Besides the commodities already mentioned, the Egyptians carry on a considerable traffic in slaves, which are brought down by the caravans from Nubia, Abyssinia, &c., and are sold in Cairo.

Ships arrived in Alexandria during a period of Three Years.

Among the Vessels which Sailed from Alexandria in 1824, there were :

From these tables it appears that there are no ships trading with Egypt under the Egyptian or the Turkish flags; and that the extensive trade carried on between Egypt and Turkey, as well as the Ionian Isles, is principally carried on in Austrian and Tuscan, but partly also in English, Ionian, American, and Russian bottoms. The art of navigation, indeed, appears to be almost lost in Egypt; we cannot be surprised that they are not ship-builders, since they have little timber of a suitable description, but it is remarkable that they should have so much declined in the science and art of navigation.

Ships arrived of the following flags in 1824 and 1823, and sailed:

Ships sailed from Alexandria in 1824 were for the following 30 places :—

When we consider the heavy taxes imposed by the Pasha on the produce of the land, and the general monopoly which he has of all the exports, from which sources we find he raises a revenue of nearly 2,000,000l. sterling, (according to the statement of Monsieur Mengin, who gives all the particulars with great minuteness,) we are surprised that the commerce and exportable produce of the country are so considerable. The duty on manufactured goods imported is only three per cent. on the value. Merchandise destined to be shipped to Europe, pays three per cent. at Cairo; and all the goods brought down from Sennaar and Darfour, such as gums, slaves, &c., pay a small duty in transitu ; 2 and this trade being left open to individual competition, the dealers come from Cairo and Rosetta to purchase them, and would, no doubt, buy more largely if the inhabitants were permitted to sell all the produce of their industry freely in exchange. In the important article of cotton he has paid the growers only about threepence to fourpence per pound, and fixed about twice this price to the purchasers; sometimes he has refused to sell at all, preferring to consign it for sale to Europe, under the direction of Mr. Briggs, a British merchant long resident there, and a Swiss house, resident at Leghorn, Messrs. Viollier and Co. These two

2 Vide Mengin.

houses are in the habit of advancing to the Pasha large sums before the shipments are made; in this way it is probable that one-half, or even two-thirds of the last crop, will be consigned to France, Italy, and England, this year; and as the prices rose very much in the spring, they may probably produce a return of considerably more than he could have obtained for it, had he sold it on the spot. This will, no doubt, induce him to make efforts to increase the growth; and possibly double the quantity of the last crop may be produced this year, as he will probably make his subjects plant cotton instead of wheat, on account of the low price of the latter in the south of Europe.

Extravagant taxation and monopolies are not the only errors which the Governor of Egypt has committed: he has inundated the country with his treasury-bills, a paper-currency, which has had the natural effect of driving away the metallic currency, and, by altering the prices of commodities, deranging the course of industry.

The great amount of his military force (dispersed over all the provinces) and his naval equipments, consume a very large portion of his income; his court, harems, and palaces, are also extremely expensive, being large and magnificent; and we may state the charge of his army, navy, and household at one-half, at least, of his whole revenue; the remainder is expended in large buildings for magazines and manufactures, and in canals and supposed improvements.

The Pasha having, however, accomplished his object of subduing the neighbouring tribes of Arabs who infested the country, and put down the Mamelouk chieftains and beys who preyed upon the provinces that were committed to their government, has turned his active and energetic mind so decidedly to commerce, and has shown so many proofs of a desire to make the country rich and powerful, that we may reasonably expect, if he lives ten or fifteen years, or if his successors adopt his views, and improve on them, (as we may hope they will, from their intercourse with Europeans,) that the trade of Egypt will become much more extensive and beneficial than it is at present, and that the population may advance considerably in numbers and civilization. They appear to be very capable of education and improvement, and remarkably quick in receiving instruction."

3 There is no evidence that the ancient Egyptians possessed much more strength of character than the moderns. In the earliest ages, it is true, they made an extraordinary progress in astronomy and some branches of mathematics, as well as in chemistry and the arts; this cannot be doubted; the proofs of it are decisive: and there is reason to think their laws were, during the period of their greatest renown, enacted and executed for the benefit of the mass of the people, as well as of the governors and privileged classes. Their stupendous temples, although more grand than beautiful, attest a considerable advancement in wealth and refinement, as well as in some mechanic arts; and without receiving, with implicit confidence, the accounts left by the Greek writers of their wonderful attainments in the sciences generally, we cannot but regard this ancient people as possessing, at some remote period, a decisive character of genius and industry. But it appears that, as the priests exercised the supreme power, so they were almost the sole possessors of all the higher brauches of knowledge: even the kings were under their control, and the people were merely their political slaves. They divided the people into distinct classes, which were arbitrarily perpetuated by hereditary descent, as in India; and thus, whilst they were forced to pursue some employmeu', they were discouraged from any endeavour to improve their situation, and were not allowed

They reside chiefly in villages; the number of these in Upper and Lower Egypt is stated to be above 3500, (a greater number, in proportion to the population, than Ireland contains.) M. Mengin thinks it would be easy to make elementary instruction general in Egypt, the children being exceedingly docile and apt to be taught. The method of teaching adopted in the schools which he visited at Boulac and elsewhere, gives great facility to the masters, as well as to the scholars in learning to read and write. The master not only makes the children read aloud in large classes, dictating to them all at once, and making them repeat the lesson simultaneously, but he makes them, at the same time, write the sentence with chalk on a solid black board. "Ils lisent à haute voix, tous en mesure et au signal du maitre; et de plus ils écrivent la leçon en la prononçant; cette prononciation est cadencée, comme les mouvements des élèves." The Pasha sent an officer to Paris, four or five years since, to procure information as to the French and English methods of instructing the lower classes; and this individual took back not only a variety of books, instruments, and utensils connected with the arts of life, but several artisans and artists of different trades. In the great school at Boulac, the scholars are taught mathematics, drawing, and the French and Italian languages. The latter is much spoken at Cairo and Alexandria; and in it the Franks generally carry on their verbal and written intercourse with the Native and Greek merchants.

to possess land. One hundred thousand men were employed for twenty years in constructing the largest of the three pyramids near Cairo; but they were merely paid for their labour by a scanty pittance of radishes and onions. And we may suppose all the other works, whose existence indicates a great degree of wealth and science, to have been accomplished without the bulk of the people being very civilized.

It has been said, that the principles of a polished people will influence their latest posterity; but in the present character of the inhabitants of this interesting country, we cannot discover any thing worthy of the descendants of such a nation. If they were ever much civilized, they have lost their ancient character more than the inhabitants of India, or even Greece. The ruins of their vast pyramids and obelisks, their gorgeous tombs and temples, only attest that Egypt excelled other nations of antiquity in the grand designs of its priests and kings; they prove nothing as to the general state of society. The importance of this country as an appendage to the Roman empire at the commencement of the Christian era, especially as a granary for the supply of the Roman people, may be judged of from the remarks made by Tacitus in the second book of his ‘Aunals,' from which the following is an extract:

"In the consulship of Marcus Silanus and Lucius Norbanus, Germanicus made a progress into Egypt to view the monuments of antiquity so much celebrated in that country. For this journey the good of the province was his pretext. In fact, by opening the public granaries, he reduced the price of corn; and by pursuing popular measures, he gained the good-will of the inhabitants. He appeared in public without a guard, his feet uncovered after the Greek fashion, and the rest of his costume was also Greek. Tiberius, as soon as he received advices from Egypt, condemned this affectation. Another point appeared to him of greater moment. Among the regulations established by Augustus, it was a maxim of state-policy that Egypt should be considered as forbidden ground, which neither the senators nor Roman knights should presume to tread without the express permission of the prince. This was, no doubt, a wise precaution: it was seen that whoever made himself master of Alexandria with the strongholds, which, by sea and land, were the keys of the whole province, night, with a small force, make head against the power of Rome, and by blocking up that plentiful corn country, reduce all Italy to a famine. Germanicus had, without aathority, entered Alexandria; and this, to the jealous temper of Tiberius, was little short of a state crime."

The quantity of good land which is now neglected in almost all the provinces, is represented to be very extensive, and capable of easy cultivation; the climate is superior to most tropical climates; the richness of the soil (which produces, as we have shown, a succession of crops with little or no manure, excepting the mud of the Nile,) is not surpassed in any country; the facility of water-communication is very great, even to the cataracts in the furthest provinces of Upper Egypt, 600 miles from Alexandria; and nothing seems to be wanting, indeed, but a moderate and steady government which will encourage industry and the extension of the arts of civilized life, establish schools for medicine and other sciences, now but little cultivated, and give security to property, to make Egypt a very rich, populous, and happy country.

It cannot indeed be expected that manufactures should flourish, excepting the coarse linens and woollens, and other very simple fabrics for their domestic use, earthenware of a strong and useful description, (for which the tenacious mud of the Nile is well adapted,) and sal-ammoniac, saltpetre, and some other alkaline products; because the country contains no internal supply of coals, nor streams of water, nor forests for timber, nor much capital, and the climate is unfavourable for great exertion. Nor can steam-engines, or complicated machinery, be introduced with effect, as the fine work is soon injured by the hot winds, which cause the wood to crack, and by the sands, which impede the wheel-work. It is indeed surprising that so many cloths should be woven so excellent in quality and cheap as they appear to be, since their mode of weaving is, by all accounts, more rude even than that of the Hindoos. Belzoni informs us, that he saw the weavers working with the warps suspended to the boughs of the trees, and passing the weft through with their hands: this was, indeed, in one of the rudest parts of the country. Near Siout, the manufactures are better, and a rude and coarse kind of loom is used, probably inferior to that used by the ancient Egyptians, who, it appears, wove very fine linen and cotton cloths.+

But if the people were better educated and encouraged in their taste for European manufactures and produce, by securing to them the fruits of their labour, they could easily produce three or four times the quantity they now raise for European consumption, of the various articles above enumerated, (the most important of which are now raised in America and the East and West Indies,) and they might greatly extend their commerce with Persia, Arabia, and Syria, by a coasting trade in the Arabian Gulf; with Nubia and Abyssinia, both by the Nile and the Red Sea; and with Darfour, and other interior kingdoms of Africa, by the river Nile, and the numerous caravans of camels, which travel with surprising economy. Through Egypt, it is possible, the sale of British manufactures may be extended to Persia, Arabia, and parts of Syria ; but this can only be by means of the merchants of the country. It appears highly improbable that the Pasha of Egypt will encourage, or even permit, the English, or any European merchants, to open a direct trade

There has been some dispute whether the cloths manufactured by the ancient Egyptians were made of linen or cotton, or both. It is probable they were made from both these articles; and the best evidence of this is, perhaps, derived from the examination of the wrapping-cloths found in the mummy-cases. —[See Dr. Granville's description of the Auatomy of an Ancient Mummy, read before the Royal Society, in the last volume of its Transactions.]