Egypt and Mohammed Ali. Illustrative of the condition of his slaves and subjects, etc / [Richard Robert Madden].

  • Madden, Richard Robert, 1798-1886.
Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Egypt and Mohammed Ali. Illustrative of the condition of his slaves and subjects, etc / [Richard Robert Madden]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the justice and magnanimity of his views with a violence proportioned to the property they have at stake, and for the necessity of his dismemberment of the Turkish empire, with an earnestness that imposes on many for the sober conviction of plain, practical men, whose experience is entitled to respect. Their interests, however, are promoted by Moham¬ med Ali, and for this potent reason—there never was such a governor of Egypt, so great a reformer of abuses, so good and wise a ruler, as Mohammed Ali. The other order, the fellahs, the people of the land, the slave or serf class, being ground down to the earth by the heavy hand of oppression, enter¬ tain, perhaps, with sufficient reason, very different sentiments towards Mohammed Ali; for they are literally famishing, at the present hour, in the midst of plenty. The fertility of the soil is an absolute curse to them, for they derive no advantage from its cultivation; and the more it produces, the greater sufferings the labour it requires entails on them. They receive no protection from Moham¬ med Ali, so long as his Turkish officers plunder them without mercy for his advantage, and not for theirs ; their chiefs are compelled to take the land and themselves on hire, which the Pacha farms out—for they are adscripti glebce, and let with the