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proper agents undisturbed in the exercise of the functions to which he has destined them, when they are capable of well performing them; but as he can only trust his European officers fully in this respect, his interference is continually required in all the departments filled by Egyptians or by Turks of inferior capacity and accomplishments. It is remarkable enough that he has established a Council for the discussion of legislative as well as executive measures; and, if he had a sufficient number of able and enlightened councillors, the consequences might be most beneficial. This, however, is said not to be the case. The President of his Council is Monktar Bey, a young Turk, educated at Paris. But no improvement of a solid and enduring nature can ever be expected in this country, as long as the Pacha shows so little respect to the rights of property. He never interferes, indeed, with the land properties of families who have held them immemorially; nor does he ever touch the houses and gardens in the towns; but others he from time to time has seized, giving pensions and other annuities by way of compensation. Though personal property is universally secure, yet all fortunes of every sort are constantly affected by the monopolies which he establishes, and establishes chiefly for his own profit; for, besides the heavy imposts by which he drains the wealth of his people, he is himself a great merchant dealer, and chapman;' and woe be to the competitors and to the customers of an absolute prince who exercises this trade, together with his proper art of sovereign. Accordingly, our author paints a truly deplorable picture of the operations by which the conjunct professions are carried on. It is the ambition—a just and a noble ambition-of the Pacha to be esteemed and admired by the civilised nations of Europe. No more useful motive of action could be adopted by a prince in his peculiar circumstances: it shows that he lives beyond his age, and is resolved to civilize his country. Then let him be well assured, that the impolicy to which we have adverted, and the many vexatious and unjust imposts to which it has given rise, are the certain means of frustrating all his endeavours to improve Egypt; and the equally certain means of preventing the nations of Europe from regarding him with esteem and respect. Marshal Marmont is his friend, and, wherever he can, his warm panegyrist. Nothing that the traveller can fairly pass over, is set down against the prince who gave him so distinguished a reception, and consulted him in all his affairs; and what truth compels him to state, is represented with candour and with moderation. Then let the Pacha reflect on the effect which must be produced, and justly produced, against him, by such passages as the following, coming from so

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friendly a quarter:-The vexatious and petty taxes which I ' have enumerated, and the evidently unjust acts of the government, torment the people, without bringing much benefit to the state. Their suppression would give it a new strengtha power which would largely compensate for the sacrifice.'

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The Marshal spoke,' he says, on all occasions, to the Pacha with entire frankness; and found him, like all superior men, ' able to bear contradiction with perfect patience and temper: on some points he yielded, in others he remained of his own opinion.' He gives us a detailed account of the Egyptian army; which amounts to 92,640 men, distributed in thirty regiments of four battalions each; and each regiment has one of its four battalions light infantry-an arrangement highly approved by our author. The cavalry consists of thirty regiments, of six troops each, amounting in all to about twenty thousand men. The artillery consists of three regiments of twelve batteries, partly mounted and partly not. The corps of Gynies consists of four battalions, of eight companies each. Beside this large force, there are 10,000 Bedouins of light troops, and very serviceable. Our author expresses a decided opinion in favour of the perfect skill with which the troops are stationed, both in Syria and in Egypt, for the defence of the two countries.

On quitting Egypt, the Marshal returned to Europe by Malta, where he was hospitably received by the late gallant, amiable, and lamented governor, Sir Frederick Ponsonby, one of the most distinguished and beloved officers in our army, and by Mr Frere, whose literary talents are universally known, and whose society is so much sought by all.

The work contains an appendix of valuable pieces, chiefly connected with Napoleon. A long and very important note of his own upon Egyptian affairs, is the most valuable of these. It contains all that great man's plans for the improvement of the country; and in most respects Mehemet Ali has been guided in his policy and bis improvements by this document.

It would not be fair to close this article, in which blame has been cast on Mehemet Ali, and advice respectfully tendered to his Highness, without recording two acts of his administration that do him infinite honour. He has planted Schools every where; and continues to encourage and promote popular education, as far as it is possible in the circumstances of his people. He has prohibited the importation of Negroes, by ordinances which bid fair to abolish the African slave-trade all over Egypt.

ART. IV.- Correspondence of WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM. Edited by William Stanhope Taylor, Esq., and Captain John Henry Pringle, Executors of his Son John, Earl of Chatham, and published from the original Manuscripts in their possession. Vols. II. and III., 8vo. London: 1838-9.

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THEN the first volume of this very interesting work appeared, we called to it the attention of our readers, and took occasion to enter at some length into the character of the illustrious person whose remains form the principal portion of its contents. The appearance of the two volumes before us, suggests the propriety of again entering upon the subject; and we shall thus be enabled to add further important information to that before delivered upon Lord Chatham's history and habits; and also to preserve some memorial of the other figures in the group of which he was the centre. We must premise that the editors have continued, in the present publication, to conduct their work with the same diligence and the same success. Availing themselves again, as we presume, of Mr Wright's able assistance, they have accompanied all the letters with explanatory notes, stating the particulars which the reader desires to know, in order to understand the text;-as the events briefly alluded to in the correspondence, the history of the persons mentioned, and such other particulars as are known to those only who have devoted much of their time to the personal history of the last hundred and fifty years, and which must be learned by the student of our general annals, else he is liable to make continual and important mistakes. We cannot dismiss this prefatory notice of the execution of the present work, without also, in justice to Mr Wright, noticing another in which he is engaged the publication of the Parliamentary Debates during the Parliament which began in 1768 and ended in 1774. These invaluable remains are treasured up in the shorthand notes of Sir Henry Cavendish, who, from the specimen published (the Quebec Bill Debate), appears to have been one of the very best reporters that ever attempted the difficult and useful task of preserving the eloquence of their day. The Government, with a praiseworthy liberality, are understood to have assisted this important work; and surely the public patronage never was better bestowed.

Upon the most remarkable passage of Lord Chatham's life, his Resignation in October 1761, little new light is thrown in these letters. That Lord Bute had widely differed with him all along upon the conduct of the war, and had shown repeated symptoms

of uneasiness at his bold and comprehensive plans, termed wild, rash, precipitate-nay, occasionally insane-is certain. These papers contain proofs of this, and also of that favourite minister having viewed, with the jealousy natural to a courtier, one whose influence was built upon his popularity;-one whom the people regarded as their representative in the Cabinet, as well as the Senate. His extrusion from office, was therefore resolved upon, in all probability, as soon as Lord Bute had, after much hesitation, made up his own mind to take an ostensible situation. He was determined to be the Prime Minister of the young Prince, whose favour he enjoyed; and he saw, like the rest of the cabinet, not only that while Lord Chatham was in office he must ever hold the first place, but that no one else could have any weight or any consideration at all. Gerard Hamilton's (Single Speech') account of his predominancy, is as correct as it is well-expressed For those who want merely to keep a subordinate employment, Mr Pitt is certainly the best minister in the world; but for those who wish to have a share in the rule ' and government of the country, he is the worst.' It is easy to see that, with the exception of Lord Temple, his brother-inlaw, all his other colleagues were likely to adopt Lord Bute's views, and to take part with him who was at once the King's choice and their own safeguard from the great Commoner's domination. This feeling soon appeared in the deliberations of the Cabinet. The French Court had thrown obstacles in the way of Spain, by taking part with Spain in the differences then beginning with that power. Lord Chatham long perceived that the alliance of the different branches of the Bourbons was closer than the safety of Europe allowed; and he saw that every thing was tending towards a rupture with the Court of Madrid. When, therefore, the French ultimatum arrived, he gave a firm and somewhat stern answer to it; in a despatch which the Cabinet, after much discussion, only adopted by a narrow majority. Lord Bute, immediately after, wrote a letter to Lord Chatham, in which he communicated the King's desire that the despatch should be sent; but his great concern at a matter of such immense importance being carried by so slender a majority'—and his surprise that words could not have been chosen in which 'all might have concurred.' In about a month after this occurrence, intelligence was received of the Family Compact-confirming Lord Chatham's recent apprehensions-and further information of measures about to be taken by Spain for protecting her valuable American commerce and remittances. On the 18th September, he gave his decided opinion to the Cabinet, that a rupture being now inevitable, 'prudence, as well as spirit, required

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England to secure to herself the first blow;' and he proposed seizing the Spanish fleets on their way to Europe. Lord Bute first opposed this proposal 'as rash and unadvisable.' No decision was come to, the Cabinet being thinly attended. A few days after, all being present, Lord Chatham resumed his advice for immediate hostilities; the majority were not satisfied of the necessity for this step, but no resolution was taken either way. Early in October, a third discussion led to the whole ministers being against him, except Lord Temple. The great man then declared, that, as this was the moment for humbling the House ' of Bourbon, it was the last time he would sit among them if his advice were now rejected.' He thanked them for their support; said that he was called to the ministry by the people's ' voice, and to the people should deem himself accountable for 'his conduct; but that he could not continue responsible for 'measures which he was no longer allowed to direct.' King having rejected his advice, tendered in writing, he and Lord Temple resigned their places on the 5th of October.

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On the following day, Lord Bute, by the King's desire, offered him the government of Canada, with five thousand a-year of salary, and the Chancellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster, a lucrative sinecure; and, after some negotiation, it ended in a peerage to his wife and a pension of L.3000. The letters written by Lord Bute on this occasion are very becoming in every respect; those of Lord Chatham are extremely humble, and betoken a far more rapturous sense of the Royal favour showed to his family, than of indignation at the Court cabal which had just involved in ruin the best interests of his country. Overwhelmed with the 'King's gracious goodness, he desires to lay himself at the Royal feet with the humble tribute of the most unfeigned and respectful gratitude.'--' Penetrated with the bounteous favour ' of a most benign Sovereign and master, he is comforted with his condescension in deigning to bestow one thought about any inclination of his servant.'-' Any mark of approbation, flowing from such a spontaneous source of clemency, will be his comfort and his glory.' Then, when the matter is finally settled on his own suggestion, he has afterwards to express 'sentiments of veneration and gratitude with which he receives 'the unbounded effects of beneficence and grace, which the 'most benign of Sovereigns has condescended to bestow.''No wonder that the sensations which possess his whole heart, 'refuse him the power of describing their extent.' But he only desires to offer his Majesty the genuine tribute of the truly 'feeling heart, which he dares to hope the same Royal benevolence which showers on the unmeritorious such unlimited

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