and pachas, independent and often hostile, without system or responsibility. He divided the whole of Egypt into seven provinces, which were subdivided into departments, and again into smaller jurisdictions, each under

*For several of the facts and statistics contained in this chapter I am indebted to the recent work of Clot Bey. I have mostly relied, however, on my own inquiries,

VOL. I.-C c

its appropriate officers, respectively denominated moudyrs, mamoors, and nazirs. These officers represent the pacha and execute his will in their several spheres; for which purpose they are invested with a share of his absolute authority. Each village, too, has its sheik, who maintains a proper police, settles small controversies, and does the pacha's will within his precinct.

The moudyrs have a general oversight of the subordinate functionaries, and hold them to a faithful performance of their respective duties. They are Turks, and are represented as rapacious, tyrannical, and destitute of all sympathy for the people. The mamoors, who are natives, and sometimes Christians, have the supervision of agriculture, prescribe the kind and extent of tillage to each village, superintend the collection of taxes, the pacha's manufactories, the raising of recruits for the army, &c. The lower officers are collectors as well as policemen, and while they rigorously exact from the fellahs the dues of the government, they are themselves held responsible to the higher powers and subjected to the bastinado for all the delinquencies that occur in their petty realms.

It is generally understood that the government officers are appointed to look after the interests of the pacha, and if these are made secure, whether by fair means or foul, not much regard is paid to their modes of exercising power. All unfaithfulness or dishonesty towards the great employer is punished with inexorable rigour, while the most grievous exactions upon the poor fellahs seldom meet with so much as a rebuke. These lower functionaries exercise the power of life and death within their jurisdiction in the most arbitrary manner, having no other guide than their own will or caprice, either in estimating the guilt or in fixing the measure or the mode of the punishment of offenders.

The native Egyptians, when invested with power, are said to have less sympathy for their own race than even the Turks. All, however, through interest or fear, are faith

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ful to the pacha. Peculation is of very rare occurrence, and when discovered it is never pardoned. Slight infractions on the government monopolies, or petty thefts upon the pacha's property, which, in the multiplicity of his agricultural and industrial enterprises, is much exposed in all parts of the country, are almost invariably punished with death. Unlike the government of Turkey and other semibarbarous powers, which is strong in and near the capital, but feeble or contemptible in the remoter provinces, the name of the pacha carries terror to the uttermost limits of his dominions, and the peasant is subjected to exactions as exorbitant, and the employé of the government is held to an accountability as rigid, upon the borders of Nubia as at the gates of Alexandria or Cairo.

The great political talents of Mohammed Ali are in nothing more conspicuous than in the ubiquity of his influence and authority. This is a standing compliment with the Franks who are admitted to his presence, who seldom fail to thank him for the perfect protection which his name has afforded them even among the robbers of the Desert, and express their admiration of a system of government so perfect that purses of gold may safely be left hanging upon the bushes, as in the good days of King Alfred. They too often forget that this transformation of Egyptian character has been produced by great severities, and especially that this new-born respect for strangers, which invests an excursion to Thebes and the cataracts with so much security and satisfaction, is maintained by means debasing to the entire people of Egypt. The fellahs, who formerly robbed the defenceless traveller, have no longer the courage to resent the grossest insults or to resist the most flagrant injuries, if perpetrated by a Frank. I had scarcely landed in Egypt before I was advised that I must provide myself with a corbash—a long, heavy thong, made of the thick, hard skin of the hippopotamus, as the best means of securing the respect of the people; and during my