of the hereditary pashalik of Egypt. This arrangement was ratified by Palmerston; and all four powers now combined to press it on the reluctant Porte, pointing out, in a joint note of the 30th of January 1841, that “they were not conscious of advising a course out of harmony with the sovereignty and legitimate rights of the sultan, or contrary to the duties imposed on the Pasha of Egypt as a subject appointed by His Highness to govern a province of the Ottoman Empire.” This principle was elaborated in the firman, issued on the 13th of February, by which the sultan conferred on Mehemet Ali and his heirs by direct descent the pashalik of Egypt, the greatest care being taken not to bestow any rank and authority greater than that enjoyed by other viziers of the empire. By a second firman of the same date Mehemet Ali was invested with the government of Nubia, Darfur, Khordofan and Sennaar, with their dependencies. On the 10th of June the firman was solemnly promulgated at Alexandria.
Thus ended the phase of the Egyptian Question with which the name of Mehemet Ali is specially bound up. The threatened European conflict had been averted, and presently the wounded susceptibilities of France were healed by the invitation extended to her to take part in the Straits Convention. As for Mehemet Ali himself, he now passes off the stage of history. He was an old man; his mind was soon to give way; and for some time before his death on the 2nd of August 1849 the reins of power were held by his son and successor Ibrahim.
Probably no Oriental ruler, not even excepting Ali of Iannina, has ever stirred up so much interest among his contemporaries as Mehemet Ali. The spectacle of an Eastern despot apparently advancing on the lines of European progress was in itself as astonishing as new. Men thought they were witnessing the dawn of a new era in the East; Mehemet Ali was hailed as the most beneficent and enlightened of princes; and political philosophers like Jeremy Bentham, who sent him elaborate letters of good advice, thought to find in him the means for developing their theories in virgin soil. In fact the pasha was an illiterate barbarian, of the same type as his countryman Ali of Iannina, courageous, cruel, astute, full of wiles, avaricious and boundlessly ambitious. He never learned to read or write, though late in life he mastered colloquial Arabic; yet those Europeans who were brought into contact with him praised alike the dignity and charm of his address, his ready wit, and the astonishing perspicacity which enabled him to read the motives of men and of governments and to deal effectively with each situation as it arose.
The latest account of Mehemet Ali and the European crisis arising out of his revolt is that by W. Alison Phillips in vol. x. ch. xvii. of the Cambridge Modern History (1907). The bibliography attached to this chapter (p. 852) gives a list of all the principal published documents and works, together with some analysis of the unpublished Foreign Office records bearing on the subject. Of the works mentioned C. de Freycinet’s La Question d’Egypte (Paris, 1905) gives the most authoritative account of the diplomatic developments. (W. A. P.)
MEHIDPUR, or Mahidpur, a town of India, in Indore
state of Central India, on the right bank of the Sipra, 1543 ft.
above the sea, and 24 m. N. of Ujjain. Pop. (1901), 6681.
Though of some antiquity and frequented by Hindu pilgrims,
it is best known for the battle fought in the neighbourhood
on the 20th of December 1817, in which Sir John Malcolm
defeated the army of Holkar. The result was the Treaty of
Mandasor and the pacification of Malwa. Mehidpur was
again the scene of some sharp fighting during the Mutiny.
The British cantonment, placed here in 1817, was removed
in 1882.
MÉHUL, ÉTIENNE HENRI (or Étienne Nicolas) (1763–1817), French composer, was born at Givet in Ardennes, on the 24th of June 1763. His father being too poor to give him a regular musical education, his first ideas of art were derived from a poor blind organist of Givet; yet such was his aptitude that, when ten years old, he was appointed organist of the convent of the Récollets. In 1775 an able German musician and organist, Wilhelm Hauser, was engaged for the monastery of Lavaldieu, a few miles from Givet, and Méhul became his occasional pupil. In 1778 he was taken to Paris by a military officer, and placed himself under Edelmann, a good musician and harpsichord player. His first attempts at instrumental composition in 1781 did not succeed, and he therefore turned his attention to sacred and dramatic music. Gluck gave him advice in his studies. After various disappointments during his efforts for six years to obtain, at the Grand Opéra, a representation of his Cora et Alonzo, he offered to the Opéra Comique his Euphrosine et Coradin, which, being accepted and performed in 1790, at once fixed his reputation. His opera of Stratonice was also received with enthusiasm in 1792. After several unsuccessful operas, his Adrien appeared, and added much to his fame, which was further increased by his three best works, Le Jeune Henri, Uthal and Joseph, the finest of the series. Uthal was written for an orchestra without violins. Méhul held a post as one of the four inspectors of the Paris Conservatoire, but this office made him feel continually the insufficiency of his early studies, a want which he endeavoured to remedy by incessant application. Timoléon, Ariodant and Bion followed. Epicure was composed by Méhul and Cherubini jointly; but the superiority of the latter was evident. Méhul’s next opera, L’Irato, failed. After writing forty-two operas, besides a number of songs for the festivals of the republic, cantatas, and orchestral pieces of various kinds, his health gave way, from an affection of the chest, and he died on the 18th of October 1817 in Paris.
See Lives by Pougin (1889), Viellard (1859), and Quatremère de Quincey (1818).
MEIBOM, HEINRICH (1555–1625), German historian and poet, was born at Lemgo on the 4th of December 1555, and died on the 20th of September 1625, at Helmstedt, where he had held the chair of history and poetry since 1583. He was a writer of Latin verses (Parodiarum horatianarum libri III. et sylvarum libri II., 1588); and his talents in this direction were recognized by the emperor Rudolph II., who ennobled him; but his claim to be remembered rests on his services in elucidating the medieval history of Germany.
His Opuscula historica ad res germanicas spectantia was edited and published in 1660 by his grandson, Heinrich Meibom (1638–1700), who was professor of medicine and then of history and poetry at Helmstedt, and incorporated his grandfather’s work with his own Rerum germanicarum scriptores (1688).
MEIDERICH, a town of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine province, 212 m. by rail N.E. of Ruhrort, whose river harbour is in great part within its confines. Pop. (1905), 40,822. Iron and steel works, coal-mines, saw-mills, brickworks, and machine-shops furnish the principal occupations of the inhabitants. Meiderich, which is first mentioned in 874, was united with Duisburg in 1905.
See Graeber, Tausendjährige Geschichte von Meiderich (1893).
MEIKTILA, a district and division in Upper Burma. The district is the most easterly of the districts in the dry zone, and has an area of 2183 sq. m. It lies between Kyauksē, Myingyan, Yamēthin, and on the east touches the Shan States. It is a slightly undulating plain, the gentle slopes of which are composed of black “cotton” soil and are somewhat arid. The only hills above 300 ft. are on the slopes of the Shan hills. The lake is the chief feature of the district. It is artificial, and according to Burmese legend was begun 2400 years ago by the grandfather of Gautama Buddha. It is 7 m. long, averages half a mile broad, and covers an area of 312 sq. m. With the Minhla and other connected lakes it irrigates a large extent of country.
There are small forest reserves, chiefly of cutch. Large numbers of cattle are bred. The chief agricultural products are rice, sesamum, cotton, peas, maize, millet and gram. Pop. (1901), 252,305. Famines in 1891, 1895 and 1896 led to considerable emigration. The climate is healthy except in the submontane townships. The temperature rises to 100° F. and over between the months of March and June, and the mean minimum in January is about 61°. The rainfall is uncertain (36·79 in. in 1893, 25·59 in 1891). The vast majority
