POLICY, AND PROCEEDINGS.

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to speak without reserve, and to treat of the moral as well as the political condition of the country. While, therefore, we endeavour to bear with the infirmities of others, it is our duty, as Christians, to testify on all suitable occasions, our abhorrence of evil, lest any of us be hardened by pernicious example, and the deceitfulness of sin. Let us then look to facts, and before we sanction the Pascha's conduct, or extol him for the innovations which he has made, consider whether he has the good of his people at heart, in any respect, or whether he is striving to gratify a restless and insatiable thirst for power. We ought to contemplate the actual condition of his subjects, and ask ourselves, how far it has improved under his yoke? If he dispenses justice and mercy, then will the face of Egypt rejoice, and Mohammed Ali will deserve all the praise which some have lavished upon him. But if it be found that he merely builds ships, and fortifications, and employs the best energies of his mind to work out his own ambitious schemes, at the sacrifice of the happiness of his people, we, who have had the advantage of an education, and experienced the blessings of civilized life, ought not to shut our eyes to truth, and look on in senseless apathy, contenting ourselves with the reflection that he is "a Turk," and because he is "a Turk," turn away with a shrug, as if we were indifferent spectators of what we cannot conscientiously approve. I am satisfied that no man can do otherwise than pity the present race of Egyptians.

If the Pascha was bred in ignorance and superstition, he has had time and opportunity enough to learn what is right. He is very shrewd, and has mixed with Europeans he is no longer the raw inexperienced adventurer; and I do not think we should attempt to

:

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CONSTRUCTION AND OPENING OF

excuse his conduct on the plea that he has fought his way through the world, a continual eye-witness of bloodshed and rapine, accustomed from the cradle to acts of despotism! He is himself too enlightened now, whatever he may have been, not to be sensible of the wretched condition of his people; but he wants to establish his independence before he dies, and cares not at how great a price it be purchased. Let the Pascha's actions tell their own story. His destruction of the Mamluks was enough to stamp him in the estimation of all good men.* But his behaviour in regard to the opening of the canal of Mahmoudieh was, if possible, more barbarous, and altogether without excuse:- he could not even plead self-defence, as he did, and others did for him, in the former case, (his seat upon the throne as Viceroy, being insecure as long as a shadow of the Mamlûk power remained); but the unmeaning, reckless, and deliberate tyranny exercised towards the poor Arabs, who, if treated with kindness may be moulded, I am sure, to any thing, cannot but awaken feelings of repugnance. It makes one's very blood chill to think of it, and it is not easy to understand how he could be so lavish of his subjects' lives, when he had great designs in contemplation, and required to husband his resources in every possible manner.

The canal itself is forty-eight miles in length. It extends from the harbour of Alexandria to Atfieh, near the town of Fouah, on the Nile; and was, when completed, ninety feet in breadth, and from fifteen to eighteen feet deep. However, that I may not be suspected of prejudice, I will describe this transaction in the words of the Quarterly Review, a work of too much respectability and credit to be mistrusted. "All the labouring

* Vide Chapter XIV.

THE MAHMOUDIEH CANAL.

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classes of Lower Egypt were put in requisition, and a month's pay advanced them to provide biscuit and provisions. To each village and district was marked out the work allotted to it. The Arabs were marched down in thousands and tens of thousands, under their respective chiefs: the number employed at one time, actually exceeded 250,000 men! In about six weeks, the whole excavation was completed, and the people returned home to their respective occupations; but, in the autumn, a few thousands were called upon to face part with masonry, and make the whole navigable for ships of considerable burden. It was opened with great pomp on the seventh of December 1819."*

Now, if these individuals had been properly paid, and properly fed, and allowed sufficient time to complete the work, so far from there being any injustice in the act, the poor would have had reason to rejoice :-but

no sooner had the Pascha made up his mind to open the canal, than he resolved that it should be done at once. Mr. Briggs was unfortunately in England at the time, or he would have perhaps had sufficient influence to have deterred him from such an act of impatience :however, the Pascha being left to himself, he spoke the word, and the decree went forth throughout the land. The canal was completed at the time appointed:but all the waters that have since flowed through it are insufficient to wash away the stain which this ferocious deed has left upon the Pascha's character. As, in the time of Pharaoh, the Israelites were compelled like slaves to furnish of themselves the straw to make the bricks, and were goaded in their work, brokenhearted and feeble, so in the time of Mohammed Ali, were the wretched, ill-fated Arabs compelled to

Vol. xxx. p. 502.

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REVOLTING SACRIFICE AND OPPRESSION.

labour, dejected and faint, under the iron rod of their oppressor, whose minions stood by and saw his will enforced. Leaving their families at home to starve, they were driven down hither without regard to circumstances; and actually obliged to scratch up the loosened soil with their hands, and convey it away in baskets. They were not allowed sufficient repose to repair their wasted strength: the pay alluded to, was fifteen parahs* and a piece of black bread, consisting of bean flour and mouldy wheat, per diem-which was barely sufficient to support life at any other time, much less when condemned to labour under circumstances like these; and 30,000 of them died! Even if they had been amply remunerated-being paid "a month in advance that they might buy food"-having to shift for themselves, how were the wants of so many to be supplied daily?—and for each man to lay up a month's store, so that he could safely have access to it, as occasion required, was out of the question! Still, with the knowledge of such facts, their labours were continued without intermission, although many were known to be in a state of exhaustion: and at last, as no suitable provision, either of food or any thing else, was made for the sick and feeble-hundreds died and were buried every day. Nevertheless, when the murderous work was completed, the canal, we are told, was opened "with great pomp and rejoicings !” But this is nothing new, now; others have told the same story: the fact is notorious: and yet this man is cried up, and we are informed that he is "so enlightened!" and that "he is doing so much for the people!" So far is this from being the case, that by such means as the above, as will appear in the course of this narrative, the Pascha

* About three half-pence.

EGYPT DEPOPULATED-THE REVENUES.

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has most effectually laid the country waste, and so completely thinned the population, that in 1833, and even up to the present time,-what with having seized all that were capable of bearing arms, to make soldiers and sailors of them,*-what with the natural diminution of fecundity, arising from the degenerate state to which the people have been reduced by persecution and grief, or on the other hand, by the influence of natural abuses-added to the effects of disease and want-(I have it from pretty good authority) it was only by the greatest exertion, that a sufficient number of hands could be raised to bring down the cotton, and to gather in the grain, two of the staple commodities of the country.†

The revenues of Alexandria, in the time of the Ptolemies, according to the records in our possession, amounted to as much as 12,500 talents, which at the rate of 1937. 15s. the talent, brings it to about two millions and a half sterling. In the time of Browne (1798) the revenue was thought "not to exceed

*The following will serve as a specimen. The Kiasheff of Sohl (a small village a little to the south of Atfieh, on the Nile,) assured Mr. St. John, that the greater part of the youth had been taken away from that village for the Pascha's army, and that in a town opposite, there remained at least twelve women to one man, and that the year before, the cultivation of the sugar-cane in that neighbourhood, had actually been abandoned for lack of hands. Egypt and Mohammed Ali, vol. i. p. 206. See also the Author, Chapter X.

+ In 1836, 7, and 8, the scarcity increased to an extent amounting to famine. No corn was to be seen in the markets, though there was abundance in Upper Egypt. This was entirely a government scheme, that a quantity of damaged grain might be disposed of. An attempt was made also to introduce Russian butter, but, as a correspondent remarked, "it required all the destructive talents of Mohammed Ali and his worthy counsellor to bring about such a phenomenon. At this rate it would soon have been necessary to procure other articles from foreign countries: for Egypt is so depopulated that it cannot be cultivated. In order to till the ground, the government now seizes the Arab servants of the Europeans, and has them dragged to the tillage bound together two by two, like galley-slaves!" Mohammed Ali does not seem to be aware that the real riches of Egypt consist in its agricultural produce!