IBRAHIM PACHA'S SYRIAN CAMPAIGN. 293 



Ibrahim's would have been sufficient to make the most considerable 

 town capitulate. It has been said that the Viceroy, at one moment, 

 had the idea of himself attacking the Turkish capital by sea, while 

 Ibrahim should threaten it from Scutari. But his prudence doubt- 

 less prevented the execution of the enterprize, for however popular 

 the cause of Mehemet Ali, may have been, he would have appeared 

 in Constantinople but as a subject, and certainly could not have pre- 

 vented the intervention of Russia. And lastly, had he succeeded in 

 these projects of unbounded ambition, what would have been the 

 result ? Instead of a compact state, bounded by Mount Taurus, he 

 would have found himself embarrassed with a great empire, tottering 

 to its base, and which no human power can regenerate. Mehemet 

 Ali listened therefore to the councils of France, and endeavoured to 

 obtain the recognition of his independence. But the Porte, listening 

 to the perfidious suggestions, and governed by the blind obstinacy 

 that led to the battle of Navarino and the victories of the Russians, 

 would make no terms, and reduced Ibrahim, after an armistice of five 

 months, to conquer her again. Hussein Pacha was succeeded by the 

 Grand Vizier, Redschid Pacha, the same who had distinguished him- 

 self in Greece, and quelled the revolt of Scodro Pacha. Brave, and 

 accustomed to the camp, a sound politician, Redschid was superior to 

 his predecessor, but still, even he was only a Turkish general. He 

 had been selected principally on account of his great influence in 

 Turkey in Europe. He therefore received orders to repair to Con- 

 stantinople, with considerable levies of Bosnians and Albanians, of 

 which they knew he could dispose, and with the six regiments of 

 infantry and cavalry that belonged to them. 



In the mean time the indefatigable Hussein Pacha had succeeded 

 in reorganizing an army with about 40,000 regulars of the reserve, 

 it was echelloned between the capital and Koniah, reinforced by the 

 troops brought by the Grand Vizier ; it was sufficiently numerous to 

 have prevented Ibrahim's further advance; but there was neither 

 skill in the general, or ardour among the troops ; the councils of the 

 European instructors were as usual disregarded, while the Epyptian 

 army, on the contrary, was almost exclusively under the direction of 

 European officers. A single piece of artillery would have sufficed to 

 have defended the passage of the Taurus, and yet when Ibrahim 

 appeared on its northern declivity, he had to encounter but a few 

 irregulars, of whom he soon gave a good account. He then fixed his 

 camp on the plain of Erekli, at one hundred and sixty days' march of 

 a camel from Constantinople, and then advanced upon Koniah. 



Reuff Pacha, who had provisionally assumed the command of the 

 Turkish army, until the arrival of Redschid Pacha, prudently fell 

 back upon Acken at the approach of the Egyptians. But forgetting the 

 disastrous day of Koulaktche, the Grand Vizier merely assumed the 

 offensive. Instead of taking up a position in the mountains, and 

 allowing the unusual rigour of the season to thin the ranks of the 

 enemy, he precipitately advanced. The cold was so excessive, the 

 weather so dreadful, and the roads rendered so impassable by the 

 snow, that only a small portion of the artillery and ammunition could 

 follow the movement, so that they found themselves as at Horns, 



