56

fl?

Tr

JF COBDEN, {mar

1836. part of the labour sufficed to construct the most msefw
Zr. 82. public work in En~'--"- the Plymouth Breskwater.”®
Oairo, December £0*7 10°8.-— Last evening twas the
interesting time er 2*~ fr an interview with no less ®
personage than .lchemet Ali, the Pacha of Egypt. OW
Consul, Colonel Chad the day before waited upon this
celebrated person, to say that he wished to present some
British travellers to his Highness, and he appointed the
following evening at six o’clock, which is his usual hour of
receiving visitors during the fast of Ramadan. At the
appointed hour we assembled, to the number of six individuals,
 at the house of Colonsl (., and from thence we
immediately proceeded to the palace, which is in the citadel
and about half an honr’s ride from the Consul’s.
“Our way lay through the most crowded part of the town:
It was quite dark, but being at the season of the Ramadan (the
Mahommedan Lent) when Turks fast and abstain from business
 during the day, but feast and illurainate their bazaars
and public buildings during the night, we found the street?
lighted up, and all the population apparently just beginning
the day’s occupations. . . . Away we went through street?
and bazaars, some of which were less than eight feet wide;
and all of them being crowded with Turks, Arabs, camels;
horses, and donkeys. All, however, made way at the
epproach of the janissary and the uplifted grate of fire,
both of which are signs of the rank of the persons whe
followed. Besides, to do justice even to Turks, I must
add that I never saw a people less disposed to quarrel with
you about trifles than the population of Cairo. You may
ran over them, or pummel them with your feet, as you
squeeze them almost to death against the wall, and they
» Journal.
® « A martinet taken from the regimental mess, to watch and regnlate tb
sommerocial intercourse of a trading people with s merchant pacha.”
Forrsnal.