has been publicly charged upon a moft ambitious and rapacious monarch, who was himself one of the mediators, that the congrefs of Foczani was rendered ineffectual by his machinations. As this prince has the peculiar fortune in his old age, to ftand in a state of perfonal enmity with the greater part of the human fpecies, every charge against him fhould therefore be received with that due caution, which is always neceffary when charges come from enemies.

The prefent Grand Vizir Mouffon Oglou, who was the braveft officer in the Turkish fervice, was alfo the most difpofed to peace of any man in the empire. It may well be fuppefed, that the fame abilities, which gave him fo manifeft a fuperiority in the field, enabled him alio more clearly to comprehend the fruitlefinefs and fatal tendency of the war, under the prefent ruinous weakness of the Turkith government. This gentleman was the author of the late congrefs, to which he attended as closely as if he had been perfonally prefent; having removed to the borders of the Danube, in order to maintain an immediate correspondence with the minifters at Foczani. Upon the breaking up of the congrefs, before any act of hoftility had been committed on either fide, Mouffon Oglou dispatched an officer to General Romanzow to propofe a renewal of it.

The ready acquiefcence of the Ruffian general in this meafure, feemed to imply a difapprobation of the conduct of the late plenipotentiary. The Turk, as before, waved all forms, and left the nomination of a place for renewing the congrefs to Count Romanzow.

The Auftrian and Pruffian minifters, as well as Ofman Effendi, were already returned to Conftantinople; the Reis Effendi was now appointed plenipotentiary on the part of the Ottomans, and M. Obrefcow on that of the Ruffians; and Buchareft, the capital of Walachia, the place for holding the congrefs. Upon the meeting of the minifters at Bucharest, the fufpenfion of arms, which had been previously concluded for forty days, was O&. 29.

now extended to the 20th

of the enfuing March, and was to continue in the more remote countries for a month longer.

In the mean time, a great point feemed to be obtained by Ruffia, by a treaty concluded with the Tartars of Crimea, in which they are faid totally to have renounced the Ottoman government, to have put themfelves under the protection of the Emprefs, and to have yielded to her the two fortreffes of Kertfch and Jenicala,which commandthe Streights of Caffa, together with the territories belonging to them. In return, the Empreis reftores to them all the had conquered in the Crimea, and furrenders to them the fortreffes which had been garrisoned by the Turks, upon condition that no Turkish garrifon should ever again be received in them.

A treaty of this nature makes a figure upon paper, and affords those plaufible pretences and appearances of juftice which even conquerors would wish to impofe upon mankind; and may, when ftrength is opposed to weakness, have a certain weight in the negociations for a peace. In other refpects, it is only a form of words without import. The Tartars were already, without any treaty, in the hands

of

of their most cruel and inveterate enemies, whom they equally abhorred and defpifed; and the very fortreffes demanded by the Ruffians, were already in their poffeffion. In fucha fituation, they muft undoubtedly subscribe to any terms that were propofed; but they could not by any act of theirs, give any right or title to the Ruffians, but that which they were already in full poffeffion of by conqueft. The Tartar Khan, to whom they were inviolably bounden, both by their civil and religious laws, was out of the country; and the fortreffes in the peninfula had never been their property, having been either built by the Turks, or taken by them from the Genoefe. As to the ceding of thefe places to the Tartars, in confequence of this treaty, we fhall undoubtedly hear no more of it; but if the Turks can be brought to fubmit to the nominal independency of the Crimea, by which they will totally refign the Tartars into the hands of their enemies, as an article of the treaty between the two nations, it is one of the great points which Ruffia is eager to obtain.

The affairs of the Porte have, in confequence of the negociations for a peace, been fo interwoven this year with those of Ruffia, that, except what relates to Ali Bey's rebellion, there remains but little to be faid upon that fubject. The late unfortunate Grand Vizir having been removed from his office towards the conclufion of the preceding year, the celebrated Bafha, Mouffon Oglou, brother-in-law to the Grand Seignior, who had dis ftinguished himself fo much in Walachia, both by the taking of Giurgewo, and the defeat of General Effen, and was the only officer who VOL. XV.

fupported the honour of the Turkifh arms in the laft campaign, was appointed his fucceffor. This brave officer, inftead of indulging his natural bias to war, at the rifque or expence of his country, has, as we have already feen, used all his endeavours to bring about a peace be tween the hoftile powers.

Whatever the fuccefs of the negociations may be, this conduct was founded upon true policy. The ruined condition of the Ottoman army at the clofe of that fatal campaign, the weakness of their marine, which could not yet in any degree have recovered the shock it had fo lately received, the infufficiency of the fortifications upon the Dardanelles, together with the diftractions in the government, the difcontent of the people, and the open rebellions in Egypt and Syria, made the gaining of a year's breathing-time a matter of the utmost importance to the Porte. In that time, if the Vizir ftill supports the character which he has already acquired, the Turkish affairs may wear a very different afpect from that which they then exhibited. Befides the reftoring of order in the government and police, and the providing for the fecurity of the Dardanelles, and such a marine as would be fufficient to protect the coafts of the Black Sea, great changes might have been fince made in the difcipline and conduct of their licentious foldiery; who have also had time given them to recover and new brace their courage, and to shake off that terror and confternation which, among veteran troops, are the certain confequences of a rapid feries of loffes and difgraces. If fuch measures had been pursued, [B]

even

and

and that the Ruffians fhould ftill perfift in the exorbitancy of their demands, they may poffibly find the Turkish army at their next meeting, in a very different fituation from that in which they laft faw it. The advantages to the Turks from fo long a fufpenfion of arms are indeed fo obvious, that it is not to be imagined it could have escaped the penetration of the Ruffians, and we must therefore conclude that they had fufficient motives for thinking it equally neceffary to themselves.

While Ali Bey's faithful friend and ally, the Chick Daher, was exerting the utmost induftry and valour in making a conqueft for him of Syria, he loft the kingdom of Egypt himself, by as fudden a revolution as that by which he obtained it. We have formerly hazarded an opinion, that the barbarity and treachery of the natives, together with the factious, cruel, and turbulent difpofition of the great lords or princes, would probably prove as great obftacles to his establishing of a permanent government, as even the hoftile oppofition of the Ottoman power, The event has for this time juftified the conjecture, and he owes the lofs of Egypt, and the Turks the recovery of it, to his brother-inlaw, Mahomed Bey Aboudaab.

This man, who like Ali Bey himfelf, and the reft of the Egyptian chiefs, had been originally a flave, owed his liberty and fortune entirely to him. It may be juft neceffary to obferve here, that though the Mamaluck fyftem with refpect to the crown, was of course abolifhed upon the conqueft of the kingdom by the Turks, it has notwithstanding (it is faid) been pre

ferved in its full vigour, by the great chieftains or lords of the country, none of whom, ftrange and unnatural as it may feem, can be fucceeded by any of his children, or by any other perfon, who is not, or has not been, in actual flavery. The Arabian chicks, who are difperfed all over Egypt, do not come within this defcription, they being the natural and hereditary princes of their tribes; they are however obliged to pay a fmall fum of money to government, upon each renewal of the fucceffion.

It fortuned that among a number of Georgian women who had been purchated for his feraglio, Ali Bey had difcovered one of his own filters; upon this difcovery he beftowed her upon Mahomed Aboudaab, who had first been his flave, and was then become his favourite; and whom he afterwards raised to the dignity of a bey. Some jealoufies having arifen between them fince the late revolution, Aboudaab and fome other beys were banished from court, who having retired to the Upper Egypt, began there to form a ftrong faction against Ali Bey.

Ayoub, the Governor of Girge, and nephew to Ali Bey, commanded at that time in Upper Egypt, or what the Arabians call the province of Saydi. This governor, finding that he was not able to fubdue Aboudaab by force, intended to have circumvented him by treachery; he accordingly pretended to become himfelf mal-content; and had feveral conferences with Aboudaab, whofe injuries he feemed highly to refent, and exclaimed as loudly as any body against the oppreffion and tyranny of Ali Bey."

By thefe means he hoped to have

found

found an opportunity to furprize and cut off Aboudaab; but not depending entirely upon this part of his fcheme, he fent fecret in telligence to his uncle of all that paffed, with a requifition to fend fuch a number of foldiers expeditiously and privately into the province, as would enable him, if it failed of fuccefs, to put his defign in execution otherwife. The caution and fagacity of Aboudaab, was however fuperior to his arti fices, and he fell into the trap which he had laid. That bey, having either feen through his defigns, or obtained a knowledge of them by other means, invited him as ufual to his camp, where he without ceremony stabbed him in his tent.

April 30th,

This tranfaction having cut off all means of reconciliation between Ali Bey and. Aboudaab, and the latter now finding himself entire mafter of the Upper Egypt, he no longer hefitated, but marched with a confiderable army towards Cairo. Ali Bey fent moft of his forces under the command of nine beys, to oppofe him; but thefe being entirely defeated, and the conqueror 1772. marching faft to Caito, he thought proper to fly from thence with his treafures and a fmall retinue, and encountered the greatest dangers and difficulties, before he was able to gain the friendly fhelter of the Chick Daher in Syria. This new revolution caufed the greatest joy in Conftantinople, and a firman was immediately difpatched to Egypt, by which Mahomed Aboudaab was appointed commander of that country. We may judge by this tranfaction, that Aboudaab having no ftrength of

his own able to cope with Ali Bey, fet out upon the principle of reftoring the legal government, and that the natural pride and jealousy of the great lords, made many of them. difpofed to return to it, rather than own a fubmiffion to one of their equals.

The reception which Ali Bey received from the Chick Daher, was fuch as the unfortunate, particularly fugitive princes, feldom experience. As this Arabian prince feems to be one of the most extraordinary characters of any age, it may not be improper to take notice of fome of thefe particularities, which fame, at this diftance, has reported of him. He is reprefented as poffeffed of thofe great and mixed qualities, which would do honour to a hero in the mott military age, and render a citizen respected and admired in the most civilized. At the age of ninety-three years, he has all the courage, activity, and vigour of five-and-twenty. It is faid he was fcarcely ever worfted in action, though the greater part of his life has been spent in that petty defultory kind of war, in which the erratic and barbarous tribes of those wide regions are for ever engaged; and which though unattended with glory, is filled with action, danger, and enterprize. His fidelity, friendhip, and firmnefs, are confpicuoufly fhewn in his conduct to Ali Bey; as his great mental powers, and his military abilities are, in the long war which he has carried on merely upon their strength, being obliged to create, if we may be allowed to use the expreffion, both armies and refources; and in which almost all the cities and towns of the ancient Phenicia, Palestine, and the South of Syria, have been re[B2] peatedly