The second part of the work explains the state of industry in Egypt at the time that the French occupied that country.

The art of pottery is the first. The Egyptians make clumsy vases of more than an inch thick; their earthenware, ill-baked and very porous, suffers part of the water it contains to escape, which wets the outside; and the evaporation of this dampness lowers the heat of the temperament very agreeably in hot climates.

The art of making bricks, simpler than that of earthenware, and burning lime, have been described else where, and the author refers us for information on the subject to the large work published by the Savans who visited Egypt. He then pro

ceeds to the manufacture of stuffs: the country furnishes those of immediate necessity; but very little for the purposes of luxury.

Some fine linens, and some silk stuffs, are all that the Egyptian weavers furnish the opulent with.

The manufacture of oils does not possess the means of strong pressure, so that a great quantity of oil can not be extracted. The art of making the celebrated Nôme Mareotique wine is entirely lost; the excellent Faynoum grapes produce now but a very indifferent wine, which only keeps a few months.

Speaking of the professions followed in the towns, M. Girard remarks upon those that have acquired a certain degree of perfection, such as saddlery and embroidering; but he adds that the workmen are all foreigners, and the work goes on slowly.

To prove this last assertion, it is sufficient to say,that the blacksmiths, carpenters, and joiners, work sit ting, and only stand up when they put the work they are upon in its proper place. Almost all the Egyptian arts having been already described elsewhere, that part of the memoir on industry is necessarily short.

The author dwells longer on the commerce of the Egyptians; and as he has given at the end a summary of his facts and the general considerations arising from them, we pass to it immediately, because all that concerns commerce is treated of in one general point of view.

Amongst the facts collected in Egypt by M. Girard, those relative to the soil may be consulted with confidence by posterity. In this country the soil neither gains nor acquires any thing: it participates in the stability of nature. But man and his works, the social state, public economy, and the statistics of the state, experience the influence of time. Contemporaries ought to know them, such as they are, and history supplies valuable materials: observations concerning them require to be constantly renewed, according to the place, people, and course of events. Ever since the occupation of Egypt by the French the commerce of this country has increased, and industry has made some progress; but the productions of the soil have not yet had sufficient time to undergo a perceptible variation.

According to M. Girard, the population of this country is extremely reduced; several of its arts have disappeared, industry and agricul ture have declined, but the earth has preserved its fertility.

Every two acres produce in Egypt nearly twenty-two hectolitres of corn, deducting the seed; whilst the best soil in France only produces eighteen hectolitres. If we add to this the superiority of the harvest, the advantages resulting from the climate, the inundations of the Nile, and the mud used instead of manure, we shall see the reason that Egypt always was, and always will be, the granary of all the countries watered by the Mediterranean. The extent of cultivated ground might be increased, for the inundations, well conducted by machines, might bring the barren land into fertility. The careless and barbarous management of the Turks neglected to preserve the canals, and all the land not watered by the Nile, without the assistance of art, would have been lost. In the present state of Egypt there is much to repair and more to create. For the prosperity of agriculture reservoirs and canals must be made, and, what is still more difficult, a nation should be formed. The fellah of Egypt has not even the advantage of being attached to the land. When he is not proprietor the fields are badly cultivated. And

how can we get over the immense space that separates what is, from what ought to be? Agriculture has lost, not only canals, but all the land fertilized by them, as well as machines, and the way to make use of them. To restore it, industry must be animated, and these long and difficult enterprizes be brought to maturity in a country where every thing depends on life, where no law secures and protects existence, and where life itself is enjoyed in doubt and fear: time is required, but time is wanted, and also a slow, continued and regular industry, a firm government, institutions and knowfedge; but all is barbarity, ignorance and anarchy. It is much to be doubted whether Egypt will ever regain her ancient splendour if it remains under the dominion of the Turks.

M. Girard does not, however, give up all hope. "This country," says he," will undoubtedly rise from the state of degradation into which it is fallen; new species of industry are every day introduced: but the circle to which they are confined is at present very narrow. There are no rivulets of water, no combustibles, nor hydraulic machines, nor steamengines, the inanimate causes to which modern industry owes its astonishing progress. The force and regularity of wind might, indeed, be used instead of men and animals in the supplying of water, the thrashing of corn, the manufacturing of oil, and the bleaching of rice. But before wind-mills could be built, clockwheels, buckets, and all machines necessary for dispersing water upon land must be brought to perfection; for the cultivation of the earth will always be in Egypt the most productive object of labour."

The author is right, if Egypt does not extend beyond its present limits; but if any powerful and civilized nation establishes itself upon the land of the Pharoahs, it would prescribe to itself its own limits, consulting only nature, its own wants, and those of its neighbours. The Nile would be no longer divided; this river would water only one state, and would carry as far as the sea the wood, the metal, and the combustibles that are wanted in the interior regions. The formation of a large state

at this extremity of Africa, together with the Asiatic regions, whose ancient splendour history has described to us, and the countries which neither the ancients nor moderns have ever known, might raise Asia, and entirely expel African barbarity.

Egypt, considered under this point of view, takes a new form. This privileged land is provided with all the best gifts of nature; a soil admirably fertile, a pure sky that never interrupts the observations of the astronomer, abundant rains, high mountains covered with forests that refresh the air, and create near the equator a perpetual spring; easy commercial relations with Europe and the East Indies,, an interior commerce founded upon mutual wants, and which preserves union and the common interest between the most remote provinces. May such a country fulfil its great destiny, and contribute as much as possible to the happiness of the human species!

The author of this memoir follows the progress of commerce in Egypt through all its vicissitudes from the most remote times up to the present era. He thinks that the first connections were established with the interior of Africa, whose inhabitants have indeed more conformity with the Egyptians, than these have with the Asiatic nations; that commerce with India did not begin till the reign of Sesostris, the first Egyptian king, who equipped a fleet; that the riches gained by this new commerce gave rise to the grandeur of Thebes, up to the period of the foundation of Memphis, which displaced the first market. After which the commercial relations of Egypt were extended to the Mediterranean by the Phenicians. The town of Naucratis, and afterwards Alexandria, were founded. Ptolemy Philadelphus built Berenice upon the Red Sea; the destruction of Palmyra turned into Egypt the commerce of that celebrated city; an old town, now called Qoceyn, succeeded Coptos, which was ruined under Diocletian. The Roman Empire fell; and in Egypt and Syria the Mahommetan faith changed the laws, manners, and customs of the people. However, commerce was still maintained in

the same places until the wars between the Christians and the Turks forced it to take another direction, and to penetrate into Europe by the Caspian sea. The Venetians turned it again into its old channel; but Vasco de Gama succeeded in doubling the Cape of Good Hope, in consequence of which the Portuguese were enabled to form establishments in India; the Venetians perceived the extent of the danger that menaced them, and the ties of religion were broken for the interests of commerce. Venice made an alliance with Cairo; Mussulmen were opposed to the Portuguese establishments in India; and they, in return, ruined the commercial towns in the Arabian Gulf. The efforts of the Venetians were useless; ships from all the commercial nations in Europe which traded to India touched at the Cape of Good Hope; the commerce of Egypt declined from day to day, and the lazy Turks made no effort to prevent it. In this state of things, says M. Girard, a canal between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean could not have maintained the commercial relations, and still less have recalled them after they had ceased. But did this communication ever exist? Though this doubt is against general opinion, our author founds it upon reasons well worth.consideration, and which will stagger the most incredulous if it does not succeed in convincing them. We know the time when the great monuments of Egypt were constructed, and a canal of such importance would have been mentioned also; the honour of it has been attributed to Sesostris, then to Nechao, who lived 900 years later, to Darius, son of Hystapes, 200 years after Nechao, to Ptolemy Philadelphus, to the Emperor Adrian, to the Arab Amrou, Governor of Egypt, who, according to some historians, only repaired it, which did not prevent its being stopped up in the manner it

is at present. It may be true that all the conquerors of Egypt might conceive the design of executing this celebrated undertaking, and might have abandoned it, as the French did, after an attentive examination. All these reasons are excellent for the past, but their authority will perhaps weaken in futurity. A people who wished to secure to themselves the possession of Egypt will find, in a canal between the two seas, a means of defence, a system of lines capable of great resistance, and easy to protect. The military importance of this work is not less worthy of attention than its commercial consequences.

The author of this memoir has seen the places he speaks of; he has observed them at leisure in the most convenient position for judging of them, and with knowledge to direct his judgment; all that he says of the present limits of Egypt is very exact; but Egypt aggrandized, extending to its natural frontiers, and possessing the whole course of its rivers, would establish different connections with the rest of the world, and become capable of greater interior development. This new order of things is so conformable to the present state of our knowledge and the organization of societies, and is so desirable for the many peculiar advantages arising from it, that we cannot help indulging in the pleasing anticipation. Already a man of very superior intellect has began the reformations, creations, and aggrandizements, which will work these happy changes and prepare a new destiny for Egypt. We conclude our observations on this interesting publication with a hope that this will prove the commencement of a series of memoirs, that may justly develop the statistics of this highly interesting country, which has in all ages attracted the attention of politicians, philosophers, and learned

men.