ing the idea of a holy city-the Mecca or Jerusalem of an unknown people. In regard to the age of this desolate city, I shall not at present offer any conjecture. Some idea might perhaps be formed from the accumulations of earth, and the gigantic trees growing on the top of the ruined structures, but it would be uncertain and unsatisfactory. Nor shall I at this moment offer any conjecture in regard to the people who built it, or to the time when, or the means by which, it was depopulated, and became a desolation and ruin; whether it fell by the sword, or famine, or pestilence. The trees which shroud it may have sprung from the blood of its slaughtered inhabitants; they may have perished howling with hunger; or pestilence, like the cholera, may have piled its streets with dead, and driven for ever the feeble remnants from their homes; of which dire calamities to other cities we have authentic accounts, in eras both prior and subsequent to the discovery of the country by the Spaniards. One thing I believe, that its history is graven on its monuments."

May we not cherish the hope that the numerous hieroglyphics to be found on these monuments, together with the emblematic figures, will yet be deciphered, so as to form a portion of human and national history preserved by tablets as imperishable, perhaps, as the earth; or, at least, destined, probably, to exist as long as the sculptures of Egypt?

We cannot follow our author to the other scenes of his antiquarian investigations in Central America. But we must not omit mentioning that he astonished Don Jose Maria, first by the proposal to purchase Copan, and next by paying down fifty dollars for the lot; the particulars of which transaction he has given for the satisfaction of those who may be curious "to know how old cities sell in Central America." Here are some of the cogitations of the enthusiast in relation to the purchase; the passage forms a suitable break-off in our pages:

"All day," says the diplomatic antiquary, "I had been brooding over the title deeds of Don Jose Maria, and drawing my blanket around me, suggested to Mr. Gatherwood an operation.' (Hide your heads, ye speculators in up-town lots!) To buy Copan! remove the monuments of a by-gone people from the desolate region in which they were buried, set them up in the 'great commercial emporium,' and found an institution to be the nucleus of a great national museum of American antiquities! But quere, Could the idols' be removed? They were on the banks of a river that emptied into the same ocean by which the docks of New York are washed, but there were rapids below; and, in answer to my inquiry, Don Miguel said these were impassable. Nevertheless, I should have been unworthy of having passed through the times that tried men's souls' if I had not had an alternative; and this was to exhibit by sample to cut one up and remove it in pieces, and make casts of the others. The casts of the Parthenon are regarded as precious memorials in the British Museum, and casts of Copan would be the same in New York. Other ruins might be discovered even more interesting and more accessible. Very soon their

existence would become known and their value appreciated, and the friends of science and the arts in Europe would get possession of them. They belonged of right to us, and, though we did not know how soon we might be kicked out ourselves, I resolved that ours they should be; with visions of glory and indistinct fancies of receiving the thanks of the corporation flitting before my eyes, I drew my blanket around me, and fell asleep."

ART. IV.-A Memoir on the Cotton of Egypt. By GEORGE R. GLIDddon. London: Madden and Co.

THIS purports to be the first of a series of papers or pamphlets by Mr. Gliddon, who was lately the United States' Consul at Cairo, having been a sojourner in Egypt, as we are informed in the Dedication, for the greater part of twenty-three years. Avowedly, the Memoir is on the cultivation, manufacture, and trade of Egyptian cotton, and therefore a statistical document; America, it is plain, feeling considerable anxiety and jealousy with regard to the growth and commerce of such an article, whenever these take place beyond her own territories. Now, if the author had confined himself merely to cotton statistics, and to such observations as the natural history of the varieties cultivated in the valley of the Nile had suggested, we might not have deemed it necessary to do more than in a short paragraph to notice the publication of the pamphlet, especially after the "Report on Egypt and Candia," drawn up for presentation to both Houses of Parliament, in 1810, by Dr. Bowring, and which Mr. Gliddon admits contains the greater part of the statistics to be found in his own Memoir. But finding that these statistics in the present pages are made the occasion of a running fire, from beginning to end, against the Pasha, his policy, and administration; and aware how oppositely different parties, writers, or witnesses report concerning the character and system of his Highness, we shall give an abstract of some of our author's accusations, without taking it upon ourselves to pronounce a positive opinion concerning their justice; although we cannot but perceive that the ex-consul often expresses himself as a person would do who felt personally offended, and therefore, probably, under a strong bias.

The Memoir informs us that, previously to the year 1820, the cotton grown in Egypt, and known by the name " Belledi," or Native, was small in amount, and consumed chiefly in the country itself, not only being suited to the ruder manufactures of the people, but to fill the cushions of the Divan, and the beds of the better classes. Other countries were resorted to for the higher numbers of the cotton webs. At length, however, Mohammed Ali introduced an article, which in eighteen years is said to have effected an entire

change in the features of the export trade, and so as to exceed in value all the former productions of the land in modern times. But at what sacrifice? Why, the destruction " of the little happiness that remained to its inhabitants; since the same soil, which twenty-five years ago was the main granary of the Mediterranean, cannot now, owing to the compulsory mis-direction of their industry, always supply enough grain and pulse for their support." The condition of the Fellah is represented to be deplorable, and to be regularly growing worse, even to the rapid diminution of human life. "Wars, pestilence, famine, and the other blights of despotism," are mentioned as having carried off more than one half of the population since 1800; the four millions of that period being now reduced to less than two. And this remarkable as well as astounding calculation is given, viz., that throughout Egypt there are more than six females to one male. The aggregate amount of land, too, formerly in cultivation, "in spite of new canals and dikes, and all the efforts of the Pasha to supply, by mechanical and artificial means, the want of human labour, has diminished one-third. Of the remaining two-thirds, only one can be considered as perfectly cultivated. Nor are they men alone whose numbers have been thinned by the Pasha's iron tyranny; for premiums and inducements of every kind are held out, and schemes, however preposterous, are encouraged for some new mode of irrigation, that shall compensate the annual decrease of this country's beautiful and powerful race of bullocks."

Mr. Gliddon narrates that the cotton, by means of which the Pasha has aggrandized himself, was introduced in this way,-Maho Bey, a Turkish officer, brought down various seeds of Ethiopic plants, which he cultivated in his garden at Cairo. Here he received a friendly visit from a Frenchman, Monsieur Jumel, whose attention being attracted by the appearance of a tree bearing cotton pods, procured some of the seeds, and all the information which the Bey possessed on the subject, without, however, saying any thing that might raise suspicions as to the value of the dis

covery.

Jumel made his calculations, and presented to the Pasha a project for increasing his revenues, for which he was to receive 20,000 dollars if the scheme succeeded. But, after many delays, he "was compelled to seek less brilliant but more solid results." Commencing with a small plantation, the experiment succeeded to his utmost hopes, and in time a mighty increase of revenue accrued to the Pasha. It was now that Jumel thought his reward was due, but we are told that he was flattered, harassed, and deluded, so that when he died in 1824, he was insolvent, or little better. The widow was not more successful in her appeals; and even the attempt has been made to suppress the memory of the Frenchman

by substituting for Jumel the name "Maho," to distinguish the article that has been so productive.

We do not tarry to notice the method of cultivating or preparing the Jumel cotton, but go forward to observe that the article is said to be reared by the Pasha "for his own exclusive account." Most of our readers must be aware that he is a terrible monopolist; quite a leviathan in that way. One might think that the cultivators could sometimes smuggle for their own benefit small portions; but, just as Mohammed was in the practice of completely disarming insurrectionary sections of Syria, described by Dr. Robinson, it appears that the Fellah cannot outwit or escape him, even to the extent of a single pound of cotton. No advance is made to the poor man who is compelled to cultivate cotton, but the annual land-tax and other imposts are taken from him as soon as the crop has been ascertained, the whole of which he is obliged to deliver to government agents, at a fixed rate, aggravated by extortions and deceptions; the mysterious system of Coptic book-keeping being mentioned as one of the arts by which the Fellah is generally brought in debtor. And then if the bastinado and other tortures do not force the poor cultivator to prove himself solvent, "the debt is then passed to the debit of the village, or community to which the Fellah belongs, without considering in the least whether the rest have paid their own taxes, or are able to pay them." Should the smaller section not be in a better condition than the individual cultivator, then the thing is transferred to a district; and again, "an aggregation of which districts forms a province, with a similar responsibility in solidum." In this way Mohammed and his family are represented as having possessed themselves of vast extents of land; and certainly it is an effectual mode of usurpation; especially when the extreme rate of wages is "40 paras (equal to 21d.) per diem, for each able-bodied man, and less in proportion for the labour of women and children; which 40 paras are paid or not, according to circumstances and the discretion of the superintendent, in money or in bread, in corn, in pulse, or in blows;""" which last species of remuneration is, out of all proportion, the most regular and abundant." This is hard measure to a numerous class, the providers of the revenue, who were the proprietors of the land forty years ago; but who are now only serfs, yet held responsible for all deficiencies, from short as well as excessive inundations.

Various modes of disposing of the cotton to foreigners have been adopted by the Pasha, Mr. Gliddon maintaining that his commercial system of administration is as pernicious to the interests of the country as the agricultural. He, however, is represented to have always particular objects in view. Whether it happen to be by auction that the sales are conducted, or by threatening large consignments to Trieste, for example, when a great amount of Eu

ropean shipping may have been waiting for months, on heavy demurrages, in expectation of obtaining cotton. We read also as follows: "On the 20th May, 1840, the crop of 1839 was brought into the Alexandrian market, and 140,000 cantars were by the 26th May, i. e. in six days, sold to the merchants at thirteen dollars the cantar, payable in advance. By this a double object was achieved; the government coffers were replenished; while, by taking the money before the cotton was delivered, the Pasha bound up the interests of the merchants with the stability of his own dominion, at that time menaced by the indications which terminated in the treaty of the 15th July." So much for Mohammed Ali's foresight and diplomatic penetration. We shall throw into our large type one paragraph more, the author, however, being of opinion that his Memoir has reached the close of an era in the agricultural, commercial, and political history of Egypt, "which," he says, "by the Natives of the country (whose hearts have been so long sickened with hope deferred') is looked upon, with one accord, as but the beginning of the end." Mr. Gliddon thinks that the Pasha's system has recently been so completely unmasked as not only to exhibit its real and inherent weakness, but to prove to Great Britain that her true interests will insure the future prosperity of the country and the happiness of the people. He seems to regard the re-establishment of the Sultan's authority as necessary to this issue. Now for the paragraph: "It may serve as a guide, in Egyptian cotton statistics, here to record, that, to the end of December 1835, the cantar of cotton weighed 433 okes, or 123 rottles. From the 1st January 1836, the government fixed the cantar at 100 rottles, or 36 okes, equal to 99 lbs. English. Notwithstanding, however, that the cantar was reduced 23 per cent, yet the charges, which had been previously levied at the government stores in Alexandria on the cantar of 123 rottles, were not reduced; in this, as in every other amelioration, the government of Egypt taking care that the revenues of the Pasha shall be thereby increased."

In an Appendix, Mr. Gliddon shows that he is very angry at the "Mayor, the Bankers," &c. of Liverpool, as well as the "Members of the East India and China Association," on account of certain grateful and congratulatory addresses by these bodies which were transmitted to Mohammed Ali; and he brings to his aid a passage from a Smyrna newspaper which we quote, together with an extract, the subject of complaint:—

Extract from the Address of the East India and China Association to the Pasha of Egypt, from the Times of Monday, July 19, 1841. "But we cannot refrain from expressing how greatly we admire that magnanimity, which amidst harassing political events did not, for a VOL. II. (1841.) NO. I.

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