The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-01-08 00:00:00

TURKEY AND EGYPT.

Tn diii:Alication Tx esday.last we inserted a paper,
extracted from the Ottoman MOniteur, relating to the
affairs of Egypt. A correspondent; who describes, it as
"a partystatenient; utterly incorrect, and thorpuglily
unjust," has sent us rernarkS on the same, subject, to
which,lo-Ving no .object in view but to disseminate ,the
best information within our reach, we readily give inser-
tion : - .

Mr. Editor,—l have-lately seen, in some of the newspapers,
an extract from The Ottoman ,Moniteur, in which the condition
of Egypt and her relations with the Ottoman Porte are greatly
misrepresented. The Ottoman Moniteur was established, and is
maintained, at expense of the Sultan ; implicit confidence
cannot, therefOre, .be placed in its -assertions respecting the
affairs of Egypt. It is written in the French language, in order
that it may be circulated through the different states of Ern:pp,
The first remark is, however, perfectly true, " that the ques-
tion now at issue•in Egypt is one of policy; humauity,-.and
commerce ;"..for .the question is,—Shall the. mighty. efforts
which,: the Paella -of Egypt has for years been exerting to
introdUce civilization into his country be overcome? or shall
:despotism, in its worst form, with its attendant barbarism,
again be introduced nnder, the iron sway of the Sultan ?
• The Moniteur terns Mehemet Ad Pacha a "rebel," and adds,.
that whed he was. `..t. appointed by the sovereign power to the,
govermuentof that fine provinee, (Egypt,) he looked upon it as
U. conquest"- ..--The whole assertion is, however, incorrect;- for
the present Pacha owes not originally his appointment to the.
Atari; but was acknOwledged as -Pacha by the soliders of that
army which the Porte had sent into Egypt to overthrow the
Manielukes ;. the. army rebelled, removed the former Pacha,
(who .is now , the principal adviser of the Sultan,), and ac-
inowledged the present, Mehemet Ali, in his place; whose
eleetiou the Porte.found -it expedient to confirm. The l'orte,
therefore, is rather late in discovering, after the lapse of twenty-
five,ye.ars, that the ..Pacha looked .upon his- appointment in the
light-Of a conquest. The Sultan has hitherto acknowledged
Alehemet Ali_.as ,Pacha, and has required only that he should
annually drain from his. country a large sum of_money, to in-
crease the sploncloin-• of The Ottoman .Porte. This sum has been
regularly ,paid,-which. was -never the case in the time of the
Mainelukes,.. (with .what injury- to Egypt- it is needless to say.).
The Porte was, indeed,. too well aware both of his own interests
and;
.of -.his oviu weakness to look upon- Mehemet Ali in any
other than a most friendly light, during the period when he was
subduing the .dangerous, power of the Mametukes in Upper
Egypt, . and fighting the battles of. the Sultan against the
"W ahabees in Arabia, and the patriots of Greece. The Sultan
is, indeed, a . clever person ; he dissembled his jealously, and
turned his pretended friendship to account, by leading the pa-
cha to fight, at his own cost, the battles of the Porte, and thus
diminish his own resources. But circumstances have now-
changed ; and the sultan, finding the pacha of Egypt becom-
ing daily more powerful, determines that no time must be lost
in effecting his overthrow. This resolution is doubtless strength-
ened; by
,the agency of the emissaries of Russia; numbers- of
whoin are dwelling in the Turkish capital; their. object is to
weaken the power of their hereditary enemies, the Turks, and
thus remove the strongest barrier which exists against their in-
roads into. the Eastern world. ..With joy, therefore, it is that
Russia observes the war with Egypt, and spares no pains in se-
cretly exciting the proud and irritable Turks --for well she
kin>ws that whatever be the resultof the war, die resources .of
the sultan, already nearly- exhausted, will be still more dimi-
nished. . . .
The origin of the. war is this :—A few years since the pacha
of Egypt twice interceded with the sultan to save the pacha of
Acre. trum punishment, and not only received him in Egypt,
and there protected him, but likewise lent to him large sums of
money, in order to purchase the smiles-of the sultan. But al
this kindness is now forgotten; and the paella of Acre has both
refused to..repay the money which,was advanced for him, -and
witinint which he would never again have been governor of
Acre; and as a grateful return to his. benefactor, has secretly
• made to the Porte false statements relative to the views of the
pacha of Egypt; thus adding to the charges of injustice .and
robbery, that of the most foul treachery. The incorrectness,
however, of, these statements was soon discovered, and the Porte
Inith consented that Mehemet Ali should punish his treacherous
friend- of St... Jean d'Acre, and promised the co-operation of its
. fleet in effecting the punishment. This was the cause of the
Egyptian expedition into Syria ;, but the Porte, calling to mind
the uangerous-power of Mehemet Ali, and having, in the inter-
val, received weighty. proofs of. contrition from the pacha of
Aere, instead of opposing, unites with him against the pacha of
Egypt, and takes this opportunity of reducing a power already
.much too great in the estimation of the Divan.

After stating that the question now "at issue, is one of policy, '
humanity, and commerce,"
,the writer adds, "that country
(Egypt) has witnessed the formation of her regular army, navy,
and manufactories,—objects of culture before unknown on the
banks of the Nile, have augmented the mass of her wealth."
And what greater sign of prosperity can there be than this—
the 'admiss„ion of an enemy? is this the way to introduce " star-
•vation" into a country, or • to render " millions (V. individuals
-naked, starving, and destituteq V clothing?" does this give us the
idea of a country in a state of. ".runt ?" But the writer asks,
what advantage has she gained from all these (changes) ?
during the last ten years she has been deprived of half her
population ;" and this, 'lliOneigfeatv euggerated, is unhap-
pity in part true ; for independent of the ravages of disease,
which has in some instances.destroyed twenty thousand in a
week, she has been drained of considerable numbers in lighting
the battles of the Porte, in. overthrowing the rebels who in
Arabia preyed upon the
i pilgrims on their journey to Mecca;
and likewise in fighting n Greece. And besides having carried
on these long and expensive wars, for the benefit sf the sultan,
but at her own cost, Egypt has punctually paid into the treasury
of the sultan a large annual tribute; which, although demanded
in the time of the blamelukes, was never actually paid by them.
These are the true causes of misfortune in Egypt, of the hunger
and poverty of her inhabitants; but still that famine now per-
vades Egypt" is hardly credible, when we remember that during
her war with the Porte she does not send to Constantinople, as
she otherwise must, a large portion of the corn which her laud
produces. While, then, the pacha is accused of inhumanity,
of "grinding to powder" the inhabitants of Egypt, of fitting his
vessels with merchandise to increase his own revenue, should it
not be told for whose use that revenue is raised, for whose en-
richment the inhabitants are said to be thus oppressed? and
instead of proclaiming the humanity of the sultan, whose fine
feelings, as the writer describes, are wounded by the oppression
of his subjects, should we not rather look with joy to the pros-
pect, that Egypt will again become a great and civilised coun-
try? But we aro told that the pacha is raising moue) by ex-
ciuding others from trade, in order to enrich himself ;—that he
gains large sums by the cultivation of cotton is undoubtedly
true ;—but since funds must be raised by some means, for the
payment of his tribute, and likewise fer the carrying ou of those

vastimprovements which•he is effecting in various parts of
country,7,r.,-7it surelysis better that the funds• should be raised by
this means, than. by levying a tax upon the inhabitants. Lpt
ro-
ce
I(4i t.uastoifveliawi nxiitc,lhote:Qedniii;ehptso,ihueslet:tnils,
at leitlhanuoit
urt ti:er,alynit
hetgseie
aggregate,
any one examine the. policy of the,Pacha, and he will find, that
eiridtiav
teieti
writer
i.dul
01
iediruitsiot:
tciri
nritsen:agupts.
rioilroni
)pi.ti
0e
;:triit
atnoepnodi
tu.
acontarr to
the
causes". of what we find. to exist,and when this plan is
adopted, no impartial. Person will deny that the pacha gives
avery.-eneouragement both to-the cultivation of the land, and
to trade.with..other countries, which the nature of
and the difficulties, with which_lie has to contend will admit:
He has not, only, given.. evervi eticonragetnetit to the cultivation'
of what Was before Yery slightly/attended to, but has again
in-
traduced..4o4,lais vanutry -.the cultivation uuPTiartiescripttouOcwhich had beau neglected since
the time-of thc,lionians. But this is not all ;—the encourage-
, s
ment.mliieli--he -has- given to trade,- by giving facility to -the
transportation of. ghods; is•astonishingiy great; canacs;•Whielf
• were made in the time-of-the Pharaohs, an which had-been for
centuriestchoked up,..arealow cleared out,-and rendered not only
navigable for the•:trcuisPortation at -merchandiN, but likewise
have bees made-thameans ofwateringt he land, and thus remov.
ing the probability of those. dreadful famines, with which. Egypt
had sometimes.been sisited; large resorvoirs hayebso.macie jvs
the same purpose, old roads have been repaired and new _ones
made; bridges have been built, and the:parched deserts of Arabia,
where the traveller feared..to wander, and which funned a gi•ca t b r
to the introductiOn of Eastern commoctitics,.are riow delnived of
many ef. their, terrors, and .may- be passscd with tolerable. sacet:.-
The•Europeran traveller now enjoys perfebt security; in. Nisi:,
ing the interesting monuments with which Egypt abounds : jus.
tice is administered without regard to difference, of religion or
of country ; a -public assembly, or council is 'fotmed, in which
freedom of discussion is encouraged by the yachai .a, newk-,
paper ia.publisheil, in. the-language of .tlic country, and free:ry
circulated among the people ; .the„spifituf enquiry is excitee,
and egotism quickly' falling to -the ground; a iicw.systein,_of
government and of manners, is begoming gradteal4/
schools for learning, in almost all its.branches, are established;
and Egypt bids fair to become, under the, rule of 111eliginet.40
and his sucgessors,.the. seat, of -civilization and of liberty,. 4,8
much as she formerlywas.theabode of.-despotilm,and of WAD,
rity. addition .to those, {theuumber of which exceeds.:)(),),
who are selected from among the higher-elasses and are choseli
for their 4,lbility,.who . have been
.sent int9...varjojap.arts ()Ulu,
rope at-the expence- of tbe,pachac.a.iid7on their return to j:gyps
are to fi4soomor,.thethighest, offices, a§,.tiiiitis,ters of the state,
military and naval officers &.c. ;—besides these, there Are great
numbers of the -lower or4ers.,..
same manner; who are acquiring, in various parts of Europe, a
knowledge of the different art§;..atutliy,liteir...ineans, the vari.-
OuS tradeS of joiners, blacksmiths,. opticians, &c. will be.; intro-
duced into Egypt;jor,there brought, to :perfection. What Ma-
hometan pp.cka„ prince, or sultan, (it may be asked,) -,for
turies back, has performed so much towards the improvement
of his country ? •
Let qa_klimsircaunatinces.,be_.considerad,.-lettlie 4rue state
of itie case be known,and,who.will then be found to accuse the

pacha of Egypt of selfishness and rapacity?
The writer of the article liaS treated at some length, tipon the
blessings of a " wise acid wild Ontinistration,"...and would wit-
lingly. snake; us suppose, that freedom and security can only be
e.nja. yed_unde:r..the- government of the Ottomon-Porte. tut,
unfortunately,. in their ignorance, not only the Egyptians, but
all civilized nations likewise, are ready to declare,- that " he,
(the pcirrhq of Esapt,) has on his side the wishes of the people
of Arabia, as well as .those of every commercial
.nation ; that
the indepond.enc,e," (and not the fall,) " of Mehemet Ali, will be
the regeneration of Egypt.". ••.
I thiuk„it, right to add, that I am in no way connected with
Egypt; and take
:only that interest in her welfare.; which I
think ever.y.petson who knows the ti ue condition of that inte-
resting country, must necessarily feel. .- CANTAB.