ults,
good or bad, of his career, had reached fulfilment. As a vanquished
conqueror he had been able to remain firm in the midst of catastrophe;
his fatherly ideas and feelings had been his salvation. Had he been
absolutely heroic, he would have considered it a duty, for his courage
and his name's sake, to carry the struggle on to the bitter end, and to
perish in the whirlpool he had raised. He showed that he desired to act
thus, but in his children's interests he refrained, and this was, we
believe, the only influence of importance which made him give way. It
is true that there was not much difference between a throne crumbling to
ruins, or one built thereon; such as it was, however, it seemed
firmly secured to his children, and it was for them to strengthen the
foundations. The pasha considered this a fitting reward for his labours;
as for himself, he was over seventy years of age, and ready to lay down
his burdens.

[Illustration: 153.jpg EGYPTIAN HARMEM]

A man without learning and surrounded by barbarian soldiers, Mehemet Ali
appears before the world as nature made him. Dissimulation, diplomacy,
and deceit, coupled with capability, great courage, genius, and much
perseverance, brought him to the head of the government of Egypt. To
gain his ends he flattered the powerful Ulemas who were the nation's
representatives to the sultan, but, once having obtained his object, he
dismissed them.

Though a clever politician, he was a bad administrator. Being
alternately blindly confident and extremely suspicious, he did not
choose well the men he employed as his auxiliaries, and, being a Turk
and a devout Mussulman, Mehemet Ali wished to give back to the Turks
the power they had lost. He only took account of the results of any
undertaking, without paying any attention to the difficulties surmounted
in its execution, and this characteristic made him commit many
injustices. It was his habit to treat men as levers, which he put aside
when he had no further use for them. He was quick of apprehension, and
of very superior intelligence, and his whole character was a mixture of
generosity and meanness, of greatness and littleness.

Mehemet Ali was an affable, an easy business man, and dominated by a
desire to talk. He enjoyed relating the incidents of his past life, and,
when not preoccupied by affairs of importance, his conversation was full
of charm. The foreigners who visited him were always much impressed with
his superiorit