Though the productions of England and Poland are nearly similar, yet the difference which exists in the relative powers of their industry opens out a reciprocity of barter, carried on through the indirect instrumentality of money, highly advantageous to both of them, and necessarily occasions in each a greater extent of employment and population, formed on a more perfect division of labour, and the consequent accumulation of capital. For it must be remarked, since money is the mere instrument of barter, that barter must be reciprocal, either directly or indirectly, before it can by any possibility be carried on.

England is by nature superior to Poland in three respects. First, she has a long line of sea-coast presenting excellent harbours at every point, while the latter has only a single marine inlet, blocked up by ice onefourth of the year, and confined within the remote recesses of the Baltic. England is therefore to Poland, as it were, an advanced marine and commercial station opening out to the eastern and western world. Secondly, England surpasses Poland in an abundance of coal, which aids her manufactures. Thirdly, the climate of England is, on the whole, superior. Superadded to these natural advantages, the commerce she has long enjoyed has called into being an amazing extent of capital every way suited to carry on manufactures and trade. England being so admirably fitted up with the means of carrying on marine, commercial and manufacturing industry, and Poland being nearly destitute of them, it becomes extremely advantageous for the one to convert her raw produce into the money, skilled products of industry and general merchandize possessed by the other. Even the great number of marine towns possessed by England, and the deficiency of them in Poland, is sufficient to give the one a surplus of corn, and a profitable market for that corn in the other. By a reciprocal commerce betwixt Poland and England both are enabled to improve the division of labour, to cultivate their land better, to accumulate a larger capital and to provide an increase of profitable employment for their respective inhabitants. And agreeably to the principles already laid down, this reciprocal commerce between the two nations carries the multiplying power along with it, calculated to promote their mutual benefit, and to raise prices in each country, by the favourable influence of trade and profitable employment.

* When England, the land of marine affairs and of commerce, and the best workshop of manufactures in the world, attempted to sell corn in opposition to Poland, a country in want of these advantages, she perverted the natural order of trade; she sold that which it was most profitable for her to buy; and destroying the means of her natural customers to buy what it was most profitable for her to sell, she artificially lowered the prices of every description of merchandize throughout the long period of sixty-four years.".

But in order that we may establish our commercial intercourse with Poland on a basis sufficiently broad and advantageous, what, after all, are the most indispensable requi

*Free Trade in Corn, by a Cumberland Landowner. London, 1835.

sites? Above all other considerations, we repeat, it is necessary that Poland herself should be restored, and no longer subjected to the caprice of strange rulers. At present, whatever might be our concessions in favour of the Polish corn trade, never would our jealous rivals, Russia, Austria nor Prussia, lend themselves, in our behalf, to any material degree of reciprocity; nor under their discipline of chains and fetters will Poland ever become a large consumer. In order, with effect, to enlarge the wants of the country, it would be requisite to point out means of satisfying those wants; that is to say, it would be necessary to render the land productive in a pecuniary sense, and for this purpose it is indispensable to find channels of trade, either internal or external, both of which are impracticable now, on account of the tyranny and absurdity of the laws in one case, and the peculiar policy of Poland's oppressors in the other.

We have still to consider the geographical advantages of Poland, which is enclosed by two seas, viz., the Baltic on the north, and the Euxine on the south. With the exception of France, no other continental nation possesses a situation, hydrographically, so favourable for commerce. The Baltic is, of all seas, the most frequented by the manufacturing and wealthy states of Europe, and the Euxine by those of the Levant. Thus Poland seems naturally to form the connecting link betwixt the Levant and the North. In the interior of the country 4819 rivers and smaller streams furrow the ground, in every sense. All these streams, as if attracted to each other, find their source in the central region of the country, in the marshes of Pinsh in Lithuania, and afterwards join, on one side, the three great parallel arteries of the Dwina, the Niemen and Vistula, which fall into the Baltic; on the other merge into the Dnieper, the Boh and the Niester, which fall into the Euxine. The proximity of the sources to each other being so great, and the lateral branches so numerous, all might be brought into connection*, and at no great expense, by means of canals, even without locks, and Poland might offer for the benefit of commerce, betwixt the North and the Levant, the inestimable improve

*The communication betwixt the Black Sea and the Baltic exists already by means of three canals, those of Oginski, of Muchawiec and Berezinski.

ment of three grand fluvial routes, almost parallel to each other, and of easy navigation*. With reference to this great plan, the author of the "Tableau de la Mer Baltique”† exclaims: "En observant les grands traits de la création physique "dans le Nieper, la Duna et la Wolga ‡, dont l'un coule vers la "mer noire, l'autre vers la Baltique, et le troisième vers la mer "Caspienne, l'imagination s'élève, les idees s'étendent, et on "entend la nature appellant l'homme aux nobles efforts, aux "combinaisons savantes de l'art, et lui ordonnant de s'asso"cier à elle pour remplir la destinée de la terre,"

"It is impossible to cast an eye upon the map," says one of our annalists, "and not perceive, at the first glance, how "boundless is the speculation of advantages which time might "have opened from this system of commercial intercourse. "Possessing soils of every kind, and stretched out beneath "climates of very various temperatures, the territories of the "republic of Poland are watered by innumerable streams. "Very little art would be requisite to effect a complete com"munication through all these by means of canals, and very "little industry of the people would furnish abundance of "employment to an extensive and busy navigation."§

"Through the channel of Königsberg," observes Mr. Oddy, "the British Turkey trade may be safely carried on, and at "a cheaper rate than by the Mediterranean. Riga possesses "also greater facility for this branch of trade; for the goods 66 shipped there get much sooner into the current of the Dnieper, which conveys them straight to Odessa."

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To conclude: the truths recapitulated in this paper are by no means the result of modern research, but have been acknowledged in all ages. After the sixteenth century, all the commercial states of Europe were awake to the great advantages of establishing depôts for produce in Poland or in Rus

* The Dnieper, towards its junction with the Black Sea, is, however, disturbed up to a certain point by the cataracts; but all of these are capable of being levelled, and the difficulty might also be surmounted by the help of a lateral canal, or other means.

+ M. Catteau-Calville. Paris, 1812.

The Wolga belongs to Russia, which country, on account of the Caspian Sea, the climate and distance, offers, it is true, nearly the same facilities for commerce as Poland. But the insatiable ambition of its government renders all reflections on this point superfluous.

§ Annual Register, 1792, p. 35.

sia, and of forming a line of communication with Persia, with Asiatic Turkey, and even with the Indies. England, after the discovery of Archangel, and the Genoese, nearly at the same period, negociated on these subjects with the Czars of Russia. The Venetians in 1632 treated for the same purpose with Vladislas IV. king of Poland, offering, at their own cost, to destroy the cataracts of the Dnieper, and to construct certain strongholds against the incursions of the Tartars. In 1660, Charles XI. King of Sweden, and Frederic III. Duke of Holstein Gottorp, made similar efforts, and it was with this view that the latter began to dig his canal from Kiel across Sleswig and Holstein. But these attempts, though not wholly without success, were all ultimately defeated, in consequence of incursions by the savage hordes of Russia, the complicated troubles in Poland, and the supremacy of ignorant Turks on the Euxine. At the present date, when not one of these obstacles any longer exists, and when Russia, in consequence of her inordinate ambition, is closed against Europe, have we not reason to say that Poland is almost the only country of the continent possessing the key to those grand questions which we vainly endeavour to solve on the Danube, and by connection capable of assisting, also, our operations on the Euphrates.

But in order that Poland may be in a condition to fulfil a destiny so brilliant for herself and so useful for all Europe, what is requisite? It is necessary, we once more repeat, that her foreign yoke should be completely broken; and we believe that this is not impossible, so soon as it shall be sufficiently understood, in this country, how close and indissoluble is the connection which exists betwixt the well-being of Poland and the vital interests of Great Britain.

ARTICLE VI.

Travels in Crete. By ROBERT PASHLEY, Esq., Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. 2 vols. 8vo. Murray, London, 1837.

Of all the "isles that crown the Ægean deep," none is so highly celebrated as Crete. To this interesting country belongs much of the legendary lore of ancient Hellenic poetry and religion, as well as the renown of early civilization and power. Its considerable magnitude, its central situation between the European, the Asiatic and the African continents, its possession of several spacious and secure harbours, of a fertile soil and a salubrious climate, have bestowed on it a political and commercial importance which has been at all times acknowledged. Perhaps this importance of an island which commands the entrance of the Greek Archipelago, and therefore of the Dardanelles, may not be less at the present day, than when, before the time of Aristotle, it was called the Sovereign of the Ægean.

The conquest of Crete by the Romans under Metellus, in the age of Cicero, was nearly contemporaneous with their acquisition of Cyrene; and the administration of both these new possessions remained united until the transfer of the seat of Empire to Constantinople. After this event Crete was a province of the Byzantine empire till the middle of the ninth century, when it fell into the hands of the Saracens. It was again annexed to the Greek Empire by the victories of Nicephorus Phocas, in the reign of Romanus II. At the end of the twelfth century it was acquired by the Venetians, who held it till about a hundred and sixty years ago; when the Turks, at an immense sacrifice of blood and treasure, effected its conquest. It had long been regarded as the great bulwark of Christendom against the Mohammedans: and Pope Clement IX. is said to have died of a broken heart at its loss. was now governed by Pachas sent from Constantinople; until in 1821 the Christians of the island raised the insurrectionary standard of the Cross, and attempted, with their fellow-christians of the continent of Greece, to emancipate themselves from the Moslem yoke.

Crete