It
Is Most Probable That He Employed Both Modes Of Secreting His Wealth,
And Thus Made Another Addition To The Large Sums Daily Buried In The
East, By Persons In Authority, As Well As By Private Individuals.
But
such is the bad use to which Eastern rulers apply their riches, that the
public prosperity of the country suffers little by the loss.
[The
prevalence of the practice of concealing riches in Turkey, and the cause
of it, will at once appear from the following account of a circumstance
which happened in 1813, at Cairo. Mohammed Aly having demanded 15,000
purses from the Copts employed in the finances of Egypt, they divided
the sum among themselves; and Moallem Felteos, an old man, who had been
in former times a chief financier, was assessed at twelve hundred
purses, or about 18,000l. sterling: this he refused to pay, alleging his
poverty; but, after long parleys, at last offered to give two hundred
purses. The Pasha sent for him, threatened, and, seeing him obstinate,
ordered him to be beaten: after receiving five hundred strokes with the
stick, and being nearly half dead, be swore that he could pay no more
than two hundred purses. Mohammed Aly thought he was telling the truth;
but his son, Ibrahim Pasha, who happened to be present, said that he was
sure the man had more money. Felteos, therefore, received three hundred
additional strokes, after which he confessed that he was possessed of
the sum demanded, and promised to pay it.
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