ALI PASHA. 131 



Ali Pasha certainly did a great deal for Alba- 

 nia. He was a tyrant, an animal that deserved 

 not the name of man, but he knew the peo- 

 ple he ruled over, and managed them well ; 

 he tried to introduce civilized customs, but re- 

 mained barbarous himself. It is very doubt- 

 ful whether Albania was not in a better 

 condition under the cruel tyrannical Ah, than 

 under the present milder regime. Ali would al- 

 low no one to be cruel or tyrannize but himself; 

 now, every one dressed in a little brief authority 

 grinds his less powerful dependent to the last pi- 

 astre. The Greek, in particular, is reduced to a 

 state verging on desperation and despair; the 

 industrious persons are robbed by the many, 

 instead of by one chief only ; and the forlorn ap- 

 pearance of All's capital, its ruined houses, the 

 stagnation of its trade, and the constant diminu- 

 tion of its population, perpetually emigrating to 

 Greece, or other parts where a more stable go- 

 vernment exists, prove incontestably that there is 

 something radically wrong somewhere. 



I do not mean to defend Ali Pasha, I mean 

 merely to express my own opinion, that Albania 

 cannot be in a worse state than it now is. 



