CHAPTER XXXII. MEHEMET ALI. Ambition, like a torrent, ne'er looks back It is a swelling and the last affection All laws, all conscience; tramples on Religion, Catiline.-BEN JONSON. IN Europe, the name of Mehemet Ali is familiar to every mind as one of the great powers that share the rule of this great world: we think of him, however, as seated on the throne of the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies; and seldom recur to the eventful and romantic career which shot him upward from the rank of a peasant to that of a prince. His great namesake,* and Cromwell, and Bernadotte, and Napoleon himself, accomplished less extraordinary and unlooked-for enterprise of life than this Turk has done, although the distance and obscurity of the people over whom he attained empire render his deeds less dazzling to careless or indifferent observers. Like Mahomet, when he awoke from the dream of youth to the reality of manhood, he found himself in the depths of poverty; like him, too, he married a wealthy widow, who was the foundress of his fortunes.-Unlike the Prophet, however, he had none of the prestige of ancient blood to buoy him up, and was indebted to himself, and not to his ancestry, for his rise. He was of humble-of what would, in other times, have been called, of base-origin. Thank God, even in England we know of that term no longer, except as applied to the deeds, and not the birth of our fellow-men! If the world, in its age, and its many sources *Mahomet, Mehemet, and Mahmoud are modifications of the same name. of enlightenment, has learned nothing more, it has at least come better to understand what is due to man, as the creature of God, and not of circumstance; and be it remembered in times to come, when pedigrees are forgotten, that those whose ancestors bore pennons at the battle of Hastings were never the last to acknowledge this. This aphorism may seem misplaced, as applied to the history of a Turk, amongst whose people there is little of that distinction of rank which parks off the different classes of Europe into separate societies; nevertheless, even the Osmanli and the Arab are considerably prejudiced in favor of having ancient blood in the palace as well as in the stable. Each Napoleon and Mehemet Ali came into the world in the same year of grace, 1769.* The same war opened to each an arena for his strength; and widely differing as were the places and the people amongst whom they had to struggle for the mastery, there are strikingly similar events in the career of both. was an adventurer on a foreign soil; each attained political, through military, power; each trampled fearlessly upon every prejudice that interfered with his progress; and each converted the crisis that appeared to threaten him with ruin into the means of acquiring sovereignty. Mehemet Ali was born at Cávala, a small town in Roumelia, and is, therefore, a Turk, and not an Albanian, as was long supposed, from his career having been so much involved with the latter. His father was a poor man, who united the occupation of a fisherman to that of a farmer: the former business proved more congenial to the boy, who early acquired a character for courage and conduct that invested him with great influence amongst his associates. Some pirates having made a foray into his neighborhood, he hastily collected a body of volunteers, pursued the marauders in fishing-boats, recovered the spoil, and made himself a reputation in Cávala. This, in return, made him lieutenant to the governor, and an object of interest to the * No Turk ever knows his own age with certainty; but the Pasha of Egypt has freely adopted what French flattery suggested. It is unnecessary to remind the English reader that the same eventful year gave birth to the Duke of Wellington. governor's wife; both of which circumstances he turned to such good account, that, on the decease of his superior, he succeeded to his command, his widow, and his wealth. He then engaged extensively in the tobacco trade, for which his situation afforded him great facilities; bankruptcy or ambition induced him to abandon the business; and he eagerly embraced an offer to command a contingent of three hundred men raised at Cávala to recruit the Turkish army in Egypt. During the operations against the French, and particularly at the battle of Aboukir, he distinguished himself conspicuously, acquired the rank of colonel, and obtained unbounded influence among the soldiery. When Egypt was evacuated by the French and British forces, the Mameluke Beys remained in arms, and endeavored to set aside the power of the Porte by nominating a viceroy of their own selection. The soldiers-particularly the Albanian regiments in the Turkish service-had already shown symptoms of a mutinous spirit, and now loudly demanded their arrears of pay and a change of officers. Mehemet Ali knew well the strength of these soldiers and their wrongs, and also the weakness and inability of the Turkish general, Khosref Pasha: he therefore boldly declared himself the delegate of the soldiery, and a redresser of their grievances. Khosref Pasha sent to require his attendance at an audience to be held at midnight; and Mehemet Ali received the invitation while attending the evening parade. He knew well the purport of that message, and the deadly vengeance that awaited him; but he also read his own power in the Pasha's fears. "Out of the nettle, danger, he knew that he could pluck the flower, safety;" smiling, he kissed the general's note, and returned for answer that "he would be sure to come:" then, turning round to the soldiers on parade, he exclaimed, "I am sent for by the Pasha, and you know what destiny awaits the advocate of your wrongs in a midnight audience:-I will go-but shall I go alone?" Four thousand swords flashed back the Albanians' answer; and their shout of fierce defiance gave Khosref Pasha warning to escape to the citadel, in which, it is unnecessary to say, he declined to receive his dangerous guest. "Now, then," said Mehemet Ali, "Cairo is for sale, and the strongest sword will buy it." The Albanians applauded the pithy sentiment, and instantly proceeded to put it into execution by electing Mehemet Ali as their leader. He opened the gates of the city to the hostile Mamelukes, defeated Khosref Pasha, took him prisoner at Damietta, and was acknowledged as general of the army by the Beys, in gratitude for his services. Osman Bardissy and Elfy Bey were the leaders of the Mamelukes at this conjuncture, and became the deadliest rivals after the defeat of their common enemy Khosref. Osman was in possession of the city, and nominally commanded the Albanian troops; but Mehemet Ali stimulated them to demand the arrears of pay; while, at the same time, he stirred up the inhabitants of Cairo to resist the impositions which Osman laid upon them, in order to satisfy these demands. The Bey, unable to withstand this simultaneous resistance of the people and the soldiery, sought safety in flight; and Mehemet Ali, after some further intrigues, named Kourschyd Pasha Viceroy of Egypt. He took upon himself this authority, with the most submissive respect for the Porte, and in the same submissive spirit permitted himself to be made Kaïmakam, the next highest in command. The Sultan confirmed these nominations, and some time afterwards, when the intrigues of Mehemet Ali had induced the Sheikhs to name him Viceroy in place of Kourschyd Pasha, he also confirmed the latter appointment. This extraordinary favor was obtained not only by the fear that the new Pasha had inspired, but also by a bribe of £300,000, which Mehemet Ali engaged to pay, and which the Porte knew that he alone was capable of raising. This took place in the year 1805. The following year, Osman Bardissy, and Elfy Bey, his powerful Mameluke opponents, died almost at the same time, and left him without an enemy, except the Porte, to fear. The Sultan, determined on turning his powerful vassal to some account, now ordered him to proceed into Arabia, on a campaign against the Wahabees. This powerful sect was founded by Sheikh Abd-el-Wahab, in the middle of the last century, and was to Mahometanism very much what Puritanism was to the English Church. It also called the sword to the assistance of its faith, and took possession of the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina, in 1810. Encouraged by their success, these stern fanatics next turned their power to practical and profitable purposes, and pillaged indiscriminately the caravans of pilgrims and merchants, until they had acquired immense wealth, and entirely possessed themselves of the country of the Hedjaz. The commands of the Porte to exterminate this sect were intended to exhaust the resources of Mehemet Ali, and perhaps to lead to his destruction; but he embraced the commission with gratitude. It gave him an opportunity of rendering his name popular as a defender of Islam, and an excuse for raising a larger army, destined ultimately for higher purposes. Toussoom, the Viceroy's son, had been appointed a Pasha of two tails, and was to head the expedition; but, before he departed on his mission, the Mamelukes were sacrificed, as a hecatomb to the peace of the province. Invited to a conference, and entrapped in the citadel, as I have before related, they were massacred almost to a man: this took place on the 1st of March, 1811; and, in the autumn of the same year, the expedition proceeded to its destination in Arabia. At first, the armies of the orthodox encountered some severe checks; but the following year Medina was restored to the Porte, and, in 1812, Mehemet Ali proceeded in person to the Hedjaz; partly to superintend the war, but principally, perhaps, to allow an opportunity for his celebrated appropriation of all Egypt to be announced by his minister, Mohammed Laz. The Porte, taking advantage of the absence of its Viceroy, with the treachery and meanness peculiar to the politics of the Divan, appointed a successor to Mehemet Ali in the person of Lateef Pasha. Treachery, however, seldom fails to find its match in Egypt, and Lateef was beheaded by the lieutenant of him who was Viceroy in his own right. The Porte, at first, affected great indignation at this summary proceeding, and proclaimed Mehemet Ali an outlaw. He disre garded the epithet and its consequences, accomplished his pilgrimage in the Holy Land he had rescued from the heretics, and returned to Egypt, covered with glory, to make further prepara. tions for war. |