492 PALMERSTON POLICY. 



soil of the East the seeds of European civilization? Who has overcome 

 i anati cism ? Who has rendered, at last, these regions safe for Europeans ? 

 Who has created so many new productions ? The Arab, who, a few 

 years ago, scarcely possessed the art of constructing a frail bark, now 

 launches on the ocean a stately first-rate. The Egyptian armies 

 have they not astonished all Europe by their courage and severe dis- 

 cipline ? * And yet all this is the work of one man ! of Mehemet Ali ! 

 Lord Palmerston appears to forget that he is at the head of 

 130,000 disciplined soldiers ; master of a fleet of several ships of the 

 line and heavy frigates, admirably manned and disciplined ; that 

 under his rule the commerce of Egypt has encreascvi a hundred fold. 

 He has been only looked upon as a rebel Pacha, v. hose head the 

 price of his temerity would probably soon adorn the gates of the 

 Seraglio at Constantinople. 



When Mehemet Ali raised the standard of revolt, he had no alterna- 

 tive left him. He was too wily a politician not to penetrate the designs 

 of Russia, not to see that the men who surrounded the Sultan were in 

 the pay of that power, and that the death firman issued by Mahmoud 

 was the work of the crafty Nicholas, who marked, with a foreboding 

 eye, the barrier which the civilization of Egypt would oppose to the 

 consummation of his darling policy. The vice-king of Egypt was 

 the firmest pillar of the Ottoman Porte. His gold, his soldiers, his 

 ships, have been lavished on the defence of this tottering empire, but 

 the return for so many sacrifices, has been the blackest ingratitude. 

 The griefs of Mehemet Ali against the governor of St. Jean d'Acre, 

 were notorious. The Porte might have made an example of this 

 Pacha, who had formerly raised against her the standard of revolt j 

 but, with her usual crooked policy, she declared in his favour, and 

 Mehemet Ali was branded as a rebel. This policy rendered war ine- 

 vitable, but neither anathemas nor prescriptions could terrify the 

 Viceroy, whose course was founded on justice. The war once com- 

 menced, it was no longer in his power to arrest its devastating fury. 

 The population along his whole line of march eagerly flocked to his 

 standard, and Ibrahim Pacha, advanced to the very centre of Anato- 

 lia, hailed as a liberator ! If the course of events had been allowed 

 their free operation, we verily believe that, before the expiration of a 

 month, the majority of the Osmanlis would have rallied round the 

 Egyptian army have carried in their arms its victorious general 

 into Constantinople itself, and seated Ibrahim upon the throne of 

 Mahomet, by the most sacred of all rights, the will of the people. 



But it did not suit the policy of Russia to allow the Divan of Con- 

 stantinople to be replaced by a young and regenerative government. 

 What benefit, in fact, would this northern power have derived from the 

 dispersion of the Janizaries, if those who remained of that order were 

 to be formed into regular and disciplined corps ? The constitutional 

 bravery of the Osmanlis, their warlike habits, would have been the 

 means of future salvation to the empire. Russia viewed with jealousy 

 the birth of an European military system of organization in Turkey, 

 that she felt conscious would prove a barrier to her invasions. Her 

 projects are evident to the most superficial observer for more than a 

 century her policy has never varied. Ever since the treaty of Adria- 



