DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11448#0295
CHAP. XXXII.]
MEHEMET ALL
257
of enlightenment, has learned nothing more, it has at least come
better to understand what is due to man, as the creature of God,
and not of circumstance ; and be it remembered in times to
come, when pedigrees are forgotten, that those whose ancestors
bore pennons at the battle of Hastings were never the last to
acknowledge this.
This aphorism may seem misplaced, as applied to the history
of a Turk, amongst whose people there is little of that distinction
of rank which parks off the different classes of Europe into
separate societies ; nevertheless, even the Osmanli and the Arab
are considerably prejudiced in favor of having ancient blood in
the palace as well as in the stable.
Napoleon and Mehemet Ali came into the world in the same
year of grace, 1769.* The same war opened to each an arena
for his strength ; and widely differing as were the places and the
people amongst whom they had to struggle for the mastery,
there are strikingly similar events in the career of both. Each
was an adventurer on a foreign soil; each attained political,
through military, power; each trampled fearlessly upon every
prejudice that interfered with his progress ; and each converted
the crisis that appeared to threaten him with ruin into the means
of acquiring sovereignty.
Mehemet Ali was born at Cavala, a small town in Roumelia,
and is, therefore, a Turk, and not an Albanian, as was long
supposed, from his career having been so much involved with the
latter. His father was a poor man, who united the occupation
of a fisherman to that of a farmer : the former business proved
more congenial to the boy, who early acquired a character for
courage and conduct that invested him with great influence
amongst his associates. Some pirates having made a foray into
his neighborhood, he hastily collected a body of volunteers,
pursued the marauders in fishing-boats, recovered the spoil, and
made himself a reputation in Cavala. This, in return, made
him lieutenant to the governor, and an object of interest to the
* No Turk ever knows his own age with certainty ; but the Pasha of
Egypt has freely adopted what French flattery suggested. It is unnecessary
to remind the English reader that the same eventful year gave birth to tha
Duke of Wellington.
. 18
MEHEMET ALL
257
of enlightenment, has learned nothing more, it has at least come
better to understand what is due to man, as the creature of God,
and not of circumstance ; and be it remembered in times to
come, when pedigrees are forgotten, that those whose ancestors
bore pennons at the battle of Hastings were never the last to
acknowledge this.
This aphorism may seem misplaced, as applied to the history
of a Turk, amongst whose people there is little of that distinction
of rank which parks off the different classes of Europe into
separate societies ; nevertheless, even the Osmanli and the Arab
are considerably prejudiced in favor of having ancient blood in
the palace as well as in the stable.
Napoleon and Mehemet Ali came into the world in the same
year of grace, 1769.* The same war opened to each an arena
for his strength ; and widely differing as were the places and the
people amongst whom they had to struggle for the mastery,
there are strikingly similar events in the career of both. Each
was an adventurer on a foreign soil; each attained political,
through military, power; each trampled fearlessly upon every
prejudice that interfered with his progress ; and each converted
the crisis that appeared to threaten him with ruin into the means
of acquiring sovereignty.
Mehemet Ali was born at Cavala, a small town in Roumelia,
and is, therefore, a Turk, and not an Albanian, as was long
supposed, from his career having been so much involved with the
latter. His father was a poor man, who united the occupation
of a fisherman to that of a farmer : the former business proved
more congenial to the boy, who early acquired a character for
courage and conduct that invested him with great influence
amongst his associates. Some pirates having made a foray into
his neighborhood, he hastily collected a body of volunteers,
pursued the marauders in fishing-boats, recovered the spoil, and
made himself a reputation in Cavala. This, in return, made
him lieutenant to the governor, and an object of interest to the
* No Turk ever knows his own age with certainty ; but the Pasha of
Egypt has freely adopted what French flattery suggested. It is unnecessary
to remind the English reader that the same eventful year gave birth to tha
Duke of Wellington.
. 18