steamers, or I should soon have some afloat.  But I will make a tramway.  If we could have steamers and tramways everywhere Turkey would become rich.”  “And canals,” we suggested, maliciously remembering how he had flooded Bagdad with his experiments in this way.  “Yes, and canals too.  Canals, steamers, and tramways, are what we want.”  “And railways.”  “Yes, railways.  I hope to have a railway soon running alongside of the carriage road from Beyrout.  Railways are important for the guaranteeing of order in the country.  If there was a railway across the desert we should have no more trouble with the Bedouins.  Ah, those poor Bedouins, how I trounced them at Bagdad.  I warrant my name is not forgotten there.”  We assured him it was not.

He then went on to talk of the Circassians, “ces pauvres Circassiens,” for he was speaking in French, “il faut que je fasse quelque chose pour eux.”  I wish I could give some idea of the tone of tenderness and almost tearful pity in Midhat’s voice as he pronounced this sentence; the Circassians seemed to be dearer to him than even his steamers and tramways.  These unfortunate refugees are, in truth, a problem not easy of solution: they have been a terrible trouble to Turkey, and, since they were originally deported from Russia after the Crimean war, they have been passed on from province to province until they can be passed no further.  They are a scourge to the inhabitants wherever they go, because they are hungry and armed, and insist on robbing to get a livelihood.  To the Syrian Arabs they are especially obnoxious, because they shed blood as well as rob, which is altogether contrary to Arab ideas.  The Circassians are like the foxes which sportsmen turn out in their covers.  It is a public-spirited act to have done so, but they cannot be made to live in peace with the hares and rabbits.  Midhat, however, had a notable scheme for setting things to rights.  He would draft all these men into the corps of zaptiehs, and then, if they did rob, it would be in the interests of Government.  Some score of them were waiting in the courtyard at the time of our visit, to be experimented on; and a more evil-visaged set it would have been difficult to select.

On the whole, we went away much impressed with Midhat, though not as we had hoped.  He had astonished us, but not as a wise man.  To speak seriously, one such reforming pasha as this does more to ruin Turkey than twenty of the old dishonest sort.  Midhat, though he fails to line his own purse, may be counted on to empty the public one at Damascus, as he did at Bagdad, where he spent a million sterling on unproductive works within a single year.  As we wished him good-bye, we were amused to notice that he retained Mr. Siouffi, the manager of the Ottoman Bank, who had come with us, with him for a private conference, the upshot of which was his first public act as Governor of Syria, the raising of a loan. [18]