persecuted by fines and confiscations, by torture and imprisonment, and the streets of Stamboul, of Smyrna, and many of the islands of the Archipelago, were bathed in the blood of butchered victims, the Viceroy of Egypt not only preserved tranquillity amongst his people, but treated the Franks, the Levantines, and the members of the Greek Church, with the greatest leniency. Let this one act be told in favour of the man against whose account so many misdeeds and atrocities have been but too justly noted down. The transactions of the Greek insurrection, and the share which the Pacha Mahomed has had in the exploits of the Turks in the Morea, are of too recent a date, and too memorable in their nature, to require comment in these pages. Had Mr. Webster, however, marked them down more minutely, as doubtless he would have done, whenever sufficient leisure had been afforded him, the reasonings of so just an observer could not have failed to be highly interesting. The outline, however, which he has given of the character and progress in life of Mahomed Ali, will, it is hoped, be found sufficient that the reader may be enabled to form an estimate of a man, in every way so extraordinary; one who, to use a favourite expression amongst the Moorish historians of Spain, has so amply vindicated for himself the title of "the Lord of Fortune"-Dueño de la Fortuna.

Of the formation of Mahomed's army, and of

his manifold improvements in Egypt, Mr. Webster has himself, shortly, spoken in another part of these volumes. My wish, therefore, is only to say a few words on the Pacha's present situation in regard to the Sublime Porte. The part, which he took in the war against Greece, was assuredly dictated by policy; it was to conciliate his master, extend his own power, enrich his own coffers, and strike a fear of his name into the breast of every Mussulman. The Divan of Constantinople has tacitly acknowledged his influence, and left him in quiet possession of his viceregal throne: and as the fate of Turkey has been sealed, by the recent and humiliating peace between herself and Russia, what has Egypt to fear at the hands of Turkey? Nothing. That country is now manifestly under the influence of Russia. It is hardly to be supposed that England and France would allow either the Ottoman or the Russian to act inimically against Mahomed Ali, for as Turkey is too much crippled in her resources to pay even the necessary subsidy to the Emperor Nicholas, by so much the more forcible is the argument against her capability, per se, of working even simple annoyance to the refractory Viceroy of Egypt. If Turkey, therefore, act at all, it will reasonably be supposed she does so at the instigation of Russia, and it is to be hoped that England and France will concert together some measure of contravention. Egypt is as valuable now to France, as it

was during the period of the invasion in 1799, viz. for the supply of what is termed colonial produce. But there was yet another object which operated on the mind of Napoleon, during his memorable expedition to the East: the possession of Egypt would have enabled him to strike a decided blow against our Anglo-Oriental commerce. M. Klaproth, in his Tableau Historique du Caucase, is of opinion that this is not feasible; Colonel Evans, again, and Chevalier Gamba, the French Consul at Tiflis, are confident that the thing can be accomplished in many ways. If this be the case, the most obvious, the most safe, and the most practicable road to India, is by Egypt. The policy of England, therefore, is to conciliate the Pacha of Egypt. This was difficult in the time of Bonaparte, mainly through our own supineness. Let us be timely wise, by reflecting on past reverses.

The newspapers have, lately, made mention of a House of Commons, which the Pacha has established at Cairo; and one of them pleasantly observed, that it should not like to be in a refractory majority. However that be, the Pacha is undoubtedly acting wisely. Children have sometimes mistaken shadow for substance: savages will give their golden ornaments in return for simple gewgaws and nursery toys; and the natives of Egypt will be certainly deceived by the semblance of liberty. When pure, unalloyed despotism has

existed for ages, sudden liberty is the most dangerous boon which can be bestowed upon the people. No individual can, on emerging from a lengthened state of total darkness, gaze on the noon-day sun: food must be sparingly administered to a man, who has not been able for a long time to gratify the cravings of his hunger. The sycophant and the slave have proverbially made the most tyrannical masters; and men over whom a galling tyranny has been long exercised, on the slightest removal of their chains, burst through all remaining bonds against free action, and break out into absolute licentiousness. Of this nature have ever been the tumults in the east; such was the nature of the feats committed by the gang under Masaniello the fisherman; and such the outrages of Jack Cade's mob, whose word was, " Up Fishstreet! down Saint Magnus' Corner! kill and knock down! throw them into the Thames !" "A people, under a yoke," says Harrington, “which they have lost all hopes of breaking, are of a broken, a slavish, and pusillanimous spirit. A people broken loose from their antient and accustomed form, and yet unreduced into any other, are of a wild, a giddy spirit; and, as the politician saith, like some bird or beast, which, having been bred in a lease or chain, and gotten loose, can neither prey for itself, nor hath any body to feed it, till, as commonly comes to pass, it be taken up by the remainder of the broken chain or lease, and tied

so much the shorter." (p. 602. Harrington's Works.) Liberty, after all, is but a term of relative significance. What the purest form of liberty may be, is another, and a widely different question.

Like all young governors, Mahomed Ali is not only a favourer of monopolies, but is himself the great monopolist of Egypt. This, in the nineteenth century, is a great error; though, in former times, when commerce was in its infancy, and the expenses attendant on traffick were of prodigious magnitude, monopoly was the grand fountain of riches. Wherever monopoly has been the characteristic of the age, (exceptio non facit regulam, i. e. the existing East India Company, which, in the present day, is, in its essence, a political and not a commercial body,) the people have grovelled in the lowest poverty. This principle, however, is so well understood, that it must be speedily made obvious to the apprehension of Mahomed Ali. He who has so far innovated on eastern prejudices as to give his people any thing in the shape of a popular representation, will also, right soon, be made alive to the absolute fallacy of what has been considered by eastern legislators a principle of government, that a governor's power depends more on the number of his soldiers than on the immunities and individual industry of his people. But, as industry is a corollary to immunity, so immunity is the result of a well defined