Lately An Order Was Issued To Tax The
Villages Of The Badawin Settled Upon The Edge Of The Western Desert,
Who, Even In Mohammed Ali's Time, Were Allowed To Live Free Of
Assessment.
The Aulad 'Ali, inhabitants of a little village near the
Pyramids, refused to pay, and turned out with their matchlocks, defying
the Pasha.
The government then insisted upon their leaving their
houses, and living under hair-cloth like Badawin, since they claimed
the privileges of Badawin. The sturdy fellows at once pitched their
tents, and when I returned to Cairo (in December, 1853), they had
deserted their village. I could offer a score of such cases, proving
the present debased condition of Egypt.
[FN#38] At Constantinople the French were the first to break through
the shameful degradation to which the ambassadors of infidel powers
were bribed, by 300 or 400 rations a day, to submit. M. de Saint Priest
refused to give up his sword. General Sebastiani insisted upon wearing
his military boots; and the Republican Aubert Dubajet rejected the
dinner, and the rich dress, with which "the naked and hungry barbarian
who ventured to rub his brow upon the Sublime Porte," was fed and
clothed before being admitted to the presence, saying that the
ambassadors of France wanted neither this nor that. At Cairo, M.
Sabatier, the French Consul-general, has had the merit of doing away
with some customs prejudicial to the dignity of his nation. The next
English envoy will, if anxious so to distinguish himself, have an
excellent opportunity.
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