Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Description Of Egypt: With Observations On The Expedition Of Buonaparte;
to settle themselves at Alexandria ; but there , as well as at Rosetta , and the other places on the borders of the Mediterranean , they were constantly subje & edto the rapacity of all the suba ' teru agents . These agents ofthe Bey , more vile and even more extorting than himself , possessed themselves by violence of the French merchandize , immediately on their arrival in port . They themselves fixed the price ,
and settled the mode of payment . If the smallest or most lawful resistance was made , it was terminated by the armed force . It was then that , at Rosetta , the doors of our Yice-Consul were broken down , his windows destroyed , and a piece of artillery levelled at the house , because he would not submit to a contribution , from which Mourad Bey had himself ordered that the French should be exempted . Notwithstanding the order ofthe Bey , the Consul was obliged to s ' ubmit
to this violence . In fine , on the ztst Nivose , in the 6 th year , Corain , collector of the customs for Mourad Bey at Alexandria , assembled before him all the interpreters , and declared to them , that the slightest infringement on what he called the rights of his master , should "be punished with 500 blows of a cudgel , without any respeft even for the . character of the Consul . A fews days after , he threatened an
interpreter , that he should cutoff his head and send it to his Consul . ' Thus all the rig hts of nations were violated in the persons of the French with the most shameless audacity . All our treaties ' with the Forte were despised by the Beys , and by the lowest of their agents , under the pretext that the former had not concurred in their violation . The character of our Consul was despised and outraged . The
liberties and lives ofthe French were every moment hazarded , and their fortunes exposed to plunder . The French republic cculd no longer suffer these numerous injuries , obviously suggested by the English , to pass with impunity . Their patience had been extreme , but it served only to encrease the audacity of their oppressors .
• ' What then remained to the trench Vjovernment to obtain reparation for so much injustice ? They had often , through their Ambassador , addressed their complaints to the Porte ; but , excepting the expedition of Hassan Pacha , in 1786 , which struck only at the two Beys , gave no redress for what was past , and made no provision for the future ; . all that the Porte did in our favour was to authorize the Grand Vizier to write some letters to the Pacha of Egypt who could
, do nothing ; and to the two Beys , who , doing every thing , were determined to grant to this recommendation only a delusive respect . It was thus that , in the 4 th year , the French Ambassador at Constantinople having-sent an agent into Egypt , provided with letters from the Grand Vizier ; this agent obtained not reparation or restitution ofthe sums extorted from the French , but a decisive stipulation for
reducing the duties on certain merchandizes , conformably to ancient agreements . But no sooner was this agent departed , than Mourad Bey , gave orders , which were punctually -obeyed , that these duties , should be replaced at the very rate to which , before the arrival of our agent , they had improperly been raised . ' The interference ofthe Ottoman empire for the protection ofthe French was therefore evidently without energy . No durable effw
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Description Of Egypt: With Observations On The Expedition Of Buonaparte;
to settle themselves at Alexandria ; but there , as well as at Rosetta , and the other places on the borders of the Mediterranean , they were constantly subje & edto the rapacity of all the suba ' teru agents . These agents ofthe Bey , more vile and even more extorting than himself , possessed themselves by violence of the French merchandize , immediately on their arrival in port . They themselves fixed the price ,
and settled the mode of payment . If the smallest or most lawful resistance was made , it was terminated by the armed force . It was then that , at Rosetta , the doors of our Yice-Consul were broken down , his windows destroyed , and a piece of artillery levelled at the house , because he would not submit to a contribution , from which Mourad Bey had himself ordered that the French should be exempted . Notwithstanding the order ofthe Bey , the Consul was obliged to s ' ubmit
to this violence . In fine , on the ztst Nivose , in the 6 th year , Corain , collector of the customs for Mourad Bey at Alexandria , assembled before him all the interpreters , and declared to them , that the slightest infringement on what he called the rights of his master , should "be punished with 500 blows of a cudgel , without any respeft even for the . character of the Consul . A fews days after , he threatened an
interpreter , that he should cutoff his head and send it to his Consul . ' Thus all the rig hts of nations were violated in the persons of the French with the most shameless audacity . All our treaties ' with the Forte were despised by the Beys , and by the lowest of their agents , under the pretext that the former had not concurred in their violation . The character of our Consul was despised and outraged . The
liberties and lives ofthe French were every moment hazarded , and their fortunes exposed to plunder . The French republic cculd no longer suffer these numerous injuries , obviously suggested by the English , to pass with impunity . Their patience had been extreme , but it served only to encrease the audacity of their oppressors .
• ' What then remained to the trench Vjovernment to obtain reparation for so much injustice ? They had often , through their Ambassador , addressed their complaints to the Porte ; but , excepting the expedition of Hassan Pacha , in 1786 , which struck only at the two Beys , gave no redress for what was past , and made no provision for the future ; . all that the Porte did in our favour was to authorize the Grand Vizier to write some letters to the Pacha of Egypt who could
, do nothing ; and to the two Beys , who , doing every thing , were determined to grant to this recommendation only a delusive respect . It was thus that , in the 4 th year , the French Ambassador at Constantinople having-sent an agent into Egypt , provided with letters from the Grand Vizier ; this agent obtained not reparation or restitution ofthe sums extorted from the French , but a decisive stipulation for
reducing the duties on certain merchandizes , conformably to ancient agreements . But no sooner was this agent departed , than Mourad Bey , gave orders , which were punctually -obeyed , that these duties , should be replaced at the very rate to which , before the arrival of our agent , they had improperly been raised . ' The interference ofthe Ottoman empire for the protection ofthe French was therefore evidently without energy . No durable effw