Mehemet Ali is of low origin, and was born at Cavallo, in Roumelia, in 1769. He left his parents when young, and began his career as a tobacco-merchant, but soon tired of trade, became a soldier, and was sent to Egypt, at the time of the French invasion, at the head of a body of Arnauts (Albanians.) After the evacuation of Egypt by the French, he made himself extremely useful to Kourschid Pacha, the governor of Egypt, who was unpopular with the Mamelukes, and disliked by his own soldiers. Mehemet was too clever for the Governor, and soon began to see an opening for himself. Kourschid became jealous, and endeavoured to get rid of him; but the future Pacha of Egypt had gained over his countrymen to his interest, and, with the assistance of the Mamelukes, deposed the Pacha, and stepped into his shoes. His own talent, and the weakness of the Porte, kept him in place; though many attempts were made to remove him. Mehemet Ali never openly opposed the Porte; he was the most submissive of Pachas, and always managed to gain his point, and each unsuccessful attempt of the Porte to displace him left him more powerful than ever. When the British landed at Damietta, in 1807, Mehemet Ali ruled in Egypt, and it was principally owing to his energetic conduct that the expedition failed. The massacre of the Mamelukes, which took place in 1811, cannot be justified, even according to Eastern ideas. That they were extremely troublesome and dangerous there cannot be a doubt; they would have had no hesitation whatever in overthrowing Mehemet Ali’s government, and putting him to death; and had he openly attacked them, he would have been justified; but a breach of hospitality is a greater crime in the East than in the West. He had invited the Mamelukes to eat salt with him, and he treacherously attacked and butchered them in the citadel of Cairo in cold blood. One alone escaped; he took a desperate leap over the battlements, his horse was killed on the spot, and he alone, of between 400 and 500, survived to tell the story of the massacre of his fellows. About this time the Pacha began to extend his views beyond Egypt, and his first step was to take advantage of the opening afforded by the depredations of the Wahabees, a reforming military sect of Arabs, who had captured Mecca and Medina, plundered the caravans, and put a stop to the pilgrimages of the Faithful. Less actuated, it may be fairly supposed, by religious zeal than by political wisdom, he procured orders from the Porte, by virtue of which he attacked, and at length, after several campaigns, succeeded in subduing them; his two sons Toussoon and Ibrahim greatly exerting themselves in the war. The pachalic of the Holy Cities was in consequence granted by the Sultan to Ibrahim, but Mehemet Ali pushed his arms still further, and did not desist till he had got into his possession the most valuable parts of the coast of Arabia.