Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/790

766 7GG EGYPT I1ISTOKT. disaster experienced by his arms at Nezeeb, entailed fresh complications, and the interference of Great Britain ended in the restoration of Syria to the Porte in 1841. Mehemet Ali had placed all his reliance on the co-operation of France, and to its desertion of his cause, and his confidence in its assistance, either moral or material, must be ascribed the unfortunate issue of the war. That the Syrians, in general, preferred the rule of Mehemet Ali to the tyranny of pashas appointed from Constantinople may be safely averred ; but we cannot close this account of his possession of that province without animadverting on the horrible cruelties perpetrated by Ibrahim Pasha, or warning our readers not to give credence to the unmeasured praise bestowed by many on the Egyptian troops there engaged. Conceding that they were superior soldiers to the Turks, ifc must be borne in mind that they were veterans, dis ciplined and led by the French officers and an able general ; their opponents were destitute of any European discipline, badly officered, and discouraged by the disasters in Greece. It has, moreover, been stated on good authority, that Ibrahim owed much of his success to the placing of artillery in the rear of his troops, with orders to fire on them should they show symptoms of wavering. After the peace of 1841 Mehemet Ali gave up all great political projects, and solely occupied himself in improve ments, real or imaginary, in Egypt. He continued to prosecute his commercial speculations, ami manufacturing, educational, and other schemes. The barrage of the Nile, still uncompleted, was commenced by his direction, and in 1847 he visited Constantinople, where he received the rank of vizir. In the year 1848, however, symptoms of im becility appeared; and after a short space Ibrahim was declared his successor, but died after a brief reign of two months. Mehemet Ali survived Ibrahim, and died on the 3d of August 1849. Many and conflicting have been the opinions entertained of this remarkable man, for such at least all acknowledge him to have been. His massacre of the Memlooks has been the great point of attack by his enemies ; but that, as well as many of his other acts, must be ascribed to his boundless ambition, not to in nate cruelty ; for he proved himself to be averse to un necessary bloodshed. That he really esteemed European civilization may be doubted ; but his intelligent mind could not fail to perceive that therein lay his great strength, and of this he availed himself with consummate ability. To his firm government Egypt is indebted for the profound tranquillity which it has long been its good fortune to enjoy. A traveller of any nation or faith may traverse it in its length and breadth with greater safety than almost any other country out of Western Europe ; and the display of fanaticism has been rigorously punished. While, however, Egypt has benefited by the establishment of order, the people have suffered most severe exactions. The confisca tion of private lands has been before mentioned ; to that arbitrary act must be added the seizure of the lands of the mosques, the imposition of heavy taxation, and a system of merciless impressment. In fact, the condition of the Egyptian fellah has rarely been as wretched as it is at the present !.ay. Mehemet Ali also misunderstood the real resources of Egypt, w.hich are certainly agricultural ; he dealt a severe blow to native produce by endeavouring to encourage manufacturing industry, and by establish ing enormous Government monopolies, a measure which crushed the spirit of the agriculturists. His military and governing abilities were assuredly very great, and his career is almost unequalled in Turkish history. Had it not been for the intervention of Great Britain, his Syrian successes over the Porte would probably have rescued Egypt from the wretched condition of a Turkish province. But the firman of 1841 entailed the loss of all his military power, the army was reduced to 18,000 men, and the navy condemned to rot in the harbour of Alexandria ; while Mehemet Ali, failing to gain the great object of his ambition, the establishment of an independent dynasty, and being compelled to look on his then living family as his only heirs, thenceforth confined himself to measures of less importance, and did not prosecute even these with his former energy. The entire constitution of the government of Egypt is the work of Mehemet Ali. With a few exceptions, he destroyed all former usages, and introduced a system partly derived from European models. The army and navy are of his creation, so are the taxation, the regulation of import and export duties, &c., quarantine laws, the manufactories, colleges, and the ministry. Some of these institutions are useful, others both vexatious and ill-calculated for the country. The colleges of languages and medicine, and the printing-press at Boolak, are among the former, and are ex ceedingly praiseworthy efforts in a right direction ; and in the same category must be placed many minor improve ments, in vhich Mehemet Ali showed himself to be far in advance of his countrymen ; while, weighing his chequered life and numerous disadvantages of position and nation, his moral character, enlightened mind, and distinguished ability must place him high among the great men of modern times. 1 Ibrahim was succeeded by his nephew Abbas, son of Toosoon. This miserable voluptuary, and withal bigoted though ignorant Muslim, utterly neglected the affairs of government and solely consulted his own gratification. During his reign all the great works begun by Mehemet AH were suspended. It was a time of deliberate retrogression, and his sudden death in July 1854 was welcomed by all true Egyptians as the removal of the country s curse. His successor, Said Pasha, the fourth son of Mehemet Ali, endeavoured to pursue his great father s policy and to carry out his aims. He had not, however, the strength of char acter or the health needed to meet the serious difficulties of the task, and he will chiefly be remembered for the abolition of some of the more grinding Government monopolies, and for the concession of the Suez Canal. It was reserved for his nephew, the present khedive, to attain all and more than all that Mehemet Ali had designed for his country. The reign of Ismail promises to be the beginning of a new era for Egypt. A man of undoubted ability, pos sessed of unusual energy in administration, fully appre ciative of the importance of Western civilization, fired with the ambition proper to a grandson of Mehemet Ali, the khedive is a ruler such as Egypt has scarcely seen since the Arab conquest. His first step was to remove, as far as possible, the irksome control of the Porte. At great cost he obtained an imperial firman in 18GG, removing almost all the old treaty restrictions, granting him the title of khedive The Dynasty of Mehemet Ali. I. Mehemet Ali, d. 1849. r^ II. Ibrahim, d. 1848. Ismail, 1 1 Toosoon. Hoseyn. IV. Said, d. 1S63. Halim. Mehemet Ali. III d Abbas, Toosoon, 1854. d. 1876. Ahmad, d. 1358. 1 . ISMAIL. 1 t Mustafa, d. 1875. 1 Mehemet Tawfik. 1 Floseyn. i ! Hasan. 8 other children.