Narrative of a Voyage to Madeira, Teneriffe and Along the Shores of the Mediterranean

The present condition of Egypt and character of Mohammad Alee-Diversity of
Opinions-Impressions received in the Country Parts and in the Cities-Egypt
tried by an unfair standard-Prophecies of Ezekiel-Introduction of the Mem-
looks-Their debasing Government-Testimony of Volney-War of 1802-
Rise of Mohammad Alee-Destruction of the Memlook Beys-Exchange of
Tyrants Native Instruction-The Different Colleges, Institutions, and Facto-
ries-Grades in Society-Railroads -Basha's Household-His Knowledge of
the State-Affection for His Wife-Taxation-Effects of the Battle of Koniah
-Regeneration of the Country, and Fulfilment of Prophecy-Affairs in the
East-Political State of Egypt-Instability of the Turkish Empire-Extent of
Mohammad Alee's Territory-Consequence of this returning to the Porte-
Symbol of the Euphrates-Right to Independence-Present State of Turkey-
Sooltan's Rule compared with the Viceroy's-Effect of Mohammad Alee's Inde-
pendence on European Powers-His Hereditary Possession

THE extraordinary diversity of opinions expressed

in Egypt as well as in Europe, regarding the cha-

racter and government of Mohammad Alee, and

the present state of the country, is so remarkable as

to demand an inquiry how those opinions have

arisen, and how views so different have in their turn

been adopted by the visitor and the writer.

Opinions as opposite as the poles, are daily

VOL. II.

DIVERSITY OF OPINIONS.

formed and promulgated by the traveller, and these will be found to arise not so much from previously conceived ideas, as from the mode in which he views the country, and the reception he there meets with; circumstances which must, even to the mind least liable to be prejudiced, tend to bias the judgment. A few years ago Europe rung with the praises of this wonderful man, and vaunted the regeneration wrought in this ancient, highly-favoured, but long degraded land. It has now become the fashion to decry the character of the viceregal occupant of the throne of the Pharaohs. Let us see how these

opinions are formed.

A traveller arriving in Egypt, by way of the Red Sea, lands at Cosier, and reaches the Nile in the vicinity of the first cataract, for the purpose of examining the ruins of Thebes, Luxor, and Karnak, and the other antiquities of Upper Egypt. The impression there received of the former grandeur of this ancient people is brought into the strongest contrast with the present unutterable poverty and wretchedness of the natives, who are now, however, allowed, for the first time for ages, the privilege of living. Nay, the trivial circumstance of their inhabiting, in all the squalid misery of want, those mighty monuments of their bygone glory, affects the mind, and warps it from sober and impartial judgment. Unprovided, perhaps, with the magic signature of Mohammad Alee, obstacles present themselves to his antiquarian researches, and the very difficulty

IMPRESSIONS OF THE COUNTRY.

of procuring boats to convey him down the Nile, (all the boats here belonging to the Basha,) prejudice him against the Fellaheen; to obtain redress of whom, for some fancied wrong, he applies to some ravenous sheyk, who, for a bribe of a few piasters, submits the unfortunate and ignorant accused to the agonies of the Koorbag.

As he proceeds down the river against untoward winds, and suffering daily annoyances from want of the luxuries he has been accustomed to, he meets the conscription officer and tax-gatherer, in the full exercise of their hated and oppressive power; the former of whom, he sees dragging the peasant from his home, and followed to the water's edge by the curses of the infirm, and the wailings of the mother and the wife; while many of those who are left behind have purchased their exemption by the mutilation of their limbs, or the partial deprivation of their sight; and he beholds much of this fertile land waste for want of cultivation.

Arrived at Cairo, disgusted with the country, and out of humour with himself, he looks with a jaundiced eye upon the modern manufactories, and other improvements made by the viceroy, whose reception of him may no doubt eradicate some of the impressions he had already received on his voyage down the Nile, but which may be shortly wiped away, perhaps, by the company he meets at his consul's, or the renegade European instructors he may find at his hotel, or in the billiard-room.

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