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six days, and it has been occasionally made, we believe, even in three weeks. In such cases, the circumstances which favour sailing vessels cannot fail also to expedite steamers. We have seen that, to supersede the necessity of a relay of coals in average cases, the propelling efficiency of fuel must be fifty per cent more than it now is in such vessels as the Medea frigate. It follows, therefore, that if this additional propelling influence should arise from the more favourable states of wind and water, the passage may be made in one run. Such would be the case under circumstances in which the Liners would make their outward passage in about twenty-four days.

But if a line of steamers be established at all, they must start with regularity and certainty at stated times, weekly or monthly, as the case may be. The days are gone by when the reservation of wind and weather permitting' can be allowed. They must therefore be prepared not for average weather only, but for the most adverse state of the Atlantic. If, then, an intermediate relay of fuel be required, under average circumstances, in which a sailing vessel would make the passage in thirty-six days, how much more overruling will the necessity be for such a provision when the weather is such that a sailing vessel will take more than two months to make the passage?

It may, however, be supposed, that the fuel may be saved by converting the steamer occasionally into a sailing vessel; and in that way the necessity of an intermediate station may be superseded. This project of giving steam machinery to sailing vessels, to be used alternately or in combination with canvass, has been frequently proposed and discussed since steam navigation has commanded public attention. It is, however, liable to many and grave objections; nor has it, so far as we are informed, been ever countenanced by any individual whose practical knowledge of steam power applied to nautical purposes is entitled to respect. Steam machinery is expensive. It absorbs a considerable amount of capital, profit on which must be returned whether it works or not. In the vessel it requires a costly establishment of engineers and stokers, who must be equally paid whether the vessel sails or steams; but what is of most importance, this machinery, and the fuel necessary to propel it, occupies a large space in the centre of the vessel precisely where stowage is of the greatest value. Add to all this, that the paddle-wheels with their boxes are impediments when they are not used for propulsion. In a word, by suspending the operation of the engines, nothing is saved except fuel and the wear of the machinery; while, on the other hand, whatever advantage can be obtained by the increased expedition given by the steam power is sacrificed.

In confessing then, as we do, that after the most careful and anxious enquiry respecting this interesting question, our fears of the result of such an enterprise greatly predominate over our hopes, we are sensible of expressing an unpopular opinion. It is the natural and fortunate tendency of the human mind to anticipate success, and we ourselves shared that feeling when we commenced the present investigation: we were wholly ignorant of the conclusion to which the results of experience, since ascertained, would lead us; and we should feel as much, perhaps more, disappointment at that conclusion than any, even the most sanguine, of our readers, if the alternative were to accomplish the passage in one run, or to abandon the enterprise.

Such, however, is not the case. We have shown that the western shores of Ireland are within a practicable distance of the coast of Nova Scotia. The distance from the mouth of the Shannon, or the bay of Galway, to Halifax, does not much exceed two thousand miles. We will not say that this could be accomplished in all weathers even by the best and most powerful steam-ships in one run. But it certainly could be done in average weather, leaving a certain quantity of fuel unconsumed, and on emergencies, might therefore be effected in circumstances to a certain degree adverse. If, in a question of this kind, we may allow indirect national advantages to influence our views, there are many which should incline us to favour the establishment of a grand station for Atlantic steam-ships on the western coast of Ireland. Should it happily prove, as we feel assured it will, that a steam communication with America can be maintained from that coast with greater certainty, regularity, and despatch than from any other point in Europe, the inevitable consequence must be, that the high-road between the Old and New World, for all the most enlightened and wealthy classes in the east and in the west, must intersect Great Britain and Ireland. Thus these countries must pass the wealth and intelligence of two hemispheres, and it cannot pass without overflowing and fertilizing. If it be true that even among the people of Britain, advanced as they are in all the arts which soften and civilize, the advantages of such intercourse would be great, what limit can be put to the blessings which the consummation of such a measure would shower on the neglected and oppressed population of Ireland? It would not be easy for any statesman, however far seeing, to devise any scheme which would, with equal celerity and certainty, scatter through that country the seeds of wealth, knowledge, and civilisation. The restoration of social order, the re-establisment of respect for the law, the immigration

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of capital, and the consequent increased demand for labour and improved means of subsistence would be natural and necessary consequences.

These incidental advantages, great as they are, might have little weight were there any circumstances connected with Ireland which would throw in the way of such a measure either nautical or mechanical difficulties. No such circumstances, however, have existence. No part of the empire is more richly furnished with spacious, deep, and sheltered harbours than the western coast of Ireland. It is connected with the interior by some of the finest rivers in Great Britain,-widening as they ascend in some cases into extensive navigable lakes; besides which, the surface of the country between some of the western harbours and its metropolitan bay, presents features which will attract the eye of an engineer, and suggest the means of constructing a line of railroad possessing every mechanical facility for rapid transport.

ART. VII.—1. An account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, written in Egypt during the years 1833, 1834, and 1835, partly from Notes made during a former Visit to that Country in the years 1825, 1826, 1827, and 1828. By EDWARD WILLIAM LANE. 2 vols. 8vo. London: 1836.

2. Rambles in Egypt and Candia, with Details of the Military Power and Resources of those Countries, and Observations on the Government, Policy, and Commercial System of Mohammed Ali. By C. ROCHFORT SCOTT, Captain H. P. Royal Staff Corps. 2 vols. 8vo. London: 1837.

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HERE are two distinct points of view in which modern Egypt may be considered. The first is, in reference to the actual condition and circumstances of its inhabitants; their habits, manners, customs, and usages; the peculiar structure of society as modified by religion, laws and immemorial observances; the comparative state of science, literature, philosophy, and the arts of life; and, lastly, the character both moral and intellectual of the inhabitants. The second has respect to the position, military and political as well as administrative, which that country has assumed under its present ruler, not only as regards the Ottoman empire, of which though nominally a feu

datory, it is really independent; but also in connexion with one of the most interesting and difficult questions of European poliey, arising out of the relations subsisting between Russia and Turkey, the ambitious designs of the former, and the complicated interests which would in various ways be affected by any decided change in the East.

Egypt, viewed independently of all extrinsic considerations, forms a subject of rational and curious inquiry, interesting alike to the student of human nature who delights in surveying mankind as they are; to the political philosopher, who contemplates the varied aspects under which society appears in different nations and countries; and to the archæologist, who seeks for memorials and vestiges of bygone times, or an extinct order of things, in those manners, customs, and observances, which pass down from generation to generation, and, amidst all the innovations of time, still retain evident traces of the system out of which they originally sprung. The same country, considered as the seat of a new military and political power in the East,-a power created by the genius and energy of one man, the most extraordinary perhaps that has ever appeared in any Mohammedan country since the establishment of Islamism, is likewise deserving of attentive and anxious examination; whether we confine ourselves to the question respecting the probable stability of the singular system upon which that power is founded, or extend our views, and, upon the supposition of its remaining unshaken, endeavour to appreciate the relative importance of a power so circumstanced, in the event of a new war in the East, or an attempt upon the part of Russia to effect the dismemberment of the Ottoman empire. To the former of these subjects, Mr Lane has almost entirely confined himself, in the work before us; which is filled with new and curious details, respecting the manners and customs of the Arab inhabitants of Egypt. The latter has been partially treated of by Captain Scott in that portion of his book which relates to the military power and resources of Egypt, as well as the government and policy of Mohammed Ali;-the only part of it which is deserving of any serious attention or regard.

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Mr Lane's work is not the hasty or superficial production of a passing traveller, whose impressions are suddenly caught and carelessly recorded; who merely glances at the surface of things, and generalizes from casual or hurried observations. So far from this, he paid two visits to the country, in which he resided several years each time;-he made himself master of the language, without an intimate knowledge of which it is impossible to have

any satisfactory intercourse with the natives;-he adopted the dress and manners of the people, conformed to their habits and mode of life, and mixed with them not as a stranger or foreigner, but as one of themselves;-he gained their confidence by the homage which he paid to their prevailing customs and prejudices; and, profiting by the opportunities which were thus afforded him, he devoted much of his attention to the manners and customs of the inhabitants, which he was enabled to study at his leisure, and to describe on the spot, as soon as he had matured his observations. Excepting Burkhardt, he is the only European who seems to have thoroughly understood the character of the Arabs, or who has adopted the true method for obtaining a correct insight into the details of their social and domestic life. Sinking the Englishman in the Mahommedan, and speaking the language of the country like a native, he entered the most sacred places without apprehension; attended public ceremonies or festivals without exciting suspicion; and was admitted into private circles upon a footing of perfect equality. He even received his visitors according to the usages of Eastern hospitality, and regulated his whole proceedings in conformity with his assumed character. By this careful and constant compliance with the manners of the country, he secured the confidence of the people, and enjoyed opportunities, otherwise unattainable, of observing and studying them as it were in undress, when the solemn gravity of Oriental demeanour is laid aside, and when the haughty Moslem abroad subsides into the affectionate father and the kind friend within his own domestic circle.

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Hence the work before us, in which the author has given the results of his close and intimate observations, contains by far the best account which we have yet met with of the state of society and manners in Modern Egypt. It is just such a book as an intelligent Oriental might have written; and it is as free from any undue prejudice as if the author had been born a Mahommedan instead of a Christian. What I have principally aimed at in this work,' says Mr Lane, 'is correctness; and I do not scruple to assert that I am not conscious of having endeavoured to render inte⚫resting any matter that I have related by the slightest sacrifice of 'truth.' We have seldom or never met with a book of travels more completely devoid of exaggerated colouring, or which bears more strongly impressed upon it the stamp of authenticity. It might have been wished, indeed, that the author had not, in some respects, carried his love of minute accuracy so far as he has done; and that, in particular, he had spared us the perplexity occasionally resulting from the unusual mode in which he has writ

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