the inquiries of the literati of Europe; and though the French have been completely baffled in their schemes relative to that country, we shall probably, through their means, acquire more correct information respecting its government, natural history, antiquities, &c. than has hitherto been exhibited. From Bonaparte's expedition, we may learn many particulars of the state of Egypt: but little, we apprehend, will have been effected by it towards meliorating the condition of the natives, or restoring their antient learning and splendor. The first People in the Universe, as the French are styled by French vanity, may have discovered monuments to which all approach has hitherto been prohibited either by a suspicious government or by a wretched and barbarous people: but now they must have lost all ideas of raising cities from their ashes, of digging and repairing canals, of uniting the Red Sea with the Mediterranean, and of restoring the commerce of the East to its antient channel. A philanthropist would rejoice in having the wretched state of the inhabitants of Egypt amended: but, even from M. Sonnini's own account of the dangers of navigation near the Egyptian coast to say nothing of the difficult navigation of the Red Sea, we may question whether any benefit would have accrued to Europe, had the French succeeded in the Egyptian expedition; and whether the trade to the East is not carried on with more safety, dispatch, and economy, round the Cape of Good Hope, than it could possibly be up the Red Sea and through Egypt. While navigation was in its infancy, and commerce floated in small vessels, Alexandria may have been a good situation for an Emporium between Europe and the East Indies: but, since the ocean has been perfectly explored, and we can navigate immense castles to and from with little risk, the circuitous is preferable in many respects to the direct course; and the French, had they been able to have retained possession of Egypt, would probably have been disappointed in their expectation of seeing Alexandria regain its antient consequence †, As there is every prospect of our being frequently called to travel in our great chairs to the land of Egypt, we cannot deem it advisable to re-discuss the narrative of M. Sonnini: but, since some specimen of this new version may be expected, we will indulge our readers with an extract: Having spent upwards of five months in travelling over Upper Egypt, that is to say, over an extent in latitude of about a hundred and eighty leagues, watered by the Nile above Cairo, and terminating at the cataracts or at the tropic, and having frequently resided in * The Ee 4 the the principal parts of that country, I have been enabled to obtain sufficient knowledge of it to express my opinion on the expedition of the French. There are so many people who speak on this subject, without being acquainted either with the nature of the soil or climate of Egypt, or with the manners of its inhabitants; there are so many encomiasts, as insipid as they are ignorant; so many perfidious detractors; that, perhaps, some degree of interest will be excited by the candid and free language of an observer, jealous of the glory and power of his country, to whom the adulation of the slave, and the gloomy ill-humour of the cynic, are equally unknown, and who cannot be denied the privilege, if not of being attended to or consulted, at least of speaking with some advantage upon a subject of which he has taken no small pains to acquire the best informa tion. It has been seen in the course of this work, that I considered the project of replacing our distant, and, perhaps, insecure colonies by another colony, the proximity of which to the mother-country, the almost miraculous fecundity of its soil, the facility of its culture, its singular situation, which makes it the emporium of the commerce of the richest nations, its vicinity to countries the most fruitful in valuable productions; lastly, the ease and dispatch with which communications might be maintained between France and Egypt, render that colony of far higher importance; all these considerations induced me to regard this project as a happy conception, a sublime idea, and its execution as one of those rare acts which render nations illustrious, and which bear the internal and striking stamp of immortality. In fact, the possession of Egypt would ensure to an industrious and enlightened nation the commerce of the Levant and of Barbary, as well as that of the opulent country of Yemen. The Indian seas carrying their waters through a long gulf into its sands, afford the greatest facility to navigation and commerce, the sources of inappreciable wealth, especially when the canal of communication between the Nile and the Arabian Gulf, one of the most considerable and most useful works of the ancient kings of Egypt, shall have been discovered and again perfectionated. The river itself, then better known in its course, will be disencumbered from the obstacles which now obstruct its navigation, and will, in security, and at a moderate expense, convey the gold and other productions which nature has placed under the scorching climate of the interior of Africa; while the sun-burnt Moor, the indefatigable broker of these fiery regions, will forsake the route of the coasts of Africa, and conduct his caravans into Egypt, as soon as he is certain of there finding safety and protection, as well as an abundance of the articles which constitute his returns. Connexions founded upon trade and interest, but unfettered by all ambition of religious conquest, the pious mania of injudicious missionaries, and which has excluded the Europeans from an interesting and immense country, will be established with the Abyssinians, whose territories are watered by the same river. With new nations, new riches will be brought to light; and in gradually and successively extending these communications, a knowledge will be acquired of a part of the globe, into the bosom of which neither the heroes of an tiquity, tiquity, nor the boldest adventurers of modern times, have hitherto been able to penetrate. In speaking of discoveries, I have indicated the only kind of conquest which philosophy sanctions, and which occasions neither the spilling of blood nor the shedding of tears; that which alone affords a pure and real enjoyment, and which an enlightened people places in the highest rank. Egypt will likewise become the scat of the arts and sciences; and the riches resulting from this source will have a wider and more generous destination, since their diffusion will extend to every nation in the world. Agriculture will assume a new aspect; and, being better understood, will add the treasures of plenty to an accumulation of wealth already so considerable. I have enumerated the principal productions of Egypt; I have mentioned those, the culture of which might be attempted with success, and which, when concentrated, will eclipse the most valuable commodities our most wealthy colony affords. The limits of fertility will be enlarged, at least, as far as the chains of mountains which seem to mark its boundaries on both sides of the Nile; and perhaps industry, guided by science, will even discover the means of establishing vegetation upon the sandy and desert plains, which, behind these mountains, stretch to the cast and to the west. But what would not fail to happen in favourable circumstances, is retarded by those which have attended the French expedition to Egypt. War, it is universally admitted, is the most unpropitious period for the establishment of colonies. Like a consuming confiagration, it burns, it destroys every thing that it approaches; commerce, agriculture, all the sources of public prosperity, are dried up or annihilated; the bright flame of the torch with which the genius of the arts and sciences strives to enlighten mankind, grows dim at the aspect of public calamities, and is at length extinguished by the tears which misfortune every where causes to flow. The destructive breath of ambitious passions stifles the voice of philosophy; every kind of good vanishes, while every kind of evil accumulates. Instead of fostering waters, the earth is inundated with blood, producing a fertility at which nature revolts. Ravage succeeds to culture, and scarcity takes the place of abundance. All sorts of misery occupy the ensanguined stage of the theatre which infuriate war erects; and the man of sensibility, his soul overwhelmed with grief, and his heart worn out with agony, indignantly beholds the atrocious beings who, in the course of an ambitious career, cruelly sport with the happiness and the lives of mankind. The ferociousness of such men has no counterpart in nature; tigers even do not gorge themselves with the blood of tigers *. Without peace, no real happiness can exist; without peace, no society can prosper. If these incontestable truths be applied to the expedition to Egypt, it will be easy to perceive that the new colony, desolated by the double scourge of intestine commotions and external * -parcit Cognatis maculis similis ferra. JUVENAL.' war, war, cannot acquire a flourishing condition. The various tribes by whom it is inhabited, and whom it would, perhaps, have been better policy to dispose for a revolution, than to attack in the field, animated by an inordinate fanaticism, founded upon the grossest ignorance, and excited, besides, by the enemies of France and of general tranquillity, will abandon the cultivation of the soil, or destroy the crops it may have produced. The fields are overrun by warriors, and covered with all the implements used in battle; lasds, which a succession of ages had seen decorated with the richest harvests, are astonished at being shaded by encampments. The labours which the art of war requires cannot be executed but to the detriment of that of agriculture. Several spots on the surface of the earth thus change both their aspect and nature; and it will easily be conceived how prejudicial these partial injuries are in a country where fertility was, in a manner, merely factitious, and where it cannot subsist without the succours which the people of ancient Egypt multiplied with so much ingenuity and skill. The devastation which the wants of a large army produce, and military operations, in general, are so many wounds inflicted on agriculture. The trees, which are so valuable in Egypt, where every sort of wood is very scarce, will fall beneath the axe of necessity or of malevolence; plantations, of many years standing,' which afforded a necessary shelter against the heat of the climate, will be destroyed; and ever-verdant groves, loaded with agreeable and cooling fruits, will share a similar fate. So that at the moment when peace shall be restored, the ravages of war and of barbarism should be repaired, before any amelioration is attempted; an immense task, but not beyond the courage and activity of the French.' It hence, appears that the sanguine expectations from the Egyptian expedition, conceived at the commencement of the work, were considerably abated before the author drew to a conclusion. Events gradually dissipated the illusion, and supposed advantages were more than counterbalanced by real evils. The Ophthalmia of Egypt is alone sufficient to deter Europeans from settling there; and we question whether there be an individual in the French army, who wish to repeat the experiment of an invasion of Egypt. * After every allowance is made to Dr. Hunter on the score of the currens calamus, it must be granted that the present translator appears to be more intimately acquainted with the French language; and that, as a Natural Historian, he is manifestly superior: but these claims to pre-eminence should have been silently manifested; or, if pressed on the public by the invidious mode of comparison, they should have been urged in a manner which would have been less disagreeable to the reader, and more creditable to the writer. the *We understand that there are above a thousand men among remains of the French army in Egypt, who have lost their sight. MONTHLY Art. 13. The Repertory of Arts and Manufactures, consisting of original Communications, Specifications of Patent Inventions, and Selections of useful practical Papers from the Transactions of the Philosophical Societies of all Nations; &c. &c. 8vo. Vol. VII. -XI. 9s. 6d. each. Boards. Nichols, &c. 1799. OUR readers will learn, from this brief notice, that this very useful and curious Repertory has progressively advanced to its eleventh volume. For what we have already observed, in explanation of the nature and design of the undertaking, we may refer to the 22d vol. of our New Series, p. 460, and to vol. xxv. p. 118. EDUCATION, &c. Art. 14. An Essay on the Education of Young Ladies. Addressed to a Person of Distinction. 8vo. 23. Cadell jun. and Davies. As a letter from one friend to another on the subject of the education of daughters, this essay may have obtained credit: but, though it shews that the author is a man of some reflection, it is not of suffcient importance to secure the public notice. A school education is here recommended for young ladies, in preference to a domestic one; and the study of the Latin language is advised instead of the French. For the former opinion, as far as it respects the daughters of our nobility and gentry, there appears to be more reason than for the latter. A lady, if she does not travel herself, may be supposed to be thrown into the company of those who have travelled, and of foreigners; and it is of more importance that she should be acquainted with the general language of foreign courts, than with a dead language. French is now what Latin was formerly. Had not this writer confined his remarks to the Education of Young Ladies, we should have been inclined to express a doubt of the wisdom of recommending a school in preference to a home education; provided that by a school he means a boarding-school; where the daughter is entirely taken from the superintendance of the mother, and is generally introduced to ideas and habits foreign to those of her family and rank in life. We are disposed to think that the daughters of tradesmen, and of persons in the middle classes of life, should enjoy the advantages of a school education without being cut off from their homes. There would not be so many unhappy females, had they not been educated above their sphere. The credit of day-schools for females is not sufficiently supported. For the sake of accomplishments, we endanger their virtue. Hopes of pleasure, shew, and ambition, are excited by the present mode of female education, which cannot be generally gratified; and many, who are thus unfitted for the duties of their proper station, sacrifice their innocence at the shrine of vanity. Art. |