ings, the republic of letters would fink under its own weight. Claffifications, refults, conclufions, and maxims, long perhaps the fubjects of difcuffion, become the elements of new compofitions. The neceffity of compreffion, in our European campaigns, is not leffened by the co-incident movements of armies in Syria, Egypt, and India; nor yet by the negociations at Raftadt and Seltz: a fcene of political intrigue bearing fome analogy to the wide and various field of action. The time that was neceffary for the arrangement of fo many materials into a plan, not entirely difproportionate to our usual dimenfions, and for the correction of errors, by recent and undoubted information, will, we truft, afford not only an apology for being fomewhat later in the publication of this volume, than was promised in our laft; but afford a new proof of our earnest defire, by all means, to render our work as complete and fatisfactory as poffible. On the whole, our engagements to the public, with regard to the time of bringing up this work, which had indeed fallen greatly behind, have been now fulfilled. It may be faid that we have now very nearly overtaken time. It shall be our care to keep an equal pace with this in future: though at a due distance. The Annual Regifter is not addressed to the fame curiofity that thirfts after newspapers, but to curiofity of a higher order: that of fecing plans and systems unfolded by events; and these events, from new relations and combinations, deriving not only a degree of novelty, but greater intereft and importance. THE ANNUAL REGISTER, For the YEAR 1799. THE HISTORY OF EUROPE.. CHAP. I. A general View of the Year 1799.-Hazardous Situation of Buonaparte, in confequence of the Defiruction of the French Ficet.-Prefent State of Egypt.-Mammalukes.— Beys.—Arabs.-Jews-Greeks.-Cophts.— Force, Land and Marine, under the Command of Buonaparte.-Various Cares of Buonaparte.—Means of maintaining the Army.—And of recruiting and preferving it.-Buonaparte re pects himself, and gives Orders to his Officers to respect, the Prejudices of all the Egyptians.-His Proclamation to the People of Egypt.-At great Pains to propagate, in all Mahometan Countries, a Belief of his Veneration for Iflaumism and the Prophet. -Treachery and Punishment of the principal Sheick, or Shereef, of Alexandria. Endeavours of Buonaparte to blend and harmonize the French and the Egyptians.-Mcafures taken jor the Accomplishment of that Defign.— Grand Feaft at Cairo, on the Anniversary of the French Republic.-Great Ceremony at the annual opening of the Grand Canal of Cairo.-Liberality of Buonaparte to the Egyptians.-Useful Inftitutions.Government of Egypt attempted to be affimilated to the new Government in France. Notables.-Departments. And a general Affembly, or Divan, in Egypt. -Difficulty of operating and producing any permanent Change in the Minds of Barbarians.Jealoufies of the French,Difcontents.Mur [B] Vol. XLI. murs. murs. And Infurre&tions.-Particularly at Cairo.-This, with the others, fubdued.—A general Amnefly-Mourad Bey defeated, with great Lofs. And forced to retreat to the Mountains.-The French, under the Command of Defaix, in Poffeffion of the best Part of Upper Egypt. THE HE year 1799 exhibited a ftrange picture of the world turned upside down: the fublime Porte at war with France, and in confederacy with Ruffia and Great Britain; the Turkish banners united with thofe of Ruflia and Auftria; a nation of profefled philofophers fraternizing, or attempting to fraternize with the votaries of Mahomet; the Roman catholic religion, with inftitutions therewith connected, perfecuted by a power formerly one of its main fupports, but, on the other hand, patronized by fovereign princes, fons of churches heretofore its zealous adverfaries; * a great and illuftrious nation, once fo highly diftinguished by a devotion to the Romih faith, as well as political power, valour, and a fenfe of honour, in close alliance with infidels, and the murderers of a royal family, connected with their own, by ties of blood, by political treaties and interefts, and a long intercourfe of mutual and courtly politenefs. Nor was the fituation of the Spaniards lefs whimsical than it was deplorable. They dreaded the power of their ally; and their only fafety lay in the victories of their enemies. The deftruction of the French feet, which cut off Buonaparte from any certain and effectual fupport from France, or any of her conquered and dependent ftates, left him in fuch an ifolated state, as thofe in which great commanders in former times, when war was lefs complicated than now, have voluntarily precipitated themfelves, by burning their own fhips, in order to fhew their troops that there was no retreat, and that they must perish or conquer. In this new and trying fituation, his conduct became an object of more intereft and curiofity, with ingenious minds, than ever it had been, in the most rapid carreer of his fuccefs and victory. The circumftances in which he was now placed were univerfally admitted to be pregnant with danger. Attention was every where awake to the meafures and contrivances that would be fuggefted by genius and fcience, or to the refolution that might be prompted by despair. But, in order that a tolerably juft idea may be formed of both the advantages and difadvantages under which the invading army laboured in Egypt, the enemies they had to encounter, and the means that prefented themfelves for encountering them, it may be neceffary to recall to the minds of fome of our readers, a view of the prefent ftate of that ancient and celebrated country. It was not with the Mammalukes and Arabs alone, that the French general had to contend, but with the climate, endemial diftempers, and the ufual perfidy of barbarians, united with the malignity of a proud and illiberal fuperftition. On the other hand, as there were certain * The dinike of the Greek church to the Pope's and the Western church, was formerly fo great, that one of their patriarchs declared publicly, to a Romish legate, that he would rather fee a turban, than the pope's tiara, on the great altar of Conftantinople. common common principles and paffions which united great numbers of the natives and others in hoftility to Buonaparte, fo there were circumftances alfo which divided them against one another; while the common weakness of human nature, prevailing over fentiments of religion and duty, fubjected them to various arts of corruption, and thus tended naturally to draw them over to the fide of the most powerful party. Egypt is commonly reckoned to be about 500 miles in length, and 160 in breadth. The borders of the Nile, from Abyffinia to Grand Cairo, form a narrow valley, which, with leffer vallies or openings into the hilly country, and the deferts on either fide, is called the Upper, and the whole country watered by the Nile from thence downward, the Lower Egypt. The two grand branches of the Nile, which part at Grand Cairo, together with the Mediterranean, into which they fall, form a triangle, called the Delta, of which the ocean is the bale, the two branches of the Nile the fides, and Cairo the apex, or head. A great portion of this part of Egypt, being enriched by the overflowing of the Nile, is extremely fertile. No country in the world is more plenteously ftored than Egypt with corn, rice, flesh, fifh, fugar, fruits, vegetables, and oil. The Delta produces oranges, lemons, figs, dates, almonds, and plantains in the greateft abundance. The extent of this famous country, that is, of the part of it now inhabited, does not feem, at first fight, to correfpond with the defcriptions which have been left by the ancients of its twenty thousand towns and cities, feveral millions of inhabitants, and arnies kept by its ancient kings of three hundred thousand men, executing the pyramids, the labyrinths, the grottos of Thebes, the lake Moeris, vaft canals, obelifks, temples, and pompous palaces. But although the reports by travellers, of Egypt, being even at this day a moft delicious garden be unanimously reprobated, by all the French who have fpoken or written on the fubject, fince their late expedition thither, the most intelligent and obfervant admit, that the extent to which the happy influence and dominion of the Nile, by means of induftry and art, may have been carried in times paft, and yet carried in times to come, very much farther than at prefent, from the banks of the river over the arid defart. As a heavy counter-balance to these natural advantages, except in our winter, and the latter part of the autumnal months, the heat of the climate is oppreffive to all who are not accuftomed to it. The winds are fometimes of fuch extreme heat and aridity, that their influence proves mortal. During the time these last, the ftreets are deferted, and the inhabitants almoft blinded by drifts of fand, fo fubtle, that they infinuate themfelves into the clofeft apartments: fo, that from this enemy there is no fuch thing as a perfectly fecure retreat. The vermin that infeft this land, to trangers particularly, is intolerable. And, in addition to all thefe evils, it is fre quently vifited by the plague. Since Egypt fell under the dominion of the Turks, it has been oftenfibly governed by a pacha, or, as we pronounce the word, bashaw, who refided at Grand Cairo: but whofe authority, for a long time paft, has been more nominal than [B2] real. real. The bafhaw was, in fact, little more than a fign and memorial of the refpect formerly paid, and fill profefled, by all Muffelmen, to the eldeft fon of the prophet. Under the bafhaw there were inferior governors, under various defignations, in the different provinces, but the power of the word was in the hands of the Mammalukes. A fmall number of Janiflaries indeed was retained at Cairo, and a few other places in the fervice of the Porte, of which they held landed poffeffions, in return for their fervice. In Up. per Egypt, there were fome Arabs who paid tribute to the grand fignior, or made prefents to the bathaw; and in the Lower Egypt, there were fome villages in the poffeilion of fheicks. But the real government or fovereignty of Egypt was poffeffed by the Mammalukes, criginally foldiers of fortune, but who paid very little regard to the conditions on which they held their power and property. They came originally from the mountainous countries, between the Black Sea and Caucafus, and their armies were fill recruited by boys from thofe countries, and other youth, the children of Chriftian laves brought for fale to Grand Cairo. The laws of Mahomet enjoin great compaffion and tendernefs for flaves, and nothing is confidered as more pleafing and meritorious in the fight of God than their total eman cipation. The condition of the young flaves, who fell into the hands of the Mammalukes, was certainly among the gentlet lots of flavery. It was the road to for fuch: nor did the circumftance of their having ever been in a state of slavery preclude them from any degree of preferment, even that of bey, which was the chief; who was chofen freely by a plurality of voices in a full council of officers: fo that the beys, elevated to power, neither by the accident of birth, nor the particular favour of any fovereign prince, but in fome degree at leaft, if not chiefly, by their own merit, were, for the moft part, men of fuperior talents and unquestionable courage. The Mammalukes were all of them brave, even to excefs. In the battle of the Pyramids, the flue of which gave the French a footing in Egypt, and of which fome notice has been taken in the last volume of this work, they had the temerity to ruth in between the compacted and fquare battalions of the French army; and there meet their fate. They, to a man, refied quarter, and fought to the laft, fometimes when defperately and mortally wounded. They were accustomed, from their carlieft years, to a dextrous management of the finest and most spirited horfes in the world. They were armed with fwords and pifiols, mufkets, and lances. Their wealth and state difplayed in their arms, drefs, and equipage. Their habitations and houtchold furniture were wretched. It was their manner inceflantly to wheel round about an enemy in his front, flank, and rear, and to retreat as he advanced, unless they, perceived an advantage, or were under a neceflity of coming to close a&tion, while another divifion of them hung upon his rear, and endeavoured to furround and cut off detached parties, wherever they could find an opening. The gene ral |