Mehmed Ali’s self-presentation as a liberal reformer failed to move Palmerston

Evidence

When this card did not succeed, Mehmed Ali tried to impress upon Palmerston that he was the liberal reformer he was looking for and with whom he could do business. He is famously reported to have told Palmerston (through Dr. Bowring): “Do not judge me by the standards of your knowledge. Compare me with the ignorance that is around me … I can find very few to understand me and do my bidding … I have been almost alone for the greater part of my life.” At the height of the second Syrian crisis he had not given up: he was still trying to force Palmerston to take him seriously as a liberal reformer. In June 1840 he told Colonel Hodges, the new British Consul-General, “When I came to Egypt it was really barbarous, utterly barbarous. Barbarous it remains to this day. Still I hope that my labours have rendered its condition somewhat better than it was. You must not however be shocked if you do not find in these countries the civilization which prevails in Europe.” Palmerston was not impressed by any of these allegations. He wrote to his ambassador to Paris, “For my part I hate Mehemet Ali, whom I consider as nothing but an ignorant barbarian … I look upon his boasted civilization as the arrantest humbug; and I believe that he is as great a tyrant and oppressor as ever made a people wretched.” — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1585

Categorization

• SEED: A piece on how imperial powers judged ‘genuine’ reform by who was doing it — Palmerston accepted Ottoman Tanzimat liberalism yet dismissed nearly identical Egyptian claims.