6 FEBRUARY 1841, Page 17

DR. MADDEN ' S EGYPT AND MOHAMMED ALI.

Die. MADDEN is the author of several books of the nature of travels, which were distinguished by liveliness and fluency, but by a somewhat too obvious strain after effect. This characteristic, visible in his Travels in the East, grew more conspicuous in his works on the West Indies, whither be went officially in connexion with Emancipation. So much was this the case, that he left an unsatisfactory impression on the mind, the reader feeling that he could not depend upon the truth of the author's pictures. In the publication before us his natural defects have degenerated into the superficialness of a journalist and the one-sided views of a partisan. The narrative is not so much rapid as hasty; and in his haste the narrator contrives to see only those things which suit his purpose. It is probable that the form of their conception—a series of letters, written for a Ministerial newspaper, the Morning Chronicle—may have contributed to the views in poli- tics and the touch-and-go character of the style : but we criticize results, not causes.

The letters are twenty-one in number ; dealing with the life and character of MOHAMMED Am, the nature of his government, its effects upon the people, the extent of his military force, and the amount of his revenue. French views and objects are also treated of; a good deal of space is devoted to the Egyptian slave- trade, and to Dr. MADDEN'S efforts with the Pasha to direct its abolition ; there is a notice of the persecution of the Jews at Da- mascus; and a kind of prospectus of the fares and accommodations in the New Oriental Company's steam-vessels.

The most valuable parts of the book are those which are per- sonal, describing the appearance, manners, and habits of the Pasha, and of his family. The statistical and political divisions have a loose, superficial sort of character, which does not impress the reader with their entire soundness ; and a similar remark may be applied to the accounts of the state of the peasantry. Assuming their general truth, this conclusion, however, may be deduced from them, that MOHAMMED'S improvements are forced, and not adapted to the condition of the country ; only maintained by a grinding system of exaction ; dependent for their existence upon the conti- nuance of his life, and likely to be brought to a disastrous close if he were to live long, from the great embarrasser of modern times, an " excess of expenditure over income." It is true he has given education to a large number of the respectable classes ; whilst the cultivation of cotton, almost his creation, would be very profitable to the people, if he did not seize all the profits ; but, should Intuit's' die ibefore his father, the anarchy consequent upon the struggle that would take place upon MOHAMMED'S death, might destroy all his attempts at civilization, and leave the country worse than he found it.

From any participation in the Jewish persecution MOHAMMED is acquitted : the account of the persecution itself is stronger than the official narrative which the Ilebrew authorities put forth—" more Catholic than the Pope." The section about slavery is stuffed with two long documents, one from the Exeter Hall Convention, the other from Dr. MADDEN himself. The only part of it that might have possessed interest is the narrative of an invasion of Nubia for the purpose of slave-hunting ; Dr. MADDEN writing as if he were present in both battles and assaults: but there is such a want of truthful character in the narrative, that it makes no impression : even the Doctor appears to have looked at the miseries of the slaves chiefly as a subject for paragraphs. The account of the New Company's steamers to Alexandria is one of the most real parts in the book : their accommodations offer a striking contrast to those of the Government packets, which we last week quoted from Miss ROBERTS.

We will take our extracts from the best part.

APPEARANCE AND HABITS OF MOHAMMED ALI.

Mohammed Ali is now in his seventy-second year. He is bale and strong in his appearance, somewhat bent by age; but the energy of his mind, the vivacity of his features, and the piercing lightning of his glance, have undergone no change since I first saw him in the year 1825, nearly fifteen years ago. He is about five feet six inches in height, of a ruddy fair complexion, with light hazel eyes, deeply set in their sockets, and overshadowed by prominent eyebrows. Hie. lips are thin, his features regular, extremely changeful, yet altogether agree- able in their expression when he is in good humour. At such times, his coun- tenance is that of a frank, amiable, and highly intelligent person. The motion of his hands and his gestures in conversation are those of a well-bred person, and his manners are easy and even dignified. He perambulates his rooms a great deal when he is at all disturbed, with his hands behind his back, and thinks aloud on these occasions. He sleeps but little, and seldom soundly : be is said by his physicians to be subject to a determination of blood to the head, attended with epileptic symptoms, which recur with violence when he is under any unusual excitement. In the late difficulties, previous to his answering the proposal of the Four Powers, these symptoms made it necessary for his physicians to bleed him in the arm and take away- a pound of blood. One of these physicians had to sit up with him for some nights; and, as it is customary for the Pasha to do with his attendants, he called up the doctor several times in the night, to " tell him something," and the poor drowsy physician was frequently woke up with the habitual query, " Well, doctor, have you nothing to tell me ?" His palace at Alexandria is elegantly furnished, in the European style, with chairs and tables, lookin"-glasses, several pictures, and a large bust of the Viceroy himself. I noticed a magnificent four-post bed in his sleeping-chamber : both the attendants who conducted me over the palace informed me it never had been used : he continues the old Turkish habit of sleeping on a mattress on the floor. He rises early—generally between four and five ; receives every one who comes to him ; dictates to his secretaries ; and has the English and French newspapers translated and read to him ; one of the latter of which is known to be the paid organ of his political views.

His only language is the Turkish ; and he speaks it with the greatest fluency, and in the most impressive manner. In his conversation he is sprightly: courteous, and intelligent. On every subject he gives those about him the impresssion of a shrewd, penetrating, right-thinking man. lie speaks very distinctly, (thanks to the effects of English dentistry,) and with remark- able precision. He is simple in his mode of living, eats after the European. manner at table, and takes his bottle of claret almost daily. His manners are extremely pleasing, and his general appearance prepossessing: his expression, as I have before said, is that of a good lumoured, amiable man ; but when he is disturbed in his mind, lie seems not to have the slightest control over his feelings or over his features; and when he is displeased, his scowl is what no man would willingly encounter twice. A medical friend of mine who had the entre of the palace, and had occasion to visit him at a very early hour the morning after the arrival of the Turkish fleet, which bad just fallen into his power, found him at the dawn alone in his apartment, stationed at the window gazing on those vessels which were destined for the destruction of his Syrian fleet, and which were now quietly "reposing on their shadows" in his own harbour at Alexandria ; and, as he gazed on them, very earnestly talking to himself, as if deeply engaged in conversation.

ORIENTAL RESPECT TO PARENTS.

Mohammed Ali, a remarkably fine little boy of about nine years of age, is the fifth, and youngest, and favourite son of the old Pasha. It is singular to see this little fellow with his father : he is permitted to take all sorts of liber- ties with him ; and the contrast of this freedom is very striking compared with the solemn, formal nature of the interviews of Seid Bey, and even Ibrahim Pasha with his father. The Pasha, amidst all the reforms he has introduced, has thought proper to leave untouched the old habit of exacting the most pro- found submission from his grown-up children. When Seid Bey, who as yet resides in the palace of the women, or the harem of the Pasha, pays his weekly visit every Friday to his father, he enters the reception-hall with his eyes

downcast, his arms folded, and dares not walk up straight to his father's pre- sence, but makes the circuit of the divan slowly and abashed, and at length stops at a respectful distance before the Pasha, approaches and kisses the hem of his garment, retires modestly, and stands again with folded arms and down- Cast looks : after an interval of two or three minutes, the Pasha salutes him, beckons him to his side, and then he is permitted to talk to his august father. Strange to say, Ibrahim Pasha, old as he is, and with all his honours, goes through the same formal scene at every public interview, on each return of his from the army to Cairo or Alexandria.

SCEPTICISM OP MOHAMMED.

His own sagacity may have led him to perceive the defects of the Mahom- medan religion ; but it is more than probable, that without the counsel and example of these men, [foreigners,] his policy would have led to his imposing himself on his people for a sincere believer in their faith; and he would have been a strict observer of the outward rites and forms of his religion, for that reason alone. As it is, he makes no pretensions to devotion. On two occa- sions recently, when I have had interviews with him, in company with Sir Moses Montefiore, at the Magreb or evening hour of prayer, all the soldiers, officers, servants, and attendants of the palace, were assembled at their devotion in the large antechamber leading into his reception-room, with all the pomp and state of Oriental devotion. The devout Mussulmeu were ranged in rows in front of the Imam, and a person duly appointed to perform the service chanted certain passages of the Koran and forms of prayers in a full sonorous voice, that echoed through the spacious rooms of the palace. The various prostrations of those assembled, their simultaneous movements and accents, and the deep solemnity of the look and manner of every indivi- dual engaged in prayer, had a very touching effect : but in the midst of all this solemnity, on one occasion the Pasha made his appearance from his own apart- ment, walked across the hall, took no notice whatever of those assembled at -prayer, but seeing Sir Moses Montefiore and myself and two other gentlemen standing in a corner, he said, in a loud, good-humoured tone, beckoning with his hand, " Guel, guel" (Come in, come in); and we had to follow him into his grand saloon, to the manifest disturbance of all those employed in prayer.