MEHEMET ALL
IT is perhaps premature to be singing requiems over this sturdy chief as if his political existence had closed. The French tele- graph may have been fibbing—such things have been ; or MEHEMET may grow tired of Mecca and return, a substantial spectre, to scare diplomatists who fancied they had got rid of him. On the assumption that the news of his retirement is true, the cause of it has been matter for various guesses. It may have been prompt- ed by a religious motive. Let us rate the rationality of the Maho- metan schism as we please, the existence of a deep and lively de- votional sentiment among Mahometans cannot be denied. A re• ligious tone pervades even the routine forms of society among them: the annals of Islam record quite as many instances of heroes abandoning the world and its concerns, to devote themselves to ascetic discipline and religious contemplation, as those of European chivalry ; and BURCKIIARDT'S account of his visit to Mecca presents many bursts of sincere devotional feeling, which in persons trained in a Christian land would probably have assumed the form of Me- thodism or Monachism. Nor must it be imagined that an old hard- ened warrior and political intriguer like MEHEMET ALI is unlikely to be accessible to such relentings. The sternest of those natures whose energy and self-control makes them masters of others, are often found to conceal, by struggling against, a susceptibility to sentiment and mystical reflection, as much stronger than that of milk-and-water characters as their energies are greater. The sup- pression of this tendency by strong and reiterated efforts of the will, during the season of busy life, strengthens instead of weakens it—compresses and concentrates its force. And when age has brought weariness of labour, and a sense of the impossibility of early aspirations, this predisposition is very apt, in better natures, to gain the ascendancy. There is a dignity in a veteran giving himself up to such emotions, not to be found in those who whine and cant about them through life : he has done his work, and calmly awaits his dismissal; he indulges on the verge of the grave feelings as fresh and beautiful as those which lent grace to his youthful day- dreams ; he at once vindicates the unity of his character and its healthy vigour. At the same time, he is a sly old fox the Pacha or Ex-Pacha of Egypt. He may not have entire confidence in IBRAHIM'S power to carry on unassisted the dynasty himself has founded. He may be willing to watch over the first years of his successor's reign and protect him against the consequences of his own blunders. A man of MEHEMET ALI'S wary and energetic character, possessed. of money, (and he will not leave all his treasures behind him,) is sure to make himself of consequence at Mecca ; and the moral influence of Mecca throughout Islam is great. So circumstanced, MEHEMET ALI will be able to influence the balance between his son and the Sultan. The Divan at Constantinople will not dare to make an unprovoked attack upon the hereditary character of the Pachalic of Egypt while MEHEMET Au lives a powerful man at Mecca—scarcely even to punish rigorously any act of aggression on the part of IBRAHIM. It may also be part of the old man's scheme, should IBRAHIM prove incapable, to resume the reins of government. There he would be mistaken-politicians who de- sire to preserve their power must not for a moment quit the public 'scene: but this is a miscalculation which so many great men have made, that it would not be surprising to find MEHEMET ALI falling into it in his turn.
It is not yet the time to expect a fair estimate of the character of MEHEMET Am. There is scarcely a man of the day about Whom more nonsense and humbug has been written, both by friend and foe. European adventurers and European tourists have been his only portrait-painters. According as the former had jobs to promote and the latter had their vanity flattered by attentions, at Constantinople or Cairo, they have represented him as a ruffian rebel or a heroic sage. To all appearance, he was neither one nor the other. Great energy and an aspiring spirit, combined with coolness, self-possession, and versatility, he must have been endowed with—his success in life proves that. Bloodthirsty he can scarcely be called, for he does not appear to have shed blood except for ulterior purposes : but he was callous in the extreme, and regardless of human suffering, when he had an object to attain. His intelligence was sufficient to make him aware of his own and his countrymen's inferiority to Europeans, but not sufficient to raise him above the suggestions of every quacking adventurer, who having failed in Europe sought Egypt as a field for his impostures. Rulers like MEHEMET ALI are not unlike uneducated men in Europe who have picked up a smattering of knowledge late in life. The latter pride themselves more in dealing about scientific phrases after the fashion of a Malaprop, than in the results of their successful industry ; and MEHEMET Ara appears to have been prouder of the economical and political follies into which his European advisers led him, than of the native genius for command which enabled him to found a dynasty.
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