some different article, such as the small table and tray used at meals, pipes, &c. This plain and unostentatious retinue is quite an anomaly in a Basha of Egypt; and such as would have been considered quite too plain for one of the very least of the Memlook lords."

(The dock-yard at Alexandria.)— "We were waited upon this morning by the surveyor of the navy, Mohammed Effendi, whose embossed card! in the latest London fashion, was certainly more than we expected to have seen in Egypt. He is an exceedingly intelligent man, was educated in some of the best dock-yards in England, and so far overcame the prejudices of Islamism, as to have married one of our countrywomen.

"Attended by Mohammed, we visited the dock-yard and arsenal, which must certainly be admitted to be the greatest national undertaking of the present Basha, and taken in connection with the cannon foundry and arms manufactory at Cairo, shows much of returning civilization, and of the introduction (perhaps we should say, revival) of the arts in this extraordinary country. Of all the modern works of Egypt it is that best worth seeing, and is an object of much interest, even to those more conversant with naval works; as, with the exception of the three higher powers, I doubt whether any of the European states could exhibit finer. We were first ushered into an office near the entrance, where the commissioners of the dock-yard were seated cross-legged on a deewan. They were exceedingly courteous, as, indeed, we invariably found the higher classes of Egyptian Moos'lims. Coffee was presented, in small china cups, holding about a third of one of ours, not on a tray, but handed to each individual by a separate servant, in a small silver stand.

"But we must pay a visit to those fine vessels now upon the stocks;-and here is one just ready to be launched, which I will tell you something about, without having your ears assailed by that most stunning of all noises, the calking and coppering. This is a twodecker, but corresponding in number of guns to our three-deckers, than any of which it is larger, being 3000 tons. It is not so long as some of ours, being but 189 feet by 40 feet in beam, and will mount 100 guns. The timber of these vessels is confessedly very inferior, and much smaller than would be used in any English vessel of war; but as there are no forest trees in this land,

most of it is imported from Trieste. They endeavour to make up in quan. tity for deficiency in quality, so that the bottoms of those vessels are perfect beds of timber. This is the tenth of this class, and there are eight in commission. The ninth was brought out of the docks yesterday to be rigged and got ready for sea. The comple

ment of men on board each of these is 1005, including officers, who in rank and number correspond to those of the English navy. Besides the ten line-ofbattle ships, there are seven frigates, an armed steamer, four corvettes, eight brigs, and other small craft in commission. So far as the vessels go, they are, I suspect, rather more than a match for the Porte. In our walk round the yard we were surprised at the number and extent of the works, all divided into their several departments and at the order and regularity that prevailed. Brass foundries, carvers, blacksmiths, carpenters, sail. makers, and all the different requisites in ship-building, upon a most extensive scale, all worked by native hands, who amount to about 800.-The stores and arsenal were as neat, as clean, and as orderly as could possibly be. Origi nally the heads of the different depart ments were Europeans, but at present the situations are nearly all filled by natives, who rose under their instruction, or were educated in France or England; among them was the principal mathematical instrument maker, a very intelligent young man. How very fluently, and with what a good accent, many of these speak our language. There is an extensive ropewalk, and we saw some of the cables being worked by a patent machine; the head of this department is a Spaniard, but there is also a native fully capable of conducting the work. I was much struck with the skill and neatness of several of the workmen, particularly in brass-turning, carving, &c. We were shown a handsome room for the drawings, plans, engine-work, &c. and several models of the crack English vessels.

There is a mosque in the yard, whither the men go tive times a day to pray for about five or ten minutes. It is a small but pretty building, covered with clematis, and other creepers now in blow, and has a pretty fountain attached to it, where the men perform their ablutions each time they go to worship. All the workmen are enlisted in the Basha's service, as sailors or soldiers, and are drilled occasionally, so as to be capable of almost immediate

service. They are fed, clothed, and get from fifteen to thirty piastres a month pay, which they and all the men in the service of Mohammad Alee receive into their own hands, to prevent any sort of peculation."

(The Shipping.)-" I found the vessels that I visited particularly clean and orderly, and this is the more marked, as there is a greater quantity of brass inlay ing and ornamental work in them than is usual in any of our men-of-war. This is a 100 gun ship, but equal in tonnage to ours carrying 120. The uniform is a dark brown, and the officers are principally distinguished from the men by the fineness of the regimentals, and having an anchor, star, or crescent, emblematic of their rank, and composed of silver, gold, or jewels, on the left breast. In the navy as well as the army neither beard nor whiskers are allowed; except the mustache, all must be close shaven daily; this at first was considered a very great innovation, and was loudly complained of as quite too Christian and uncircumcised a form. The men are trained to military tactics, as well as to go aloft, and in this latter they are often very clumsy, to the no small amusement of any English tars who may be lowering top-gallants, or reefing topsails at the same time. But much cannot be expected from a navy called into existence since the battle of Navarino, and whose service has heretofore consisted in a visit to Candia during the summer. There is a moolah or priest on board each ship. The men are now allowed to smoke in watches, and a certain number each night are permitted to go to their families, who live near the town. There was an air of great simplicity in the officers' berths, even in that of the captain: a plain deewan surrounded two sides of the cabin-a table with writing materials, and a couple of chairs; and on the side of each was hung a plain glazed frame, in which was written the name of God, and sometimes a verse of the Kooran underneath. From a desire to avoid even the appearance of any 'graven image,' there are no figure-heads to any of the Egyptian vessels. There is a naval academy at Alexandria, where the young officers are instructed; a noble establishment, having accommodation for 1200 students."

In 1820, a scheme of manufacturing it in the country was commenced, and the Basha went to an enormous expenditure of men and money, in erecting cotton mills, and procuring spinners, engineers, and machinery from Europe. At first these men worked with great energy, and the Basha was fain to believe the interested stories of his French and Italian overseers, that he could thus, in a short time, become the rival of Glasgow and Manchester. Crowds of natives were driven into the factories; the machinery, of a rude and imperfect description, was made by ignorant hands, and soon got out of order. I understand that a system of peculation was carried on by the foreign instructors, and the outlay was immense. Afterwards the war in which Egypt has been engaged for some years past, has been so great a drain upon the population, that the different cotton mills have, in a great measure, been abandoned.

Mohammad Alee is now, however, pursuing a wiser and a better policy, in curtailing the number of the spinning and weaving mills, and only manufac turing in the country a sufficiency for its own consumption, and the remainder of the raw material is sold into Europe. Machines for compressing the bales are multiplied at Alexandria, and the export into England bids fair to exceed both the East and West Indies, or America. We left six English traders in the harbour of Alexandria receiving cotton. Although of a dark colour, and not of the very finest description, it is now much valued in our markets.

(The Telegraph.)—" The Basha has established telegraphic communications along the canal to the capital from Alexandria, and to Rosetta by the banks of the Nile from Atfe."

(Sugar.)" The sugar-cane is now grown in considerable quantity, and the manufacture is in a most flourishing condition. The colocynth, or bitter apple, has also become an article of considerable trade; and the opium I examined was fully as good in appearance, and as clean as any Turkish or East Indian; but as it too has become a royal monopoly it cannot be expected to be so productive as it would otherwise be."

years of age, who worked in the garden of the hotel, on being informed by way of joke that the officers of the Basha were approaching, ran most heroically to a trowel, placed it on his finger, while his sister, still younger, chopped it off with a stone! He bore it without a murmur, and held it up as a trophy of no ordinary conquest. The thumb of one of our crew was still raw from a similar operation; and what with the effects of the ophthalmia, and the terrors of the conscription, there will soon appear a cyclopean population. The Basha has, however, very properly put a stop to this self-mutilation, by making such offenders punishable by perpetual working in the arsenal or dockyard."

(Arms Factory.)—" We next visited the arms factory, where there were 1500 men at work, some of whom appeared most admirable artisans. I could not but wish them a better employment, but I anticipated the day when the same hands shall be turned towards the more useful art of erecting steam-engines to increase the irrigation of the Nile. Some of the arms made here would not disgrace Birmingham. Each department is separate, and it has a most extensive cannon foundry; most of the guns of Mohammad Alee are brass, of which he is particularly proud. Over the door of the boring department is this inscription- Vive Moham'mad Alee, patron de les arts!' Originally the overseers of each of these works, denominated instructors, were foreigners, but wherever it was possible they have been superseded by native hands."

(Massacre of the Mamelukes.). "Our way out of the citadel lay through a place that will be ever memorable in Egypt, and one of the first inquired for by the traveller; the spot where the murder of the Memlooks took place. It is a long narrow entrance, with high battlements on either side, the upper gate leading to the palace of the Basha, the lower opening into the space of the mosque of Sooltan Hassan. Here on the festival held on Toussoon's becoming a Basha they were invited, and when the procession of 500 was ranged in this narrow pass, both gates were closed, and the troops who were concealed bebind the breast-wall, rose and poured down a fire that in a few minutes annihilated the dynasty of 600 years. There were no means of escaping, or of attacking their destroyers-one instance alone occurred-a Memlook bey, amidst the shower of balls that poured round him, perceived a narrow staircase leading to the ram

part, up which in a moment of despair he forced his horse, which actually clambered up the passage; and fight. ing his way through the soldiers on the ramparts, leaped him over the parapet of the turret on the right side of the gate, and, strange to say, although the horse was crushed to pieces, the man escaped unhurt. He fled for refuge to the adjoining mosque, and is still alive in Cairo, his life being granted him by the Basha, whom it is said he particularly resembles in appearance. What a scene must not this narrow space have presented with the bodies of 500 men, arrayed in all the gorgeous trappings with which they delighted to deck themselves, mingled with the carcases of their splendidly caparisoned horses; motionless in death, but still retaining the expression of proud defiance, mortal fear, or wild despair, in which they severally met their cruel and unavoid able fate.

"This act of Mohammad Alee's has been often discussed, and doing so now would be to review his whole life,policy, and government of Egypt. Certain it is he could have taken no step towards the improvement of the country during the existence of those ruthless tyrants, whose bodies became, as it were, stepping-stones to his present greatness."

(College and Medical School.)— "The college and school of medicine form a part of the building of the hospital, so that the student has but to cross the court from his dormitory to the ward, and can proceed from thence in a few minutes to the dissecting theatre, or lecture-room; become acquainted with materia medica under the same roof in which he sleeps, and enjoy his morning's walk in the botanic garden beneath his window.

"The nominal duration of study is five years; but the greater number are drafted off into the army or navy, after three years; some few remain as long as seven.

"The school of medicine consists of seven professorships, viz.-anatomy and physiology, surgery, pathology and internal clinique, pathology and external clinique, medicine and chemistry, botany and materia medica, and pharmacy. Instruction is given by means of an Arab interpreter, or dragoman; the professor writes his lecture, and it is translated to the class by the interpreter. The majority of the professors are French, and their salary is somewhat more than £200 a year. They are all obliged to wear the Egyptian uniform, and shave the head, but no sacrifice of religion or principle is demanded; and,

I need hardly remark, that all Europeans, or Christians, are under the protection of their respective flags, and should they be convicted of any misdemeanour, must be handed over to their consul.

"The laboratory contained a good chemical apparatus, and the dissectingroom several subjects. This latter indispensable requisite to medical education, it would be scarcely worth mentioning, but that it occurred among a people whose strong religious prejudices prohibited even the touching of a dead body in some cases; and the introduction of this novel science was one of the most difficult things Mohammad Alee had to enforce for a long time. He in the first place referred it to the priesthood, who obstinately set their faces against it, declaring it utterly incompatible with the religion of the Prophet of Mekka. The Basha's answer, that it was his royal wish and pleasure that they should legalize the act, and that, if they did not speedily do so, it was more than probable they themselves should form material for the first experiment in this branch of the practical sciences, soon brought them to reconcile their prejudices with his unbending will.”

There are other passages which shew that the writer views in a favourable aspect the proceedings and institutions of Mehemet Ali. Let us now hear what the Methodist Missionary says, alluding to some of the same topics.

(The Alexandrian Canal.)" The Alexandrian canal is one of the glorious works of Mohammed Ali, and was constructed in true Turkish style. Upwards of one hundred thousand persons were collected together by the soldiery, and set to work under terror of the lash and the bayonet. The loss of human life in this undertaking has been estimated, by the lowest calculation, at thirty thousand people; the greater part of whom died of starvation. It was literally dug with human hands; for after the surface had been broken with hoes, the rest of the mud was scraped together with the fingers, and then made into balls and thrown out of the excavation by the workmen below, whilst those above received it, and there with formed the embankments."

(Mehemet Ali's Tyranny.)—"Pictures of misery presented themselves all along the banks of the noble Nile. To me, the scenes which I here witnessed were altogether appalling, and CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 35.

produced upon my mind such an effect as nothing could banish; for I was incessantly haunted with the pictures of squalid misery which obtruded themselves upon my view. How any humane traveller can call the Pasha great, except as a burlesque upon the moral feelings, or meaning thereby that he is a great villain, (as the pirate intimated to Alexander the Great,) I cannot conceive; and I look upon those travellers who affirm such of Mohammed Ali, as being devoid either of common sense or of humanity. Many towns and villages are wholly deserted; a few squalid wretches bivouack amidst the ruins of others; and the rest are not more than half-peopled. The men and boys are forced from their homes, to supply his Excellency's army and fleet; whilst women and girls are made to conduct the labours of husbandry under the lash of a task-master. I have often been asked by the lads to extract their front teeth, so that they might not be enlisted, being then unable to tear open a cartridge; and upon my refusal to comply with their wishes, they have said that they would dash them out with a stone. This has actually been done by many; and others have lopped off the joint of a finger or toe, for a similar purpose. When their tyrant found out this way of escaping from his service, he collected a number of these maimed crea

tures, and set them to work in irons as galley-slaves. One little urchin was asked how he had lost his front teeth; and upon replying, that he had knocked them out with a stone,' my friend answered, If the Pasha hears of that, he will take off your head.' 'He may do so,' said the other, indifferently, but he shall not make me a soldier.' I inquired of another, if he could read: O no,' said he, 'I won't learn to Why not?' asked I. 'Because,' rejoined he, if I knew anything of learning, the Pasha would soon take and send me off to his ships.'"

read.' "

(Military Spirit.)-" We visited the citadel. Here are the cannon-foun-` deries and military workshops of the Pasha, carried on at a vast expense, under the management of Europeans. Every thing smells of war; the curse of Egypt. For this the people are oppressed, the population diminished, and the resources of the country squandered upon foreigners. The latter naturally care only for themselves, as the Pasha cares only for himself; and they lead him on to every extravagant expenditure that will procure them a job, or add to their own profit. Did Mohammed attend to the arts of peace,

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encourage the independent labours of husbandry, and employ a few respectable engineers to water the land, and reclaim the wastes, he would prove a lasting blessing to his subjects. But, for this purpose, he must give up his monopolies. He is the farmer-general and merchant-general of Egypt, buying and selling all its produce at his own price; so that there is no encouragement for honest industry, nor can any of his subjects acquire property, except by fraud or stealth. The country may be called the Pasha's military camp, which is supported by a large factory worked by slaves at the point of the bayonet.'

(Medical Practitioners.) "The Pasha has many Frank doctors in his employ; but some of them are deplorably ignorant and quackish. One was originally a bottle-blower, another an attaché to the army, a third a barber, &c.; but, according to Turkish notions, a man who is clever in one profession is fit for any other;' or else, Mahomet gives him talents to fill any station which he may be called to occupy.' So, a good courtier is sure to make an excellent admiral, though he may never have been on ship-board; and an active midshipman will do for a first-rate engineer. One of the above doctors had received a list of drugs from a correspondent in Italy; and wishing to oblige him, he thought that he could not refuse to buy a small quantity of some cheap article. Finding the muriate of soda to be marked at a very low rate, he ordered a few pounds of it to be sent; and was in no small degree surprised at receiving a package of common salt, for which he had, no doubt, to pay a good price, by reason of its carriage from Italy. The circumstance soon became known; and the doctor had long to bear the jokes of the Franks, upon this exposure of his professional ignorance. Yet to this same person was committed the medical care of the lazaret during the plague; when, also, upon talking to two of my acquaintances, concerning the purgative effects of tartarized antimony, he said,

And then, you know, it acts by its specific gravity.' Can we wonder that such men should be lavish in the praises of the governor, whom they are fleecing of that money which he wrenches from his own famishing subjects? But in these remarks we do not include those medical men who have received a regular education."

almost deserted; for a great number of the houses are uninhabited and failing into decay. Such are the blessings of Mohammed Ali's reign! Government has just been making a forced levy of all the men that they can lay hands upon; and I saw droves of young fellows pinioned together by their necks, and draughted off from Siout and its neighbourhood. The inhabitants of Aboutig appear to be very poor and wretched, though it was once a flourish. ing town. The angel of destruction may again bless Mohammed Ali! There are two or three hundred Copts in this place, having two schools, one church, and four priests. They had a bishop, who is now dead; but no successor has been appointed, on account of the supervening poverty of the people."

(The Pasha's Fleet.)" I know nothing about ship-building; but have been informed, by several British naval officers who have inspected the Egyptian fleet, that it is constructed upon the very worst principles of shipbuilding, and does not possess one of the modern improvements in the art. Captain -, formerly in the Egyptian service, as commander of one of the ships of the line, told me, that the fleet had to undergo a thorough repair after every voyage. Upon one occasion, after his vessel had been repaired, he was ordered to sail for Candia; but it was with great difficulty that he reached that island, on account of the leaky nature of the ship. It was then examined, and found to be opened at the bows upon which the admiral sent men to calk her. Captain expostulated, saying that so slight a repair was insufficient, as the openings were extensive; but the Turk persisted in his plan. When the workmen had finished their job to the admiral's satisfaction, the Englishman fired a broadside; by which all the calking was immediately started; and the vessel leaked as much as ever. Captainthen requested to have the guns removed, and a proper repair to be effected. But the Turk refused; declared that calking was sufficient, expressed his indignation that the guns should be fired without his permission, and said that the captain should pay for the powder which had been thus needlessly expended. The latter replied, that the Pasha had given him full command over his own ship, and that he would do as he pleased with the ammunition. Having set sail, he with some difficulty kept the vessel afloat until she reached Alexandria; when she was docked, and laid up for the winter. I have heard English officers boast, that, with two or