4.52 
him at this hour. There are no 
pauses in business during the day, 
‘except at twelve o’clock when he 
takes his dinner, sleeping after- 
wards for an hour ; and again at 
eight in the evening, which is his 
hour of supper. I have found 
him as late as nine o’clock, with 
three secretaries on the ground 
before him, listening to the most 
minute details of that branch of 
expenditure which relates to the 
post-houses ; each article of which 
accounts he separately approved. 
His hours of pleasure are also in 
part subservient to the furtherance 
of business. I have seen him in 
the gardens of his pavilion sur- 
rounded by petitioners, and giving 
judgment on cases that were 
brought before him. Even when 
retiring to the Haram, he still 
preserves his public capacity ; 
and, in the petty discords of 
three hundred women secluded 
from the world, it is not won- 
derful that his occupation and 
authority as a judge should still 
be required. 
In his habits at table, Ali Pasha 
is temperate, though by no means 
so strict a Mussulman as to refuse 
himself wine. He almost always 
eats alone, according te the custom 
of Turks of high rank, and at 
the hours already mentioned. His 
dinner usually consists of twelve 
or sixteen covers, which are sepa- 
rately placed on atray before him. 
The dishes are chiefly those of 
Turkish cookery ; in addition to 
which a whole lamb, provided by 
his shepherds, is served up at his 
table every day in the year. His 
appetite is not at all fastidious; 
and I have been told that his 
cooks, in providing for him, take 
liberties which, under a luxurious 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1815. 
despot, would infallibly cost them 
their heads. 
The adherence of Ali Pasha to 
the tenets of the Mahomedan reli- 
gion, is by no means rigid, and 
probably depending more on a 
sense of interest, than upon any 
zeal or affection for these tenets. 
He has few of the prejudices of a 
Mussulman: and in regarding 
those around him, his considera- 
tion obviously is, not the religion 
of the man but whether he can 
be of service to any of his views. 
I have seen aChristian, a Turkish, 
and a Jewish secretary, sitting on 
the ground before him at the 
same moment,—an instance of the 
principle which is carried through- 
out every branch of his govern- 
ment. In Albania especially, the 
Christian and Mussulman popu- 
lation are virtually on the same 
footing as to political liberty ; all 
indeed slaves, but the former not — 
oppressed, as elsewherein Turkey, — 
by those subordinate agencies of 
tyranny, which render more grat- 
ing the chain that binds them. It 
may fairly be said, that under this 
government all religions find an 
ample toleration.- I have even 
known instances where Ali Pasha 
has directed Greek churches to be 
built for the use of the peasants, 
as in the case of one or two of the 
villages on the plain of Arta. » 
Truth compels the addition of 
other features of less pleasing 
kind ; and to the general picture 
of eastern despotism must be an- 
nexed some traits peculiar to the 
man. The most striking of these 
are, a habit of perpetual artifice, 
shewn in every circumstance of 
his life ; and a degree of vindictive 
feeling, producing acts of the most 
unqualitied ferocity. The most 
