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THE COPTS.-CHURCH GOVERNMENT.

tians, and are the descendants of the Egyptians who dwelt on the Nile in the times of the Romans.

There

are 150,000 in a population of less than 2,000,000, making about one in fourteen. Since the accession of Mehemet Ali they have acquired influence in the government by being intimately concerned in its fiscal affairs; and as they are equally protected with the Moslems, and are not subject to military service, they must increase in number, wealth, and influence. They are Eutychians in faith, believing that there is but one nature in Christ, which is divine, and which has so completely absorbed the human that there is no ground of distinction between the two. Their church government is the same as that of the other Oriental churches. The head of the Church is the Patriarch of Alexandria, who resides at Cairo, and claims to be the regular successor of St. Mark. Under the patriarch are bishops, priests, and deacons. There is the same blind submission of the people to the priesthood which is observed in all the Oriental churches. In doctrines also they have followed the general conceptions of the East; and although their articles of faith are not so well defined as those of Rome, yet they hold nearly the same views with respect to Baptism, the Lord's Supper, confession, penance, fasts, and purgatory. But with respect to images and statues in churches, they are nearer the Greek than the Roman Church. They have felt the influence of Moslemism with respect to the presence of women at the public service. Although they are admitted, they are confined to the lower end of the church, the farthest from the sanctuary, and are excluded from the view of the congregation by a screen. Their government, forms of worship, and faith have remained the same for more than a thousand years.

*

*Throughout the East the men and women occupy different parts of the church, and sometimes different churches.

BIRTH OF MEHEMET ALI.

69

CHAPTER VIII.

MEHEMET ALI AND HIS POLICY.

Birth and Early History of Mehemet Ali.-His Rise in the Army.-Named Pacha of Egypt.-Strifes with the Mamelukes.-Their Massacre.-Introduction of European Discipline.-Colonel Sèves.-Creation of an Army and Navy. Conquest of Syria.-The Pasha aims at Independent Sovereignty. Interference of the European Powers.-Bombardment of Beyrout and Acre.-Designs of France and England in the East.-Policy of England.-Character of Mehemet Ali's Government.

I HAVE thought it best to collect into a short chapter some observations on the political state of Egypt, and the condition of the country generally, under the government of Mehemet Ali. A brief account of this remarkable man, and of his rise to power, may not be out of place.

The year 1769 gave birth to three men who have certainly filled a greater space in the public eye than any others of the last generation. Within the space of a few months, Napoleon was born amid the mountains of Corsica, Wellington in Ireland, and Mehemet Ali at Cavalla, a little village of Rumelia. In point of energy, and perhaps of intellect, the Albanian is not inferior to the duke or the emperor. Certainly he has accomplished results as great, for his sphere and the means at his command, as either of them. Commencing his career as a tax-gatherer, he displayed the same vigour and severity in gathering the sultan's tribute which he afterward employed in collecting his own. Fortunate speculations in tobacco, and a marriage with a rich relative of the governor of the village, made him a man of importance, and he rose to power with all the magi

70

MADE PACHA OF EGYPT.

cal rapidity of Oriental life. He was appointed second in command of the contingent of troops furnished by his native district to the Turkish army at the time of Napoleon's invasion of Egypt, and entered that country with his three hundred Albanians in 1798. His bravery and skill soon gained him the rank of a general of division. After the expulsion of the French, he adroitly took advantage of the quarrels of the Mamelukes, the weakness of the Porte, and the attachment of the Albanians to his own person, to lay the foundation of permanent authority for himself in Egypt. No crime was too black, no treachery too base, to be perpetrated by the aspirant when his purposes needed them. If the Porte sent a pacha, he embroiled him with the Mamelukes, and destroyed him. If the Mamelukes were too strong, he embroiled them with one another and with the Egyptian people. The sultan commanded his return as Pacha of Salonika; but it was easy to disobeyand there was no remedy. At last, the Porte, following its usual policy with successful rebels, made the Albanian tobacconist Pacha of Egypt.

But the Mamelukes yet stood in his way. Accustomed for centuries to domineer over the feeble dwellers on the Nile, these daring horsemen were not disposed to yield their power at once. Although greatly reduced in numbers, they were capable of dividing the authority of the pacha, and determined to do it. The ill-fated English expedition of 1807, under General Frazer, was undertaken with the hope of securing that country to the British crown, mainly by the aid of the Mamelukes. Planned in folly, it ended in defeat; the hopes of the Mamelukes were crushed, and Mehemet Ali was stronger than ever. But yet, scattered as they were by thousands throughout the country, they were a con

INTRODUCTION OF EUROPEAN DISCIPLINE.

71

stant source of embarrassment to him, and he determined to be rid of them. Meantime, the Porte, jealous of his rising power, commanded him to undertake an expedition against the Wahabees, a heretical tribe who had obtained possession of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, in the hope that he might be destroyed, if not in the expedition itself, by the rebellion of the Mamelukes in his absence. The wily Pacha at once took his resolution. The Wahabees should be punished, but the Mamelukes should first be exterminated. With what craft and cruelty this terrible purpose was accomplished, I have already stated in another place.* The massacre over, the attention of the Pacha was at once turned to Arabia; and after a toilsome struggle, he succeeded completely in recovering the sacred cities from the heretics, and thus added another element to his power, by clothing himself, in the minds of the faithful Moslems, with the prestige, not merely of a conqueror, but of a heaven-sent and heaven-protected warrior.

For years the Pacha had cherished the design of introducing European discipline into his army, but the pressure of events prevented him from taking any direct measures to accomplish his object until after 1815. He commenced the movement by an attempt to train after the French system, by means of a few French officers, a regiment of his Turkish and Albanian troops. The scheme failed: the stubborn Turks would not be cabined and cribbed in tight coats or Frank pantaloons; the wild Albanians had no idea of submitting to drill; so they made short work of it by murdering their officers and plundering Cairo. The danger was imminent; but Mehemet showed his usual coolness, recalled his obnoxious order, issued a general amnesty, and turbans and submission became the order of the day again. *Page 34.

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COLONEL SÈVES.-ARMY AND NAVY.

People do affirm that shortly afterward some of the rebellious chiefs vanished mysteriously; but perhaps that is all scandal.

The Pacha was bent on having European discipline notwithstanding, and determined to make another effort with different materials. Native Egyptians were selected to form the nucleus of an organization; a French officer of good repute, Colonel Sèves, an aidde-camp of Marshal Ney, was engaged to superintend the undertaking. It was eminently successful; and without any farther difficulty than an occasional shot at the Frenchman's head from some unruly Turk or Arab straggler who did not fancy the battalion drill, a few years worked wonders. At last the Pacha had a tolerably well-disciplined army-cavalry, artillery, and infantry amounting to eighty thousand men, far more effective than any Turkish army of twice the number.

The creation of a navy was also a favourite object with Mehemet, and he pursued it with characteristic ardour. He had gathered by 1827, partly by purchase, and partly from shipyards established by himself, quite a tolerable fleet. The battle of Navarino shattered it; but it was again renewed, and in 1835 amounted to over fifty vessels, twenty of which were ships of the line and frigates. The Syrian campaign bore witness

to its efficacy.

The army of the Pacha found employment and experience in Upper Egypt, Arabia, Nubia, and at last on European ground, in the Morea. Here, fighting for the sultan, Ibrahim Pacha, Mehemet's distinguished son, gained his early fame as a warrior, and displayed the same energy and daring that he afterward employed so successfully against his master. While the troops of the Pacha were thus occupied abroad, he was busy at