The inundation of the Nile affords a universal, and the only, manuring of the lands of Egypt. When the waters retire about the month of November the seed is sown, and harvest appears in March. Thus, new wheat and barley can be offered in the English markets in the first week of April.

Until 1821, the cotton plant was only found as an ornament in some gardens of Cairo. It is now, after wheat, the most important production of the valley of the Nile. Its culture adopted by the Pasha, at the recommendation of M. Jamel, a Frenchman, succeeded beyond expectation. It is planted in March, and gathered in November or December: it requires a good soil, and renewal of seed every third year. Indigo is also a recent introduction, and produces considerable revenue to the Pasha, particularly that which is grown in Nubia. Rice is kept in water, and afterwards under damp straw, until it begins to germinate; then planted in moist land. It is sown in November, and threshed at the same time, and in the same primitive manner as the wheat.

The more fruitful soil in Egypt produces three crops in the year; one by inundation, and two by irrigation. This last I have already described as very severe labour, and as employing 150,000 men, with 50,000 oxen, at the shadoofs and water-wheels. The monstrous injustice which is practised on the peasant in various forms of taxation is almost incredible. Government supplies oxen and seed, it is true, but the peasant has to pay nearly the value of the former every year, and the latter is always given in fraudulent measure, and demanded back in full. The taxing officers frequently exact twice or threefold the value of their claims; and even when this is paid, the poor peasant may be called upon to make up the arrears of any insolvent neighbour.

The Pasha has established a number of factories, in which cotton, linen, woollen, silk, and other stuffs, are produced, besides iron foundries, and manufactories of arms. There are fifteen cotton factories, containing 1459 spinning-jennies. That called "Malta," at Boulac, is well worth a visit, and, to a superficial observer, appears as well conducted as any in England. The wool employed in the cloth factories is native, except a small quantity imported from Tunis.

The manufactures of Egypt are altogether monopolized by the Pasha, and only maintain their existence by his fiat. Notwithstanding the low prices of the raw material, and the small expense of human labour, this extensive speculator can be undersold by Europeans in every branch of his various manufactures. Besides this, the articles are all inferior in quality to those of Europe. The climate appears to take part with the inhabitants against manufactures: the heat of the weather is injurious to the material, and the fine sand that pervades every breeze of wind is very destructive to the machinery. Moreover, the cultivable soil of Egypt, which the most inveterate political economist will allow should first be attended to, requires more labourers than the present population can afford; and thus the country suffers as much from Mehemet Ali's passion for manufactures as from war.

All these considerations, together with Ibrahim Pasha's preference for agriculture, only give to the factories a life-lease in Egypt; and before many years pass away, we shall probably see a new and extensive market opened to England, by the return of the unwilling mechanics to the agricultural labours from which they have been torn by their tyrant. I have not been able to learn the number of persons engaged in manufactures in Egypt, but it must be very considerable, owing to the number and variety of the latter; while their novelty makes them felt as a still severer hardship by the poor men and children who are doomed to the tending of them.

Alexandria must, probably, sooner or later, become the most important commercial port in the world; not only from its central situation, its admirable harbour, and its being the point of confluence of three quarters of the globe, but as the port of all India and southern Asia, whose resources are only now beginning to be developed: to these wide regions China has now been added by England's brief but momentous victories over barbarian power and prejudice. Up to the end of the fifteenth century Alexandria possessed the Indian trade, such as then existed; and, even after the Portuguese had discovered the passage round the Cape of Good Hope, Albuquerque eagerly strove to accomplish, and had nearly succeeded in obtaining, a canal from Suez to the Red Sea. Since then, the interests of the East have prodigiously increased, and the agencies at our command have proportionably altered. Instead of a few small settlements on the coast of India, or chance enterprises in which armed vessels, half-pirate, half-merchantmen, trafficked European baubles for savage wealth, we have now an empire as large as all Europe, containing cities larger than Paris, and yielding a revenue half as large again as Russia. We have a standing army as large as Austria, and a greater number of Moslems alone are subject to our Queen than the Sultan of Constantinople rules over. Until lately, India was four or five months distant from England. Steam has now caused oceans to shrink into mere channels, and these channels are bridged over by our steamers. From London to Alexandria is England, from Suez to Chusan is England still, and Egypt presents a mere bank of eighty or ninety miles in breadth. This will soon be spanned by a railway which English iron must supply, and which English steel must guard.

The present commerce of Egypt consists principally of wheat, cotton, rice, indigo, and opium, as exports: of cloth and linen, timber for building, iron, cutlery, paper, glass, oil, and wine, as imports. The value of the importations last year was about £2,679,000, that of the exports about £2,190,000; of these the imports from England amounted to about £600,640; while her exports hence only reached about £216,000. The exports and imports of Turkey nearly balance each other, as do those of Austria.*

The whole annual commerce of Egypt, by way of the Red Sea, and cara

*A merchant at Alexandria told me he could ship wheat at Alexandria at 12s. a quarter, and beans at the same price, yet that neither paid in the English market, except under peculiar circumstances.

vans, is valued at about £400,000 Every year a caravan comes from Abyssinia with a number of black slaves, gold-dust, gum, ivory, ostrich feathers, &c.; another caravan from Morocco, with pilgrims for Mecca, comes through Algiers, Tripoli, and Tunis, across the desert, to Alexandria. There are also caravans arriving occasionally from Damascus with silks, dried fruit, and oil. In 1822, there were only sixteen mercantile houses in Alexandria, there are now forty-four; of these thirteen are French, nine are Austrian, and only seven are English. There is a tribunal of Commerce established by the Pasha, by which all mercantile disputes and differences are heard and adjudged.

In 1814, suddenly appeared that astonishing decree, by which the Pasha announced to the inhabitants of Egypt that the whole country belonged to him, and that all the dwellers therein were but labourers on his great farm, or at best but tenants at his will. Mehemet Ali made a pretext to visit Arabia, while this decree was being carried into effect by his minister. The men bowed tamely to his decree, but the women rose tumultuously, and excited some leading sheikhs to make a demonstration of resistance. One of the latter was arrested and executed on some pretence foreign to the occasion; the women were allowed to talk out their indignation, and Egypt has been ever since the unquestioned private property of the Pasha. Soon afterwards, he appropriated all the revenues belonging to pious institutions, and took them under his own protection. This last measure created more dissatisfaction than the former one, as it rendered many desperate. Previous to this appropriation, 6000 persons received daily alms from the mosque of El Azhar alone, and 2000 slept within its walls.

It is true that Mehemet Ali had a precedent for thus taking possession of all the land in Egypt in the case of Joseph's Pharaoh, Osirtesen the First, in the year 1706 B. C.: but, in the latter case, the Egyptians received a consideration for the loss of their possessions, and Pharaoh only virtually possessed himself of quit-rents, amounting to one-fifth of the value of the agricultural produce. From Mehemet Ali the Egyptians received nothing in lieu of their possessions, except a somewhat better administration of public affairs and some better irrigation for the lands. In return for this, the Pasha claims four-fifths of the produce of the land.

C.

HINTS TO TRAVELLERS IN THE EAST.

THE following observations may be of use to those about to visit Egypt and Syria, as the state of affairs in these countries is hourly changing, and the latest intelligence is always of some value.

Most travellers are influenced in the time of their departure from England by other motives than those which the almanac supplies; but, though a man may not be able to choose his own time for starting, he can always select his own route, whereby he may correct the inconvenience of unsuitable seasons.

If you leave England in the spring, you should either go by Vienna and Pesth, down the Danube to Constantinople, or by long sea to Malta, and thence to Greece. Summer weather is essential to the enjoyment of travel in the northern countries: winter is very severe, and takes your constitution by surprise.

If you leave England in the autumn, your best course will be to begin with Egypt, whereby you will avoid winter altogether, and reach Syria in the ́ spring. The best time for ascending the Nile is November or December. By leaving England in the Oriental steamer on the 3rd of October, you arrive in Alexandria about the 21st. A river steamer takes you thence to Cairo in thirty hours. A fortnight may be very profitably spent there in examining the environs, observing the curious drama of Egyptian life, and making use of the excellent library. Besides, you have your boat to engage, and it is essential to have her sunk in order to banish rats and other vermin, and in most cases to have her newly painted besides.

The first class boats cost from £16 to £35 a month, including the pay of the twelve or fourteen sailors, who find themselves in every article of food, dress, &c. If you take an Arab boat, it is far better to engage her by the job, stipulating to be allowed to remain wherever you please at a certain rate per day extra. This course avoids much delay and annoyance, caused by the devices of the Arabs to prolong the journey when taken by time.

If you purpose going beyond the First Cataract, insist upon having a firman; it is your right, and you may suffer much annoyance owing to the want of it. The different expeditions up the Nile are generally, first, to Thebes, which occupies about three weeks in average weather, including your stay at the various places on your route: second, to the First Cataract, which occupies about five weeks: and thirdly, to the Second Cataract, which requires at least two months' absence from Cairo. From all that I have heard and seen, I believe that none but the enthusiastic antiquary will find any inducement to proceed further than this last place.

Your comfort during your stay in the East will depend mainly on your

dragoman. These men offer themselves to you at Malta in swarms, but I am inclined to think that an Egyptian is preferable in his own country. It is well to engage your dragoman only on the recommendation of some European on whom you can rely. A Maltese dragoman charges a dollar a day: an Egyptian half that'sum. You require two servants exclusive of the crew, one to cook, the other to attend you on your expeditions.

On returning to Cairo from the Upper Nile, the best route to Syria is through the desert by Suez and Mount Sinai, to Petra and Hebron. Our consul is the only person to be depended upon for making arrangements with the Bedouin to conduct you through the desert. The journey as far as Hebron or Jerusalem is performed on dromedaries; thenceforward on horses. Besides the interest of this route, you avoid a fortnight's quarantine, which you would have to undergo at Beyrout, in sailing thither from an Egyptian port.

The winter climate of Egypt is perhaps the most delightful in the world, and the mode of travelling admirably adapted for invalids. Those to whom health is the chief object, may sail from Southampton on the 3rd of October, and penetrate 1,000 miles into Africa by the 1st of December, without greater exertion than is necessary to step on board a boat. The attention is pleasantly occupied; all the objects of interest are close to the river; and by the 1st of February the invalid may find himself on his way to England, having altogether escaped winter, and found in the course of his 6,000 miles' travel such repose as is vainly to be sought for in the tranquillest Western life.

If you purpose only to visit Egypt, books are almost the only necessary you need take from England. Guns and wire cartridges for the various wildfowl; rifles and iron bullets for wild boars and crocodiles will suggest themselves to the sportsman. A camera lucida is of great use in taking a view of the complicated details of Egyptian architecture in a short time. Powder, books, and stationery are the three great essentials for the Egyptian traveller; they are scarcely to be procured after leaving Malta.

The traveller who proposes to visit Syria should in the first place endeavour to procure the Sultan's firman, which will be sent from Constantinople to meet him at Cairo, Jerusalem, or Beyrout. An English saddle and holsters, spurs and pistols, are indispensable. A small strong canteen is the only other English article of much importance. I am inclined to think that with regard to dress there is nothing like the turban of the country, a blouse of coloured camlet, (not green, which sometimes provokes indignation, as the sacred colour of the Moslem) a pair of loose doe-skin pantaloons, and half or Hessian boots, of tan leather, (black attracts the sun, and can't well be cleaned) will make the most convenient and comfortable costume.

The most convenient commissariat consists of maccaroni, rice, and preserved meats, which should be taken from England in small packages. They are to be had, however, at Alexandria and Beyrout. Wine, porter, and liqueurs should be bought at Malta: the latter, particularly maraschino, are